Here are some points to what you should do to speed your recovery from peptic ulcer: - the most important in peptic ulcer patients is to avoid certain foods and drinks that may cause an increase in your ulcer symptoms; You should avoid spicy food, coffee and alcohol for example; - smoking is one of the ulcers' s biggest enemy, so stop smoking; - if you have a few extra kilograms, you should try to loose them in order to spped up the ulcer recovery;
These are some of the things that you should do to help yourself in cases of an ulcer. Of course that you will also follow an ulcer treatment perscribed by the doctor. In almost all the cases, you will be given medicine to reduce the amount of acid that your stomach produces and is the case of the ulcer.
There are two main medicine groups that are good in treating ulcer. The first include ranitidine and are called antagonists. The second are more powerful and better in treating ulcer. These are known as pump inhibitors. Tests are usually made to detect an ulcer or ulcers. If together with the ulcer, H pylori is also found, you will also be prescribed another medication to treat that problem as well. In the majority of cases, if the infection with H pylori is treated, then the ulcer or ulcers that you are suffering from is better treated. Furthermore, the risk of reoccurrence of the ulcer is lowered. There are more serious cases, when the person may have very persistent symptoms of ulcer and the infection with H pylori is not found. In these ulcer cases, the doctor will perform more tests.
Peptic ulcer is not a very serious problem, but if untreated it can lead to very serious complications. The most important complication in ulcer is the perforation of the stomach wall. This is a very serious ulcer complication and needs treatment right away. However, the complication that is the most common in an ulcer is bleeding. There are symptoms that can help you see if you have this ulcer complication. Some of the symptoms include vomiting blood, either fresh blood, or some bits of the older blood. Another symptom for ulcer complications is blood in your feces.
Ulcer in the stomach is called gastric ulcer, in the duodenum is called duodenal ulcer. Peptic ulcers viewed in the gastroscopy appear as little mouth ulcers of 1-2cm in diameter. Gastric ulcer causes a sharp pain in the stomach soon after eating, in duodenal ulcer the pain is relieved by drinking milk. Other symptoms are: loss of appetite, belching, sensation of discomfort in the stomach, nausea, loss of weight.
Diagnosis
It is important to diagnose ulcers with specific tests in order not to be mistaken with stomach cancer. One is the breath test you are given a substance and if there is infection with H. Pylori in your stomach then a gas is produced and detected in the breath. Barium meal X-ray is also helpfull in detecting ulcers. Gastroscopy uses a fibre-optic cable which is passed through the stomach and shows the lining of the stomach, a biopsy may be taken in the same time.
Treatment
Comprises a change in the life style, to reduce the symptoms and help healing the ulcers. Although no study has proved the direct implication of spicy foods, coffee and possibly alcohol in the producing of ulcer you???d better avoid them and stop smoking and lose weight. Use paracetamol instead of non steroids anti-inflammatory drugs and ask youGP for advice.
Drugs that reduce the acid in the stomach are: H2-antagonists such as ranitidine and cimetidine, proton pump inhibitors that have a more powerful effect in reducing the protection of the stomach acid.
How to eradicate H. Pylori
The best treatment in eradicating the infection with H. Pylori is a combination of antibiotics and a proton pump inhibitor. Only after curing the infection with H. Pylori you may be sure that the ulcer won???t re-appear. Sometime further tests such as: gastroscopy or barium swallow are necessary.
Complications
Some of the peptic ulcers may heal without treatment, spontaneously. But if they complicate the whole situation is severe, there may appear ulcer bleeding, ulcer perforation, and gastric obstruction. Ulcer bleeding manifests as: melena or black stools, weakness, orthostatic syncope, hematemesis meaning blood vomiting.
If the ulcer is perforated the gastric contents are leaked in the peritoneal cavity and results in acute peritonitis. Those cases are very severe and surgery is required immediately, because the abdomen muscles become rigid and any motion determines extreme abdominal pain.
If gastric obstruction occurs near the pyloric canal which joins the stomach to the duodenum the patient reports increasing abdominal pain, diminished appetite, vomiting of undigested or partially digested food and weight loss. Surgery was very used in the past in the treatment of the peptic ulcers, complications such as: severe bleeding or perforation may require surgery. Because peritonitis is probable to develop you need to address the emergency as soon as possible. Surgery is performed under a sedative and through a gastroscope.