Gas pain can occur on either side of your abdomen (right or left), or even in your chest, back, and stomach, feeling like fullness, pressure, or sharp cramps, as gas moves through the digestive tract, but pain on the right might mimic appendicitis/gallstones, while left-sided pain can feel like heart issues. The location often depends on where the gas is trapped in your colon.
Trapped gas pain can be located in the upper or lower abdomen, under the ribs, or around the belly button. If you have IBS, however, pain in these locations isn't always due to trapped gas.
Common Causes
Gas and Bloating: Left-sided stomach pain often results from trapped gas in the intestines. This can lead to a sensation of fullness, discomfort, or cramping that may shift but predominantly affects the left side when gas accumulates in the colon.
Lying on your back with one knee raised can help you pass gas that is painful. If it's too painful to lie on your back, try lying on your side. Breathe deeply and slowly to help your body's digestion move more efficiently and pass painful gas. This can sometimes help early pregnancy bloating.
Typically, this symptom will go away once the last meal you ate has passed out of your stomach, as the stomach empties its contents, leaving nothing to reflux back up. In these milder cases, gas pain may subside within a few minutes to a couple of hours once the trapped gas is expelled through burping or flatulence.
Gas in the intestine causes pain for some people. When it collects on the left side of the colon, the pain can be confused with heart disease. When it collects on the right side of the colon, the pain may feel like the pain associated with gallstones or appendicitis.
The most common locations include: Upper abdomen (epigastric region) Lower left abdomen. Lower right abdomen.
The appendix is a finger-shaped pouch that sticks out from the colon on the lower right side of the belly, also called the abdomen. Appendicitis causes pain in the lower right part of the belly. However, in most people, pain begins around the belly button and then moves.
Excess gas can cause abdominal pain, cramping or a feeling of fullness or tightness (bloating). Your belly may feel like an overinflated balloon on the verge of popping. Burping or farting can provide much needed relief as the excess air seeps out.
Nature of Pain: Appendicitis pain usually increases in intensity and becomes constant, while gas pain is often intermittent and can be relieved by passing gas or having a bowel movement. Associated Symptoms: Appendicitis can cause fever, nausea, and vomiting, which are less common with gas pain.
Drinking herbal teas like peppermint, chamomile, and ginger can help relieve gas naturally. Apple cider vinegar in tea or warm water may ease gas and bloating by fighting bacteria. Fennel seeds can reduce gas, but pregnant or breastfeeding women should avoid them.
The three main red flags for abdominal pain needing urgent care are severe, unrelenting pain (especially with fever/rigidity), vomiting blood or black material, and blood in the stool (bright red or tarry black), all signaling potential serious issues like appendicitis, obstruction, or bleeding that require immediate medical evaluation. Other major flags include inability to pass gas/stool, jaundice, significant weight loss, or pain radiating to the back.
Another common cause of upper right abdominal pain is gas filling up your small or large intestine. This type of pain often comes and goes. You likely wouldn't have it every day.
“Patients may differentiate gas pain from other types of abdominal pain by the pattern of the pain's onset and its resolution,” Masoud says. “More serious conditions like appendicitis or gallbladder issues often involve continuous pain and localized tenderness, and passing gas or bowel movements does not relieve it.”
Feeling sick and being sick. Feeling full after eating. Stomach pain often described as “burning” or “gnawing”. Very rarely, severe gastritis can cause bleeding, which may cause the stool to turn black (called melaena.)
Symptoms of chronic pancreatitis
The pain may be: in the upper part of your tummy (just below your ribs), one side of your tummy or your whole tummy. constant or come and go. severe or like a dull ache.
You should worry about right-side pain and seek immediate medical help for severe pain, fever, persistent vomiting, abdominal swelling/tenderness, bloody stools, yellow skin (jaundice), or shortness of breath, as these can signal emergencies like appendicitis. Also see a doctor urgently for pain that worsens quickly, is accompanied by chills, or if you're pregnant and experience pain with bleeding.
The primary organ under your right rib is the liver, the body's largest solid organ, but other vital organs also reside in that protected area, including the gallbladder, part of the right kidney, portions of the intestines, the diaphragm, and the tip of the right lung. Pain in this region often relates to the liver (like hepatitis, fatty liver) or gallbladder (stones), but kidney issues (stones, infection) and digestive problems can also cause discomfort.
If the pain is sudden, severe or does not ease within 30 minutes, seek emergency medical care. Sudden abdominal pain is often an indicator of serious intra-abdominal disease, such as a perforated ulcer or a ruptured abdominal aneurysm, although it could also result from a benign disease, such as gallstones.
Early Warning Signs of Gastrointestinal Disease You Shouldn't Ignore
Place both hands on small of back. Move hands forwards over top of hips and down both sides of pelvis towards groin. This massage is in a clockwise direction following the direction of the large intestines. Imagine squeezing toothpaste out of a tube.