Ulcer Treatment.
A patient of peptic ulcer does feel handicapped in his social life, because of the fear of eating or drinking which may aggravate the ulcer symptoms. Treatment of Peptic Ulcer is simple and if taken religiously, can cure him of this irritating problem. The stomach ulcer treatment aims basically at treating the cause of ulcer. As part of management of ulcer , diet for peptic ulcer plays a significant role and is explained below. Treating ulcers is important to prevent ulcer complications that can arise if ulcer is left untreated.
Stomach Ulcer Treatment.
Diet for Peptic ulcer.
Diet fore ulcer forms an important part of ulcer therapy. It should be rich in fiber content. The diet should consists of vegetables, fruits, legumes and only whole grain should be consumed. Drinking Milk forms an important factor, though some schools of thought differ. Most of all, the diet should be non spicy and non oily. For details of ulcer diet, you could read Diet for Peptic Ulcer.
Image of Peptic ulcer foods
Treatment of Peptic Ulcer consists of :
1. Life style restrictions.
2. Medications for ulcer.
3. Surgery for ulcer.
1) Life style restrictions for Ulcer patients.
- Have frequent small meals as this will prevent the stomach from staying empty for a long time. The idea is to prevent the gastric acid from coming into direct contact with the raw surface of the ulcer and aggravating it. Secondly, small meals are easier to digest and do not burden the ulcerated stomach.
- Avoid spicy and fried foods as they delay in the healing of the ulcer. Fried foods are more difficult to digest and require more gastric acid for digestion.
- Avoid tea and coffee as they contain caffeine which stimulates secretion of gastric acid.
- Avoid Alcohol as it stimulates the secretion of gastric acid in the stomach. Alcohol also relaxes the sphincter between the esophagus and the stomach causing the stomach contents to reflux into the esophagus. That is why, such patients have a burning sensation in the chest after drinking alcohol.
- Avoid Smoking as it has been found to delay the healing of ulcer. The incidence of recurrence of ulcer is found to be higher in smokers.
- Avoid Stress situations as they aggravate the pain of ulcer. Learn stress handling techniques like meditation which can increase your stress threshold.
2) Medicines for ulcer.
Treatment for Symptomatic relief of ulcer.
- Avoid Non steroid anti inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) for any pain relief (why? See Causes of peptic ulcer) like aspirin, Ibuprofen and Naproxin. Once informed of your ulcer, your physician will prescribe you alternative drugs.
- Initially non prescription medicines like antacids are given for ulcer pain relief. They act by neutralizing the acid in the stomach. and forming a protective covering on the ulcer. Bismuth subsalicylate also acts in a similar fashion.
- Histamine blockers(H2 blockers) like Cimetidine and Ranitidine are also prescribed. They act by blocking the action of Histamine which is a powerful stimulator of gastric acid secretion. This gives relief from ulcer pain.
- Proton pump inhibitors like Omeprozole block the secretion of acid in the stomach.
Treatment for cure from H. Pylori.
- Any combination of two antibiotics from the following is given for H. Pylori. Three may have to be given in resistant cases. The antibiotics given are: [a] Tetracyclines [b] Amoxicilline [c]Metronidazole [d] Clarithromycin. Once the H. Pylori infection is cleared, there is no time lost in healing of the ulcer. Metronidazole also helps in treating any amoebic infection that may be present in the G.I. tract.
3) Surgery for ulcer.
- Surgical procedures like vagotomy are now obsolete.
- Cauterization of a bleeding ulcer is done through the endoscope to stop the bleeding.
- Surgery for stomach ulcer is performed as an emergency procedure in case of a perforated ulcer.
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