DUODENAL ULCERS
A decade ago ulcers of the stomach and duodenum were thought to be stress related. Even the Duke of Edinburgh was heard to say that the trouble with British industry was that there were too many one ulcer men in two ulcer jobs. It is a fact that many surgeons were kept very busy chopping out bits of stomach and duodenum only to have their patients return a few years later for further re visionary procedures.
In the early 1980s, new varieties of antihistamine drugs were discovered which have the capacity to switch off the stomach's acid production. The effects were spectacular in terms of healing peptic ulcers. Firstly Tagamet and then Zantac revolutionized the treatment of gastric and duodenal ulcers much to the chagrin of the now idle surgeons and medical students who had failed surgery exams because they didn't know at least three surgical approaches to the treatment of peptic ulcer disease.
The peptic ulcer plot became even thicker when a team of Australian research workers, operating out of Perth, discovered that peptic ulceration occurs predominantly in the presence of a bacterium called Helicobacter Pyloridi. Both gastric and duodenal ulcers resolve following a two week course of triple antibiotic therapy. More to the point 50 per cent of people with chronic duodenal ulcers are completely cured by the application of triple antibiotic therapy. This result is far and away better than any obtained by Tagamet or Zantac.
The arrival of triple antibiotic therapy has not yet dinted the sales of Zantac, which is the world's most prolific source of pharmaceutical income. Zantac generates sales in the billions of dollars every year. Doctors at the coal face still await an authoritative pronouncement nominating the use of triple antibiotic therapy as the first line of treatment in any attack on peptic ulcer disease.
Home Remedies
Nicotine, alcohol, aspirin, caffeine and spicy foods relate to higher incidences of peptic ulcer disease. Apart from avoiding these factors, there is now no specific anti ulcer diet.
Since ulcers relate to an infection of the stomach and duodenum, attention needs to be drawn to methods of preventing either cross infection from members of the same family or re-infection from other sources. Anti Helicobacter protocols have yet to appear, but it makes sense to maintain a high standard of personal hygiene, washing hands before each meal and the same again after going to the toilet.
The simultaneous treatment of family members or sexual partners with antibiotics is worthy of thought, but again no guidelines exist. Bananas, liquorices and milk give some protection from peptic ulcer disease.
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GENERAL HEALTH
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