Home use tests are a useful element in your proactive healthcare regime but are not intended to replace a consultation with your General Practitioner or other suitably qualified healthcare provider. If you have any concerns regarding your health always consult your Doctor.
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Some Information about Stomach (Gastric) Ulcers
About your guts and digestion
What causes stomach ulcers?
Anti-inflammatory medicines, for example: aspirin, ibuprofen which people take for arthritis, muscular pains, can sometimes affect the lining of the stomach and allow acid to cause an ulcer.
Other causes are much rarer. For example, some viral infections can cause a stomach ulcer. Crohn's disease can cause a stomach ulcer in addition to other problems of the digestive system and bowel.
H pylori infection is associated with stomach cancer but this is much rarer than ulcers.
What are the symptoms of a stomach ulcer?
- Pain in your upper abdomen just below the breastbone is the most common symptom. It often comes and goes. It may be eased if you take antacid medicines. Eating can make the pain worse and it may wake you from sleep.
- Other symptoms which may occur include: bloating, wind, retching, and feeling queasy or sick. You may feel particularly 'full up' after eating.
- There are complications which can develop in some cases, and these can be serious.
- Bleeding from the ulcer. This can range from a 'trickle' to a life-threatening bleed.
- Perforation. This is where the ulcer goes right through ('perforates') the wall of the stomach. Food and acid in the stomach then leak into the abdominal cavity. This usually causes severe pain and is a medical emergency.
What tests may be done?
- A simple home test such as the Check my Body test can detect the presence of the H Pylori infection
- Endoscopy is the test a doctor perform which can confirm a stomach ulcer. In this procedure the doctor will look inside your stomach by passing a thin, flexible "telescope" down your oesophagus. They can see any inflammation or ulcers.
- H Pylori can be detected using very sensitive breath tests or by analysing tissue biopsies taken during endoscopy.
- Biopsies (tiny tissue samples) are usually taken from in and around the ulcer during endoscopy. These are sent to a pathology laboratory to be studied under the microscope.
What are the treatments for a stomach ulcer?
If it is determined that H. pylori infection is the cause of the ulcer treatment to clear the infection will cure the ulcer. Two types of antibiotics taken in combination are usually needed. An antacid medicine is often also given to reduce the acid in the stomach to allow the antibiotics to work well. You need to take this 'combination therapy' (sometimes called 'triple therapy') for a week. It is important to complete the course. One course of combination therapy clears H. pylori in up to 9 in 10 cases. (However, in a small number of cases, H. pylori infection returns at some stage in the future.)
If it is determined that an anti-inflammatory medicine is the cause of the ulcer then If possible, you should stop the anti-inflammatory medicine. This can allows the ulcer to heal. An antacid medicine is usually advised for several weeks to allow the ulcer to heal. However, in many cases the anti-inflammatory medicine is needed to ease symptoms of arthritis or other painful conditions. After the ulcer has healed, one option is to take an acid-suppressing medicine each day. This reduces the amount of acid made by the stomach, and greatly reduces the chance of an ulcer forming again.
After the treatment
Another endoscopy may be performed to confirm that the ulcer has
healed. You may also need a re test to check that H. pylori infection has cleared.
A second course of 'combination therapy' using different antibiotics is usually advised
if the first did not clear the infection.
A stomach ulcer unfortunately a very common condition in the UK.
What most people don't realize however is that it is quite often caused by an infection with a bacterium (bug) called H. pylori. Moreover, many people don't realise that a simple course of two antibiotics plus an acid-suppressing medicine usually clears the infection and cures the ulcer. (Anti-inflammatory medicines sometimes cause stomach ulcers).
Many people think that a stomach ulcer is caused by too much acid in the stomach as a result of stress or an unhealthy diet. Most people with a stomach ulcer make normal amounts of acid. The problem is the way the lining of the stomach copes with the acid. The stomach makes chemicals and mucus which covers the surface and protects the tissues from the acid. An ulcer occurs if the acid breaks through this protection. Causes of stomach ulcer include the following.
Infection by H. pylori bacterium is the cause in about 70% of cases. This bacterium affects the lining of the stomach in a way that allows the acid to cause inflammation and then ulcers.
The food that you eat travels down the oesophagus (gullet) into the stomach. Our stomach makes acid which helps to digest food. After being mixed up in the stomach, food passes into the duodenum. In the duodenum and the rest of the small intestine, food mixes with enzymes made by the pancreas and cells lining the intestine. The enzymes break down (digest) the food which is absorbed into the body.
Peptic inflammation is inflammation caused by stomach acid. Inflammation can occur in the stomach, the duodenum (as acid flows in with food), or the lower oesophagus (if some acid splashes back up to cause 'reflux oesophagitis').
A peptic ulcer is an ulcer caused by stomach acid. An ulcer is where the lining of the gut is damaged and the underlying tissue is exposed. If you could see inside your gut, an ulcer looks like a small, red crater on the inside lining of the gut.
A stomach ulcer is one type of peptic ulcer. (The most common type of peptic ulcer is a duodenal ulcer.)