When it comes to gastric ulcer, many people may be familiar with it. Nowadays, the pace of life is fast, the pressure of work is high, and more and more people have irregular diet. In addition, due to people’s frequent consumption of stimulating food, high sugar and oil content, as well as some spicy food that easily stimulates the gastric mucosa, gastric ulcer has become a high-incidence disease in recent years, especially in men over 40 years old. The 1995 study showed that the average age of gastric ulcer onset was 47.7 years old. The 2012 study showed that the average age of onset of gastric ulcer was 45.35 years old, suggesting that gastric ulcer is tending to be younger. Therefore, this disease needs more and more attention.
So, what are the main symptoms of gastric ulcer?
1. Epigastric pain
The symptoms of epigastric pain in patients with gastric ulcer are mainly postprandial pain, which gradually relieves after 1-2 hours and reappears after eating the next meal. Often referred to as pain after meals, it is one of the most common symptoms of gastric ulcer. Pain in this part of the upper abdomen is often common, but it can also occur in the left upper abdomen or behind the sternum and xiphoid process, often manifested as dull pain, dull pain, distending pain and burning pain.
2. Bleeding
Bleeding is also common in the symptoms of gastric ulcers. Bleeding can sometimes be accompanied by hematemesis, and if there is a lot of bleeding, there may even be dark red bloody stools. If bleeding is frequent, patients tend to become weak, such as standing, sweating, thirst, and a drop in blood pressure when fainting. Sometimes a small amount of blood in the stool may not be obvious, but if this happens frequently, it can still lead to anemia. Therefore, if such symptoms occur, we must pay attention to them.
3. Nausea and vomiting
Nausea and vomiting often reflect higher ulcer activity. Gastric ulcer patients feel relaxed after vomiting, which often occurs in the early hours of the morning. Because the vomit contains overnight food, patients often feel sour.
4. Heartburn
Some patients are prone to heartburn, which is essentially a burning sensation in the stomach, and patients often feel pain in the heart pit or xiphoid process.
5. Different degrees of pain
The feeling and degree of ulcer pain are often different, and its nature is related to the pain threshold and individual differences of patients. It is often manifested by hunger, dull pain, pressure, burning pain, severe pain and tingling.
How to get gastric ulcer?
The main causes of the disease are as follows:
1. Infection: Helicobacter pylori infection is common, as well as herpes simplex virus, tuberculosis, cytomegalovirus, Helicobactor Hellmann, etc. These pathogens mainly reduce the mucosal defense capacity, leading to the occurrence of gastric ulcer;
2. Drugs: such as antipyretic, analgesic and anti-inflammatory drugs, glucocorticoids, clopidogrel, chemotherapeutic drugs, etc. Among them, antipyretic, analgesic and anti-inflammatory drugs are the most common drugs causing gastric mucosal injury, and about 10-25% of patients may have ulcers;
3. Genetic susceptibility: Some ulcer patients have a family history of high gastric acid, suggesting possible genetic susceptibility;
4. Gastric emptying disorder: duodenal-gastric reflux;
5. Stress state;
6. Smoking;
7. Long-term mental stress;
8. Irregular eating, etc.
Men over 40 years old have a high incidence of gastric ulcer, which may be related to bad habits (smoking, drinking, staying up late, etc.), irregular diet and social pressure.
With the development and progress of society, people’s mental pressure is gradually increasing, which results in gastric mucosal ischemia, hypoxia, and the decline of gastric mucosal defense ability, and then develops into gastric ulcer. Therefore, moderate psychological counseling is also necessary.
What signals need to be vigilant?
1. Changes in the regularity of gastric ulcer: Gastric ulcer occurs periodically and regularly. If it occurs irregularly or has persistent dull pain, special attention should be paid to it, which may be a sign of canceration.
2. Weight loss is obvious in a short period of time, stool blackening, suggesting gastric ulcer bleeding, gradual progress may appear upper gastrointestinal bleeding, may also be a sign of canceration.
3. When there is a mass in the abdomen or symptoms of pyloric obstruction, the possibility of canceration is high.
4. Systemic symptoms such as anemia, fatigue, loss of appetite and painless enlargement of lymph nodes suggest that gastric ulcer may become cancerous. Go to the hospital as soon as possible, check clearly and treat early.
How to treat gastric ulcer?
1. Drug therapy: including proton pump inhibitors (such as omeprazole, pantoprazole, rabeprazole, etc.), H2 receptor antagonists (cimetidine, ranitidine, famotidine, etc.), antibiotics for eradication of Helicobacter pylori (amoxicillin, metronidazole, clindamycin, etc), protection of gastric mucosa (pectin bismuth, sucralfate) and other drugs.
2. Rest properly to relieve mental stress.
3. Stop using antipyretic, analgesic and anti-inflammatory drugs that damage gastric mucosa.
4. Improve eating patterns, quit smoking and drinking, and drink less strong coffee and tea.
If the above measures still fail to alleviate the symptoms of gastric ulcer, or acute perforation, cicatricial pyloric obstruction and suspected canceration of gastric ulcer occur, surgical treatment should be considered.
It must be corrected that many gastric ulcer patients often use milk as a dietary treatment for ulcers. Although milk can temporarily dilute stomach acid, the calcium and protein it contains can stimulate the secretion of stomach acid. Therefore, gastric ulcer patients often drink milk is not conducive to the healing of gastric ulcer.