Why Do We Get a Stitch When Running
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Almost every runner knows it. You set off feeling good, your legs are moving well, and then, halfway through the run, a sharp pain bites into your side, just under the ribs. It is usually on the right side, though it can appear on the left. It hurts most when you breathe in, and it can make each step feel like a small stab. Some people have to stop and walk. Some press a hand into the painful spot and try to keep going. A few feel sick as well. It is called a stitch, and it is one of the most common complaints in running, especially among people who are just starting out. It is rarely dangerous, but it is painful enough to spoil a run, and it leaves most runners asking the same question: why does it happen, and how can I stop it? This article explains it in plain words, from the muscles that control your breathing to the food in your stomach and the pace of your run.
What a Stitch Actually Is
A stitch is a pain in the side of the belly, just below the ribs, that appears during exercise and fades when you slow down or stop. Doctors often call it exercise-related transient abdominal pain, which is a long name for a simple idea: a pain in the belly that comes with exercise and does not last. It is usually sharp rather than dull, and it is usually felt in one small spot, about the size of a coin, rather than spread across the whole belly. The pain often grows stronger when you breathe in deeply or when your foot hits the ground, and it eases when you press gently on the spot, slow to a walk, or breathe out slowly.
The pain is most common in running, because running shakes the body up and down with every step, but it can also appear in swimming, horse riding, and other sports that bounce the body. It is far more common in beginners than in experienced runners, and it is more common in young people than in older people, though no age group is free of it. It also tends to appear early in a run, often in the first ten or fifteen minutes, rather than at the end, which tells you something important. A stitch is not usually a sign that you have run too far. It is more often a sign that your body was not quite ready when the run began, whether because of what you ate, how fast you started, or how your breathing settled into the run.
It is worth saying clearly what a stitch is not. It is not usually a muscle tear, and it is not usually a problem with your heart or your lungs. The pain is real, and it can be sharp enough to stop you, but it does not usually mean that something inside you is damaged. That matters, because many new runners feel frightened the first time it happens, and they worry that they have hurt themselves. In most cases, the pain fades within a few minutes of slowing down, and it leaves no lasting effect. The body recovers, and the next run can be completely free of it. The goal is not to fear the stitch, but to understand what brings it on, so you can change the conditions that invite it.
The Diaphragm and How Breathing Works When You Run
To understand a stitch, you need to meet a muscle called the diaphragm. It is a wide, dome-shaped sheet of muscle that sits under your lungs, separating your chest from your belly. When you breathe in, the diaphragm tightens and flattens downward, making room for your lungs to fill with air. When you breathe out, it relaxes and rises back into its dome shape, pushing air out. You do this without thinking, about twelve to twenty times a minute when you are resting. When you run, your breathing speeds up, and the diaphragm has to work much harder and much faster, sometimes forty or fifty times a minute, and with far more force.
The diaphragm is not working alone. It shares its space with the organs in your belly, especially the liver on the right side and the stomach on the left. The liver is a large, heavy organ, and it hangs just under the diaphragm on the right, held in place by bands of tissue called ligaments. When you run, your body bounces up and down with every step, and the liver bounces too. Each bounce tugs gently on those ligaments, and each tug pulls on the diaphragm. When the diaphragm is also working hard to keep your breathing going, that pulling can irritate it, and irritation in a muscle often shows up as pain. This is one reason a stitch is so often felt on the right side, where the liver sits. It is not the liver itself hurting. It is the shared wall between the liver and the breathing muscle being pulled and worked at the same time.
There is a second idea that researchers talk about, and it fits with what runners actually feel. The thin lining that covers the inside of your belly, called the peritoneum, can become irritated when the organs inside the belly move around during running. The diaphragm is attached to this lining, and when the lining is irritated, the pain can be felt in the side, under the ribs, exactly where a stitch appears. This would explain why a stitch often comes with a feeling of needing to press the spot, and why it fades when you slow down and the bouncing stops. The two ideas are not rivals. Both point to the same truth: a stitch is about movement and effort happening at the same time, in a part of the body where breathing, digestion and running all meet.
