Each year 500.000 people discover that they are suffering from a form of ulcer only in the United States. Most of these people are affected by gastric ulcer, which is the most encountered form of ulcer and it affects millions worldwide. It is a common disease for those who are living a modern lifestyle, which involves a lot of stress and junk-food consumption. If the factors mentioned above are also mixed with coffee, alcohol, and nicotine than the resulting combination is surely going to create a form of gastric ulcer.
Gastric ulcer is not caused by spicy food, stress, or alcohol, it is caused by a bacteria called Helobacter pylori, but billions of people are carrying this bacteria, because it is transmitted through food, drink, or contact with someone infected. So, many of us have this bacteria, and if you combine it with spicy food and stress you have gastric ulcer!
Recent studies have also shown that anti-inflammatory medication (ibrupofen and aspirin) seriously contribute to the gastric ulcer's evolution.
Gastric ulcer occurs when the pylori bacteria, helped by all the things mentioned above creates a wound inside the stomach, in it's lining. Once the wound comes in contact with the damaging gastric acid found in the stomach, it gets worse, because the membrane that used to protect the sensitive tissue beneath it from the acid has been eaten away.
Someone affected by gastric ulcer will experience sudden losses of appetite, heartburn (a common ulcer symptom), indigestion and stomachal pain after a meal. Strangely, some people with gastric ulcer are feeling the usual symptoms, and then for a period of a few months they disappear, but then they come again. Antiacids help relieve the pain but don't help in curing the disease. If gastric ulcer is left untreated then it will turn into a bleeding ulcer, a more severe form that causes vomiting with blood. Bleeding ulcer must be treated as soon as possible because in many cases it causes complications that affect the entire body.
Gastric ulcer is diagnosed in most cases with the help of an endoscopy and it can be easily treated, especially if it's discovered soon after its appearance by taking antibiotics to kill the heliobacter pylori and medication that will protect the inner lining of the stomach from the acids by reducing the stomach's acid secretion. If you don't take antibiotics together with the other medication. gastric ulcer will most likely reappear because it's main cause, the bacteria, has not been eliminated.
People who are suffering from gastric ulcer should change their diet and a few things in their lifestyle. It is important that they quit smoking and drinking if they are doing it. Doing these things and taking the right medication will cure anybody of gastric ulcer and stop any complications from appearing.
