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.
- Log in to post comments
More like this
There are six and a half billion human stomachs on this little planet of ours, and over half of them are home to a microbe called Helicobacter pylori. Scientists have known about the bacteria since the late 1800s, but it wasn't until the 1980s that Australian doctors noticed that H. pylori was in…
A muskox (Ovibos moschatus), photographed in Alaska. From Flickr user drurydrama.
Of all the mass extinctions that have occurred during earth's history, among the most hotly debated is the one which wiped out mammoths, saber-toothed cats, giant ground sloths, and the other peculiar members of…
A cornucopia of interesting science today. As always, check if the press release matches the actual paper...
Adaptation To Global Climate Change Is An Essential Response To A Warming Planet:
Temperatures are rising on Earth, which is heating up the debate over global warming and the future of our…
There is a new paper in Current Biology, Genetic Structure and Extinction of the Woolly Mammoth, Mammuthus primigenius. The authors use recovered mitochondrial DNA (passed through the female lineage) to reconstruct the phylogeographic history of the species. It seems to me that the abstract is a…
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
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.
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