Why the Side Hurts
Pain is the body’s way of asking for a change, and a stitch is a clear example. When you run, several things happen at once that can irritate the diaphragm and the lining around it. Your breathing becomes fast and shallow, especially if you are new to running or if you started too fast. Shallow breathing means the diaphragm moves in short, quick bursts instead of long, smooth ones, and that uneven work can tire it sooner. At the same time, your feet are striking the ground with each step, and each strike sends a small jolt up through the body. If your breathing lines up with your foot strike in an unlucky way, for example if you always breathe out when your right foot lands, the liver drops at the same moment the diaphragm is rising, and the tug on the ligaments is stronger. Many runners find that changing which foot they breathe out on, or simply slowing their breathing down, changes the pain within a minute or two, and that is a strong clue that the rhythm of breathing and stepping is part of the cause.
The sharpness of the pain also tells you something. A dull ache that spreads across the belly is more often about digestion or a full stomach. A sharp pain in one small spot, under the ribs, that rises and falls with your breathing, is more typical of a stitch. Some people feel the pain move slightly as they run, or feel it ease when they press the spot firmly with their fingers and breathe out slowly. Pressing helps because it supports the area from the outside, reducing the bounce and the pull on the tissues underneath. Slowing down helps because it reduces the force of each foot strike and gives the diaphragm a chance to settle into a steadier rhythm. Both of these are practical, and both work because they change the mechanics of the run, not because they treat an injury.
It is also worth noticing that a stitch can feel different from one run to the next. One day it is a mild ache that you can run through. Another day it is a sharp pain that forces you to walk. The difference is usually in the conditions: what you ate, how much water you drank, how fast you started, how tired you were, and whether you warmed up. A stitch is not a fixed problem with a fixed strength. It is a response to the conditions of that particular run, and when the conditions change, the stitch often disappears, even for people who used to get one every time they ran.
Eating, Drinking and Timing
What you eat before a run is one of the strongest influences on whether you get a stitch. When you eat, your stomach fills, and your body sends blood to the stomach to help with digestion. When you then start running, your body has to split that blood between the stomach and the working muscles, and the stomach is jostled up and down with every step. A full stomach is heavier, so it bounces more, and it pulls more on the tissues around it. Drinks can do the same thing. A large drink of water, juice or a sweet sports drink just before a run sloshes around in the stomach, and that sloshing adds to the movement that irritates the diaphragm and the belly lining.
Certain foods and drinks seem to cause more trouble than others. Sweet drinks, fruit juice, and foods high in sugar are often named by runners as triggers, because sugar draws water into the stomach and can make it feel fuller and more unsettled. Fizzy drinks are another common trigger, because the gas makes the stomach feel bloated. Large meals, fatty foods, and foods high in fibre can also slow digestion, leaving the stomach fuller for longer. None of this means you should run on an empty stomach. Running with no fuel at all can leave you tired and light-headed. It means timing matters. Most runners do best with a light meal two to three hours before a run, and only a small snack, if anything, in the hour before. A small snack that is easy to digest, eaten well before you set off, gives you energy without filling the stomach.
Water needs the same kind of timing. Your body needs water to run well, and running without enough water makes the whole run harder. But drinking a large amount all at once, just before you start, is one of the most reliable ways to bring on a stitch. The better habit is to drink steadily through the day, so you start the run well hydrated, and then to take small sips during the run if you need them, rather than a large drink at the start. If you are running for less than an hour, you often do not need to drink during the run at all. If you are running longer, small, regular sips are kinder to the stomach than a big gulp at a water stop. The stomach, like the diaphragm, prefers steady and gentle to sudden and large.
Breathing Rhythm and Pace
How you start a run matters as much as what you ate. Many stitches appear because the run began too fast. When you set off at a pace your body is not ready for, your breathing becomes fast and shallow within the first minute, your muscles demand oxygen quickly, and your diaphragm has to work at full speed before it has warmed up. A warm-up changes this. Five or ten minutes of gentle walking, then slow jogging, lets your breathing settle into a rhythm, lets the blood flow shift gradually to the muscles, and lets the diaphragm find its pace. Runners who warm up properly get fewer stitches, not because the warm-up is magic, but because it gives the body time to adjust instead of shocking it into full effort.
