‘… my doctor said there was no known cause for ulcer. I do experience a pain that resembles that of child birth labor and it contracts like labor pain once the episode starts.’

Question:Good evening Doctor, I was diagnosed for ulcer four mouths ago, I have been expecting this for a while because I do skip meals a lots, but surprisingly my doctor said there was no known cause for ulcer. I do experience a pain that resembles that of child birth labor and it contracts like labor pain once the episode starts. But with my doctor’s prescription, the pain disappeared. But my worry is the present recurrence which also happened due to my continuous skip of meal. Will I ever be healed?

An acid peptic disorder is caused by the injurious effect of acid and pepsin in the lining of the stomach or small part of the small intestine .The effect causes painful sores on the mucosal barrier. This is different from gastric ulcer disease and acute gastritis which are the disorder in which the mucosal barrier is impaired and cause ulcer to occur too even when the amount of acid and pepsin produced are normal or subnormal. A certain agent regulates both prevention and healing of ulcer. Other disorder is duodenal ulcer disease. Gastric ulcer when compared to duodenal ulcer tend to be slower to heal.

It is becoming increasingly clear that is simple getting ulcer healed than keeping it healed. Keeping an ulcer healed lies most with the patient and other medical factors (sex, family history of ulcer recurrence, some painkiller effects e.g. Aspirin, presence of other illness in the body). The effect of social habit and life style of the patient contributes to ulcer recurrence. Smoking has a damaging effect on ulcer disease for instance, excessive drinking of alcohol and what have you. You will need to visit your doctor for recurrent ulcer for option of maintenance therapy (H2- receptor antagonist will reduce the incidence of reoccurrence and should be initiated). About 50% and 90% of duodenal ulcers relapse within a year.

Treatments options for Acid Peptic disease are the use of Antacids, H2-receptor antagonists, Omeprazole, sucrralfate and Bismuth preparation and worst cases surgery.