Stomach spasms are contractions of your abdominal muscles (abs), stomach, or intestines. Depending on which part of your body is spasming and how badly, it might feel like either a slight muscle twitch or stomach cramps.
In most cases, stomach spasms themselves are harmless, but they could be a symptom of an underlying condition. Read on to learn more about potential causes of stomach spasms and when to call your doctor.
Causes of stomach spasms
Identifying the cause of your stomach spasms can help you treat this symptom. Here are 11 conditions that may be responsible for your symptom.
1. Muscle strain: Overworking your abdominal muscles could cause them to spasm. Spasms due to muscle strain are most likely to occur in people who do strenuous and frequent exercise, especially crunches and situps.
Other symptoms of muscle strain are: Tenderness or pain in your abs, pain that gets worse with movement
2. Dehydration: Losing electrolytes from dehydration caused by sweating, vomiting, and diarrhea can result in muscle spasms throughout your body, including your stomach. This happens because muscles need electrolytes such as calcium, potassium, and magnesium to work properly. When they don’t have these electrolytes, your muscles may start working abnormally and seizing up. Learn more about identifying and treating an electrolyte imbalance.
Other symptoms of dehydration include: Extreme thirst, headaches, dizziness, dark yellow urine
3. Gas: A buildup of gas in your stomach can cause your intestinal muscles to spasm as your body tries to release the gas. If you have gas, you might also have: Distended stomach or bloating
sharp stomach pain, a feeling of fullness, an urge to pass gas or burp
4. Inflammatory bowel disease: These diseases, such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis (UC), are chronic inflammatory conditions. Crohn’s disease can affect any part of the gastrointestinal tract, while UC only affects the colon. In both conditions, inflammation can cause bowel spasms.
Other symptoms of inflammatory bowel diseases are: Diarrhea, weight loss, abdominal cramps and pain, fatigue, night sweats, constipation and feeling like you urgently need to go to the bathroom.
5. Irritable bowel syndrome: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a chronic condition that affects the large intestine. It doesn’t cause bowel tissue changes like inflammatory bowel disease, but symptoms are similar, including: stomach pain or cramping, bloated feeling, constipation, diarrhea (sometimes constipation and diarrhea will alternate) gas.