Breathing rhythm itself is a skill, and it can be practised. When you are resting, you breathe in and out evenly, without thinking. When you run, that even rhythm is easily lost, especially if you are thinking about your pace, your route, or your phone. A simple pattern that many runners use is to breathe in for three steps and out for two steps, or in for two steps and out for two steps, at a steady pace. The exact numbers matter less than the steadiness. The point is to breathe deeply, using the belly as well as the chest, rather than taking short, shallow breaths from the top of the chest. Deep breathing moves the diaphragm through a fuller range, which sounds like more work, but it is smoother work, and the diaphragm tires less quickly when it moves smoothly than when it jerks in short bursts.
There is also a simple trick that many runners swear by, and it is worth trying because it costs nothing. If a stitch appears on your right side, try breathing out when your left foot hits the ground, rather than your right. This changes the timing of the bounce, so the liver is not dropping at the same moment the diaphragm is rising. It does not work for everyone, and it can feel awkward at first, but many runners find that the pain eases within a minute or two of changing the pattern. If it does not help, the simplest answer is to slow to a walk, press gently on the painful spot, and breathe out slowly through pursed lips, as if you were blowing out a candle. Walking for a minute or two is not a failure. It is the body asking for a pause, and the stitch usually fades quickly once the pace drops.
Why Beginners and Fit Runners Both Get It
A stitch is most common in beginners, and there are good reasons for that. A new runner’s breathing is less efficient, so the diaphragm has to work harder for the same pace. Their core muscles, the muscles around the belly and lower back that steady the body with each step, are weaker, so the organs inside the belly move around more. Their pace is less steady, so they often start too fast and slow down suddenly, which disturbs the breathing rhythm. And they are more likely to run soon after eating, because they have not yet learned how their own stomach behaves. As a person runs regularly for weeks and months, all of these things improve. The breathing becomes deeper and steadier, the core becomes stronger, the pace becomes more even, and the stitch becomes rarer. That is why experienced runners often say they have not had a stitch in years, even though they run further and faster than they did when they started.
But fit runners are not immune. A very fit runner can still get a stitch, especially in a race, when the pace is faster than usual, the excitement is high, and the warm-up was rushed. A fit runner who eats a large meal too close to a hard training session, or who drinks a large sweet drink just before starting, can get a stitch just as easily as a beginner. A swimmer who is new to open water, or a runner who has had a break and is returning after illness or injury, can find the stitch waiting for them on the first run back. The difference is that a fit runner usually knows what to do: slow down, change the breathing, press the spot, and wait. They have learned that the stitch will pass, and they do not panic. A beginner, feeling the sharp pain for the first time, often panics, breathes faster, and makes the pain worse. Calm is part of the cure.
Age and body shape play a smaller part. Young runners get stitches more often than older runners, partly because their bodies are still growing and their breathing and core strength are still developing, and partly because young people are more likely to run hard without warming up and to eat and drink close to exercise. None of this is a fault. It is simply how the body learns. A stitch is, in a way, a lesson. It teaches the runner what their body needs before a run, and what pace it can hold, and most runners, after a few stitches, learn the lesson without needing to be told twice.
What Helps During a Run and After
When a stitch strikes in the middle of a run, the first thing to do is to slow down. You do not have to stop completely, though stopping is fine if the pain is sharp. Slowing to a gentle jog, or to a walk, reduces the force of each foot strike and gives the diaphragm a chance to settle. While you walk, press the fingers of your hand gently but firmly into the painful spot, just under the ribs, and hold the pressure as you breathe out slowly. Many runners find that this pressure, combined with slow breathing, eases the pain within a minute or two. Raising your right arm above your head and leaning slightly to the left, while you breathe out, is another stretch that some runners find helpful, because it stretches the tissues around the diaphragm. It may feel odd to do in the middle of a park, but it is a simple, harmless stretch, and if it helps, it is worth the odd look.
Breathing out slowly is more useful than breathing in deeply. A long, slow breath out, through pursed lips, lets the diaphragm rise fully and relax, which is the opposite of the short, tight breathing that often comes with a stitch. Try to make the breath out longer than the breath in, for a few breaths, and let your shoulders drop as you do it. Tension in the shoulders and neck often goes with a stitch, because the body tightens up when it hurts, and that tension makes the breathing even shallower. Dropping the shoulders and loosening the arms can help the breathing return to normal more quickly than forcing a deep breath in.
