Ancient ulcers : Science To Life

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Hi there. The purpose of this blog is to write about current and interesting science news that may affect people's lives. I hope you enjoy the posts. The blog was maintained from January 2007 to October 2008.

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Ancient ulcers

Category: The Human Body
Posted on: February 7, 2007 8:24 PM, by Karen Ventii

Scientists have discovered that the bacterium that causes most cases of stomach ulcers has been hanging around in human guts for over 60,000 years. Read more.

Comments

So now that Helicobacter pylori can be treated does that mean that NSAIDs are the main cause of ulcers today?

I don't know how I found you blog but the topics you find always interest me.
jmb

Posted by: jmb | February 9, 2007 2:06 AM

Thanks for your comment.
I checked out a couple of other sources. It turns out other causes of ulcers can be

1. NSAIDs, like you said
2. Stomach acids and pepsin
3. Caffeine
4. Smoking
5. Alcohol
6. Stress

It's quite interesting however I don't know to what degree these affect ulcer development.

Posted by: Karen Ventii | February 9, 2007 11:40 AM

So Karen, looking at that list:
1: Many people have to rely on NSAIDS for chronic arthritis or whatever, they have to take the risk of getting an ulcer, hopefully taking any precautions (including drugs) they can to avoid same.
2: Histamin-2 blockers can help deal with this, maybe there are better drugs now (8 yrs since I retired).
3: Easy to eliminate from diet (theoretically).
4: Can also be stopped (theoretically), and should be for many other reasons.
5: Ditto.
6: Not so easy.
So maybe after the first ulcer, which hopefully is recognized and treated appropriately and early, recurrent ulcers can be avoided with some behavioural modification and perforated ulcers a thing of the past. Which they probably are already. In the Western medical world, at least. I hope so, since I have known several people who died from perforated ulcers.
jmb

Posted by: jmb | February 9, 2007 2:16 PM