GI Symptoms: Common Causes, Related Conditions, and What to Do

When you feel bloated, nauseous, or have cramping in your belly, you’re dealing with GI symptoms, signs of trouble in your gastrointestinal tract, including the stomach, intestines, and sometimes the liver or pancreas. Also known as gastrointestinal issues, these symptoms are one of the most common reasons people visit a doctor—or scroll online looking for answers. They don’t always mean something serious, but ignoring them can let small problems grow into big ones.

Many GI symptoms, like chronic diarrhea or persistent heartburn tie directly to how your body handles food, stress, or medications. For example, antibiotics like doxycycline, can disrupt gut bacteria and trigger diarrhea or cramps. Or, Ginkgo biloba, a popular herbal supplement, may increase bleeding risk in people with sensitive digestive tracts or those on blood thinners. Even medications causing orthostatic hypotension, like some blood pressure drugs, can lead to dizziness that feels like nausea or stomach upset. These aren’t random side effects—they’re signals your gut is reacting to something.

What’s surprising is how often GI symptoms are linked to things you wouldn’t expect. Statin drugs, often blamed for muscle pain, can also cause digestive discomfort—but research shows many of those symptoms come from the nocebo effect, not the drug itself. Meanwhile, massage therapy, once thought only for relaxation, is now shown to help calm chronic diarrhea by reducing gut inflammation and stress. And if you’re on long-term meds like azathioprine, used for autoimmune diseases, monitoring GI side effects is critical because it can suppress immune responses in your intestines.

You don’t need to guess what’s wrong. Whether it’s a simple reaction to food, a drug interaction, or something deeper like liver fibrosis affecting digestion, the right clues point to the right fix. The posts below cover real cases, real science, and real solutions—from how FibroScan detects liver issues that cause nausea, to why smart pill dispensers help people stick to meds that soothe their gut, to how generic drug pricing affects what you can afford to treat your symptoms. No fluff. Just what you need to understand your body and take control.