After the run, the stitch should fade on its own, usually within a few minutes of stopping. If it does, there is nothing more to do, except to think about what was different about that run. Did you eat too close to the start? Did you drink a large sweet drink? Did you start too fast, or skip the warm-up? A short note after the run, even just a line in your phone, can show a pattern after a few weeks. Perhaps the stitch only comes when you run within an hour of lunch, or only when you drink juice before the run. Once you see the pattern, the fix is obvious, and it is usually a small change in timing rather than a big change in training. If the pain does not fade after you stop, or if it comes with other symptoms, that is a different matter, and it is covered in the questions at the end of this article.
Getting Better Over Time
The good news about a stitch is that it usually becomes rarer the more regularly you run, and the reasons for that are clear. With regular running, your breathing becomes deeper and more efficient, so the diaphragm does not have to work as frantically for the same pace. Your core muscles grow stronger, so your body bounces less and the organs inside the belly move around less. Your pace becomes steadier, because you learn what speed you can hold without gasping, and you stop starting every run too fast. You also learn your own stomach: how long after a meal you can run comfortably, which drinks suit you, and how much water you need. All of these small learnings add up, and after a few weeks of steady running, many people find that a stitch they used to get every time has quietly disappeared.
That improvement does not happen in a straight line. You may have a week with no stitches at all, then one bad run where the stitch returns, perhaps because you ate later than usual, or because you ran in hotter weather, or because you were tired. That single bad run does not mean you have gone backwards. It means the conditions changed, and the body responded to the conditions. The right response is not to feel defeated, but to look at what was different that day and adjust it next time. Keep a short note after each run for a few weeks, even just a line about what you ate, how you slept, and whether a stitch appeared. Patterns show up quickly, and once you can see them, you can change them. Running, like most things worth learning, rewards patience more than it rewards speed, and a stitch is one of its earliest and most useful teachers.
My Take:
If you ask me what I think about a stitch, my first thought is that it is a humbling little pain. It does not care how fit you are, how expensive your shoes are, or how far you planned to run. It can stop a confident runner in the middle of a park and make them walk home holding their side. I think that is worth respecting, because it reminds us that running is not just about the legs. It is about breathing, eating, timing, and patience, and a stitch is what happens when one of those is out of balance. The runners I admire most are not the ones who never get a stitch. They are the ones who get one, slow down without embarrassment, fix what they can, and carry on. That is a better attitude than pretending the pain does not exist.
I think the most common mistake is starting too fast. I have seen it many times: a person sets off as if the run were a race, their breathing is ragged within a minute, and the stitch arrives before they have covered a kilometre. Then they conclude that running is painful and give up. But the pain was not caused by running. It was caused by running too fast, too soon. A slow start is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign that you understand your body. I would rather see a person jog gently for ten minutes, feel their breathing settle, and then run comfortably, than see them sprint the first minute and walk the rest. The first five minutes of a run set the tone for everything that follows, and a stitch is often the price of rushing them.
The food and drink side of this is the part I think most people underestimate. We talk a lot about what to eat for energy, and not enough about when to eat it. A stomach full of sweet drink, sloshing around with every step, is a perfect recipe for a stitch, and yet many people drink a large glass of juice or a fizzy drink just before they run, because they think they need the energy. I think the lesson is simple: eat earlier, drink steadily through the day, and keep the hour before a run light. It is a small change, and it is not glamorous, but it prevents more stitches than any breathing technique I know. The body does not like to be asked to digest and to run hard at the same time. Give it one job at a time, and it will do both better.
I also think breathing is a skill, not just something that happens on its own. When you are sitting still, breathing takes care of itself. When you are running, it needs a little attention, especially at the start. Deep, steady breathing, in for a few steps and out for a few steps, is not just a trick for stopping a stitch. It is the foundation of comfortable running. Shallow, fast breathing tires the diaphragm quickly, and a tired diaphragm is an unhappy one. I have noticed that runners who learn to breathe slowly, even when their legs want to go faster, enjoy their runs far more. They are not fighting their own breathing. They are working with it, and the stitch stays away because the diaphragm is moving smoothly instead of jerking.
There is something I want to say to beginners, because they are the ones who suffer most from stitches and the ones most likely to quit because of them. A stitch in your first weeks of running is normal. It does not mean you are unfit, or that your body is not made for running. It means your breathing, your core, and your pace are still learning to work together, and they will get better with practice. Every runner I know has had stitches, and every runner I know has had them fade as they ran more regularly. If you get a stitch, slow down, walk for a minute, press the spot, breathe out slowly, and start again when it fades. That is not failing. That is learning. The run that includes a short walk is still a run, and it is far better than the run you never do because a stitch frightened you away.
