Stopping and healing painful ulcers

Stomach ulcers can be painful and annoying but you can get rid of the pain by taking proper care of yourself and getting treatment. This article and seeing your doctor are proactive steps to making sure your ulcer doesn't recur.

• Gastrointestinal ulcers announce themselves with burning pain that simmers between your belly button and breastbone. It can wake you at night, lasting for minutes or hours.
• The pain can worsen with food — or if your stomach is empty. It can make you vomit or feel bloated. However it manifests itself, it's never pleasant.

Ulcers are irritated places along the gastrointestinal tract mostly caused by the bacterium Helicobacter pylori, which humans have carried, largely harmlessly, in their intestinal tracts for more than sixty thousand years.

• About half the people in the world carry their own H. pylori colony, but most have no symptoms.
• Other causes of ulcers include excessive use of pain relievers like aspirin and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDS), such as ibuprofen and naproxen, which can irritate the stomach lining.
• Smoking and alcohol can do a number on you too, raising acid levels, which increase your risk of an ulcer. Although stress and fiery foods don't cause ulcers, they can aggravate them and prevent them from healing.

Most ulcers do heal and return; you may notice symptoms for days or weeks that disappear, only to reappear just when you thought you were in the clear.

How ulcers make you feel depends where they are in your gastrointestinal tract.

• Duodenal ulcers (in the duodenum, the first part of the small intestine), the most common, tend to be dormant when you wake up, only to gnaw at you by midmorning. They also may wake you up in the middle of the night.
• Gastric ulcers, which occur along the upper curve of the stomach, can swell the tissues leading to the small intestine, which may hamper the passage of food into the small intestine. The result is bloating, nausea, or vomiting after eating.
• Stress ulcers, which are the result of illness or trauma, occur in the stomach and duodenum.

To find out if you have an ulcer, your doctor will probably insert a small lighted tube, called an endoscope, into your GI tract and, if she sees ulcers, take a tissue sample to rule out cancer.

• She may also take an X-ray of your gastrointestinal tract as you swallow a white liquid that will help reveal any ulcers. Other tests may include blood or breath tests or stool samples, all to detect H. pylori.

• Eliminating ulcer pain is relatively easy; with medication, ulcers can clear up within several weeks.
• Of course, the way you treat your stomach can reduce your pain and hasten healing as well.
• Fewer than 10 percent of people with ulcers who are treated for H. pylori bacteria have a recurrence.