Friday, April 23, 2010

duodenal ulcer

To digest food and kill bacteria stomach produces acid. Some cells inside the lining of the stomach and duodenum produce natural mucus barrier which protects the lining of the stomach and duodenum because of this acid. Normally there is a balance between the acid made and the mucus defense barrier. If there is an alteration in this balance and it allows the acid to damage the lining of stomach or duodenum it can cause ulcer.

arlington doctor

The condition referred to as Duodenal Ulcer is one that typically announces itself as a sharp, severe pain in the upper part of the abdomen (the Epigastrium), appearing when a person is hungry and the stomach is empty. Essentially, duodenal ulcers are caused by too much acid in the stomach; when the acid proves too strong for the protective inner lining of the duodenum (the part where the stomach joins the small intestine), it starts, in effect, burning a hole in the stomach wall.

Treatment for duodenal ulcers has changed drastically over the last couple of decades. Whereas fifty years ago, most patients with duodenal ulcers had to have their abdomens cut open and surgery performed, today most patients are treated by a combination of drugs that reduces the exposure of the stomach lining to acid.

Ulcer is a common disease nowadays and many have heard of it or suffered from it. But not everybody knows that there are several types of ulcer that affect different parts of the body and that manifest differently. The general definition of ulcer states that ulcer represents an open sore or wound that can appear on protective membranes in the body. Depending on where this lesion appears, ulcer divides into a few types. What we are interested

Ulcers--small, open breaks or craters in the lining of the upper gastrointestinal tract--usually develop in one of two sites. The most common form in the upper portion of the small intestine and are known as duodenal ulcers; less common are those in the stomach itself, which are gastric ulcers. Surprisingly, 15 to 20 percent of bleeding ulcers occur initially without pain.

Until recently, medical scientists believed that ulcer was solely caused by an overproduction of digestive fluids at the level of the stomach. Considering that stomach and duodenal ulcers occurred as a consequence of excessive acidity, doctors commonly prescribed antacids as a main form of treatment for gastric disorders.

Peptic ulcer is a crater-like hole in the stomach or the beginning of the small intestine. The gastric ulcers form in the stomach while the duodenal ulcers form in the beginning of the small intestine. Duodenal ulcers occur in twelve to fifteen percent of adults in the United States.

Ulcer is a very common and known disease that each one of us has heard of. But what many don't know is what are the true causes of the ulcer disease. Until some time ago everybody believed that ulcer is caused by hot and spicy food and also by stress at work. In fact, a bacteria is responsible for ulcer and it can affect people no m