I also want to be honest about what a stitch is not. It is not, in most cases, a sign of damage, and it does not usually need treatment. That is reassuring, but it is also a limit. If the pain does not fade when you stop, if it is in a different place from the usual stitch, if it comes with feeling sick, dizzy, or short of breath, or if it keeps happening in the same way despite changes in food, drink and pace, then it is sensible to talk to a health professional rather than treating it as an ordinary stitch. I say this not to worry anyone, but because knowing the difference between an ordinary stitch and something else is part of being a sensible runner. Most pains in running are ordinary. A few are not, and they deserve to be checked.
My final view is simple. A stitch is usually the diaphragm and the tissues around it being pulled, bounced and worked too hard, too soon, often with a full stomach and shallow breathing adding to the trouble. The answer is not to stop running. It is to warm up, start slowly, breathe deeply and steadily, eat earlier and drink in small sips, and slow down calmly when a stitch appears instead of panicking. Give the body a fair start, and it will usually give you a comfortable run in return. That is the lesson of the stitch, and it is a useful one, because it applies to far more than running: start gently, breathe steadily, and do not ask your body to do two hard jobs at once.
I also think about the warm-up, because it is the part of running that people skip most often and regret most quickly. A proper warm-up does not need to be complicated or long. Five minutes of walking, then a few minutes of slow jogging, then a minute or two of gentle stretching for the legs and the sides, is enough for most people. During those minutes, the breathing deepens gradually, the blood flow shifts to the muscles, and the diaphragm finds its rhythm without being rushed. It is a little like warming up a car engine on a cold morning. You can drive off immediately, but the engine will complain. Give it a few minutes, and the whole journey is smoother. A stitch is often the diaphragm complaining that it was asked to work at full speed before it was ready, and a warm-up is the simplest way to avoid that complaint.
Core strength is another piece that does not get enough attention. The core is the set of muscles around your belly and lower back, and its job during running is to hold your body steady while your arms and legs move. When the core is weak, the body wobbles more with each step, and the organs inside the belly move around more than they should. That extra movement adds to the tugging on the diaphragm and the lining around it. You do not need a gym or a complicated routine to strengthen the core. Simple exercises at home, done a few times a week, can make a real difference over a month or two. I think this is one reason stitches fade as people run more regularly. It is not only the breathing that improves. The whole middle of the body becomes steadier, and the stitch loses one of its causes.
Race day deserves its own thought, because races bring together almost every trigger for a stitch at once. The pace is faster than in training, the excitement is higher, the warm-up is often rushed in a crowd, and people often eat or drink differently from usual, either from nerves or because food is offered at the start. I have seen strong, experienced runners get a stitch in the first kilometre of a race and feel embarrassed by it, as if it meant they were not fit enough. It did not mean that. It meant the conditions were different, and the body reacted to the difference. If you are running a race, my advice is to treat the first kilometre as a warm-up, no matter how tempting it is to chase the crowd. Let the others go. Your breathing will settle, your pace will find itself, and you will pass many of those same runners later, when their early sprint has cost them.
I also want to mention children, because they get stitches more than anyone, and they often do not have the words to explain what they feel. A child who stops running in a school race and holds their side is not being lazy, and they are not making it up. Their breathing is still developing, their core is still growing, and they are more likely to have eaten or drunk something sweet just before running. The kindest thing an adult can do is to believe them, to tell them it is normal and it will pass, and to show them how to slow down, press the spot, and breathe out slowly. A child who is mocked for a stitch may stop running altogether. A child who is helped through one will keep running, and the stitches will fade as they grow stronger. That small kindness matters more than any advice about pace or food.
There is also the question of other sports. A stitch is not only a running problem. Swimmers get it, especially when they are new to the water and their breathing is uneven. Horse riders get it from the bouncing. People who play football or basketball, with sudden sprints and stops, get it too. The cause is the same in each case: the body is bouncing, the breathing is working hard, and the stomach may be full. The fix is the same as well: slow down, breathe steadily, and give the body a moment to settle. I think it helps to know that, because a runner who gets a stitch sometimes feels as if running itself is the problem. It is not. The problem is the combination of bouncing, breathing and timing, and that combination appears in many sports. Runners are simply the ones who meet it most often.
