December 22, 2010
Foods to Eat With a Stomach Ulcer
If you have a gastric ulcer, you may be searching for helpful foods to eat with a stomach ulcer. Often, a stomach ulcer can cause meal time to be terribly painful, and the thought of eating can be unappealing. However, eating the right foods in the right amounts can sometimes allow your body to heal and prevent pain that often results from eating.
What to eat
Certain foods are easier to digest than others, and when an ulcer is involved easy digestion is vital to helping it heal. Foods that are low in fat, whole grain breads, lean meats like pork or poultry, and fish are among the ideal things to eat when you’re trying to let an ulcer heal. The important thing to remember is to provide your body with balanced nutrition to give it the proper building blocks to heal. Vitamins and nutrients found naturally in foods are extremely beneficial to helping the body heal. Foods that are high in antioxidants like blueberries and cranberries can help the healing process along.
What not to eat
While a bland diet isn’t generally recommended for treatment of an ulcer, you may want to avoid foods that cause indigestion and heartburn. Things like citrus fruits and juices, tomatoes, and anything that is high in acid should be avoided. Spicy foods, onions and garlic are also known heartburn triggers and can be counterproductive to the healing process. Additionally certain drinks like anything containing caffeine and alcohol shouldn’t be consumed, as they stimulate acid production which can be harmful to particularly delicate stomach lining when there’s an ulcer involved.
Additionally, certain medications should be avoided if you have an ulcer, including pain killers. Pain killers have been known to cause ulcers. So when you’re trying to allow one to heal, resist the temptation to take any, as you may get another ulcer or worsen the one you have as a result. While ulcers can be particularly painful, pain killers will not help in this department. And, taking a pain killer for another problem like a headache or back ache while you have an ulcer can complicate things by worsening your ulcer. Regardless of whether they are prescription or over the counter, your intake of pain killers should be severely stemmed when you have an ulcer.
How much to eat
When it comes to healing an ulcer, the amount of food you take in can often be as important as what you take in. Eating large amounts of food at once can cause a pressure build up in your stomach, which results in pain and can seriously slow the healing process for your ulcer. So, eat smaller meals more often. That way you get the same amount of food, just stretched over a longer period of time. This keeps your stomach from being bombarded by a ton of food all at once, making it easier to manage and break down the smaller amounts. That keeps acids down to a minimum and creates a better healing environment for your stomach.
For more information on what foods to eat with a stomach ulcer, what to avoid, and natural ways to help relieve pain from an ulcer, visit refluxremedy.com today!
September 21, 2010
Gastric Ulcer Causing Diarrhea
While the instances of a gastric ulcer causing diarrhea are few and far between, they do occur in a few individuals, most notably those suffering from Zollinger-Ellison syndrome or ZES. ZES is in fact one of the least common causes of ulcers, although one of the key symptoms is diarrhea. If diarrhea symptoms do appear, there may be a tumor in the pancreas and the duodenum. These tumors are known as gastrinomas, and they cause the production of excessive gastric levels. It is important to note that such tumors are often cancerous, so patients who notice that their gastric ulcer is causing diarrhea should seek diagnosis and treatment immediately. As part of the treatment, your doctor may prescribe anti acid medications in order to prevent the ulcers from recurring.
It is estimated that only 1 person in a million gets ZES each year. The figure is even lower in the category of ulcer sufferers, with only 0.1% to 1% ulcer patients being diagnosed with the condition. ZES generally occurs in people 45 to 50 years old, with men being more prone to the condition than women.
The diagnosis and treatment of ZES begins with the examination of patients suffering from gastric ulcer causing diarrhea. Once H. pylori and a history of NSAID use (both common causes of gastric ulcer related diarrhea) have been ruled out, the doctor will then look into the possibility that it is indeed ZES that the patient is suffering from. In almost all cases, the diarrhea occurs long before the characteristic ulcer symptoms appear. The ulcers related to the condition typically occur in the second, third, or fourth section of the duodenum or the jejunum.
Patients suffering from ZES are also a lot more likely to develop Gastro-esophageal reflux disease or GERD, and the effects of this condition may be more severe than in patients that do not have ZES. GERD itself may cause a number of complications aside from ulcers, including a narrowing of the esophagus.
Since the ulcers that result from the condition can be stubborn and hard to treat, treatment options for ZES tend to be quite involved. In most cases, the patient will have to undergo surgery so the tumors can be successfully removed. At the same time, the patient may also be injected with an intravenous proton pump inhibitor that will help reduce the production of gastric acids. This is a far better treatment option than what was available in the past, when the removal of the stomach was the only alternative.
Another option you may want to consider is the one presented by Refluxremedy.Com. The site offers a safe and effective alternative treatment to gastric ulcer causing diarrhea that will ease your symptoms quickly. And since the method relies on all natural means, you will be able to avoid the side effects and medication interactions that may occur even with over-the-counter medications. For this reason alone, Refluxremedy.Com is worth considering over traditional ulcer treatment methods.