Finally, I want to say something about fear. The first stitch is frightening, because a sharp pain in the side feels like something has gone wrong inside you. The second one is annoying. The tenth one is familiar, and by then most runners know exactly what to do. That journey, from fear to familiarity, is the real lesson of the stitch. Your body is not fragile, and a sharp pain does not always mean damage. Sometimes it means the body is asking for a slower start, a lighter stomach, or a steadier breath. Learning to hear that request, and to answer it calmly instead of panicking, is a skill that goes beyond running. It is a skill for life. Slow down, press the spot, breathe out, and start again. Most of the time, that is all it takes, and the run that follows is often the best part of the day.
If a friend asked me for one piece of advice about stitches, I would keep it very short: start slow, eat early, and breathe deeply. Those three things prevent more stitches than anything else I know, and they cost nothing. Start slow, so the breathing and the diaphragm have time to settle. Eat early, so the stomach is light when the running begins. Breathe deeply, so the diaphragm moves smoothly instead of in short, tired bursts. Everything else, the core exercises, the foot-strike trick, the pressing on the spot, is useful, but these three are the foundation. Get them right, and most stitches never appear. Get them wrong, and no trick will fully save the run.
One last thing I would add is about keeping a record. It sounds dull, but a few lines after each run can teach you more than any article. Write down what time you ran, what you ate and when, how much you drank, how fast you started, and whether a stitch appeared. After two or three weeks, the pattern is usually obvious, and it is often a small one: the stitch only comes on days when lunch was late, or when you drank juice before the run, or when you skipped the warm-up because you were in a hurry. Once you see it, you can change it, and the change is usually easy. Running rewards the person who pays attention, and a stitch is one of the clearest pieces of feedback the body gives.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does “Why Do We Get a Stitch When Running” really mean?
It means asking why a sharp pain appears under the ribs during a run, usually on the right side, and why it fades when you slow down or stop. The usual explanation is that the diaphragm, the muscle that controls breathing, is being pulled and worked hard at the same time as the body bounces with each step, often with a full stomach adding to the movement. It is common, especially in beginners, and it usually passes within a few minutes of slowing down.
Why do so many people search for “Why Do We Get a Stitch When Running”?
People search for it because a stitch is painful enough to spoil a run, and it is frightening the first time it happens. Many runners worry they have injured themselves, or that something is wrong with their heart or lungs. In most cases it is a common, short-lived pain linked to breathing, pace, and what was eaten before the run, and people want a clear explanation and a simple way to stop it.
How long does the feeling behind “Why Do We Get a Stitch When Running” usually last?
A stitch usually fades within a few minutes of slowing to a walk or stopping, especially if you press gently on the painful spot and breathe out slowly. Some mild stitches can be run through and fade on their own. If the pain does not fade after you have stopped and rested for several minutes, or if it keeps returning in the same way despite changes in food and pace, it is worth talking to a health professional.
What makes “Why Do We Get a Stitch When Running” feel stronger on some days?
Eating a large meal or drinking a large sweet or fizzy drink close to the run makes it stronger, because a full stomach bounces more. Starting too fast, skipping a warm-up, and breathing in short, shallow breaths also make it stronger. Being new to running, returning after a break, or running in a race at a faster pace than usual can bring it on too. The same run can feel fine one day and painful the next, because the conditions before the run were different.
Can daily habits change anything about “Why Do We Get a Stitch When Running”?
Yes, steady habits help a lot. Eating a light meal two to three hours before a run, drinking water steadily through the day instead of a large drink just before the run, warming up with a few minutes of walking and slow jogging, and starting at a comfortable pace all reduce the chance of a stitch. Over weeks of regular running, breathing becomes deeper and steadier and the core muscles become stronger, so stitches become rarer on their own.
When should I pay closer attention to “Why Do We Get a Stitch When Running”?
Pay closer attention if the pain does not fade after you stop and rest, if it is in a different place from the usual spot under the ribs, if it comes with feeling sick, dizzy or short of breath, or if it keeps happening in the same way even after you have changed your food, drink, warm-up and pace. A short note of when it happens and what you ate and drank beforehand is a useful record to show a health professional. This is general information only, not personal advice.
