How Do You Know If Your Stomach Ulcer Is Bleeding

Record Of Constant Bleeding

Individuals may find themselves in situations of bleeding ulcers from time to time. If the victim suffers from the problem for a relatively long time, the ulcer is likely at its advanced stage.

When the ulcer is at a stage that is considerably advanced, the sufferer may experience repeated onsets of bleeding episodes that will manifest in different ways from one time to another.

There are many signs of a bleeding ulcer that can be identified through both observation, assessment, and laboratory tests appropriate for the verification of the signs and symptoms. This will bring finer details about the underlying condition in order to draw fitting conclusions.

• Stig Borbjerg Laursen . Risk Factors for Rebleeding in Peptic Ulcer Bleeding: A Second Look at Second-Look Endoscopy.

Bad Habits Worsen The Symptoms

Ulcers are more likely to develop if you smoke a lot or drink a lot of alcohol. If you are under a lot of stress or consume many spicy foods, the result may become much worse, affecting your sleeping seriously.

If you have previously been diagnosed with a peptic ulcer, these habits may exacerbate your symptoms.

Can Ulcers Heal On Their Own

Although ulcers can occasionally heal on their own, you shouldnt overlook the warning ulcer symptoms. Ulcers can cause severe health concerns if not treated appropriately, including:

• Bleeding
• Perforation
• Obstruction of the gastric outflow hinders food from moving from your abdomen to the tiny intestine.

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What Causes Peptic Ulcers

Ulcers form when digestive juices damage the walls of the stomach or small intestine. If the mucus layer gets too thin or your stomach makes too much acid, your gut will feel it. The two major causes are:

• Bacteria. Itâs called Helicobacter pylori , and as many as half of us carry it. Most people infected with H. pylori do not get ulcers. But in others, it can raise the amount of acid, break down the protective mucus layer, and irritate the digestive tract. Experts arenât sure how H. pylori infection spreads. They think it may pass from person to person through close contact, like kissing. You may also get it from unclean food and water.
• Certain pain relievers. If youâve been taking aspirin often and for a long time, youâre more likely to get a peptic ulcer. The same is true for other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs . They include ibuprofen and naproxen. NSAIDs block your body from making a chemical that helps protect the inner walls of your stomach and small intestine from stomach acid. Other types of pain meds, such as acetaminophen, wonât lead to peptic ulcers.
• Smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol also can make you more likely to get ulcers. Stress and eating a lot of spicy food donât cause ulcers, as experts once thought. But they can make ulcers worse and harder to treat.

Nsaids Can Cause Ulcer Pain

The usage of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medicines like ibuprofen or aspirin leads to the disease in the long term.

Stomach ulcers can result from very uncommon malignant and noncancerous abnormalities in your pancreas, such as the ZES .

ZES is a neuroendocrine tumor that produces the hormone gastrin. It creates peptic ulcers with excess stomach acid production.

ZES, on the other hand, is an uncommon digestive disorder, with an incidence rate of just 0.5 to 2 per million people.

If you use NSAIDs daily or weekly, you may get an NSAID-triggered peptic ulcer.

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Risks And Possible Complications Of Treatment

For endoscopy:

• A hole in your upper digestive tract

• Risks of sedative or anesthesia used

• The ulcer coming back

• Hole in a blood vessel

• Risks of sedative or anesthesia used

• The ulcer coming back

• Damage to nearby organs and blood vessels

• Long-term digestive problems such as irregular bowel movements

• Risks of anesthesia

Other Causes And Factors

Other causes are rare. For example, some viral infections can cause a stomach ulcer. Crohn’s disease may cause a stomach ulcer in addition to other problems of the gut.

Stomach cancer may at first look similar to an ulcer. Stomach cancer is uncommon but may need to be ‘ruled out’ if you are found to have a stomach ulcer.

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Bleeding Peptic Ulcer: Treatment

A peptic ulcer is a sore in the lining of your stomach or duodenum . Your ulcer is bleeding or at high risk of bleeding. This means that you need treatment right away. Treatment can include medicines. It may also include a procedure such as endoscopy, angiography, or surgery. Your provider will work with you to decide which treatments are best for you. Read on to learn more about each type of treatment.

How To Treat A Bleeding Ulcer

This article was co-authored by Dale Prokupek, MD. Dale Prokupek, MD is a board-certified Internist and Gastroenterologist who runs a private practice based in Los Angeles, California. Dr. Prokupek is also a staff physician at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and an associate clinical professor of medicine at the Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles . Dr. Prokupek has over 30 years of medical experience and specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the liver, stomach, and colon, including chronic hepatitis C, colon cancer, hemorrhoids, anal condyloma, and digestive diseases related to chronic immune deficiency. He holds a BS in Zoology from the University of Wisconsin Madison and an MD from the Medical College of Wisconsin. He completed an internal medicine residency at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and a gastroenterology fellowship at the UCLA Geffen School of Medicine.There are 9 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page.wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. In this case, 100% of readers who voted found the article helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 407,516 times.

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What Is A Bleeding Ulcer

The stomach is a mixing bowl, allowing food and digestive juices to combine and allow digestion to begin. But the stomach has a protective lining that prevents digestive enzymes from eating away at it. If this lining is damaged, inflammation and pain may occur. If the inflammation becomes worse, it can cause the lining of the stomach or the duodenum to bleed. The bleeding may not be noticeable, and the patient may not seek medical care.

Red blood cells carry oxygen to all the organs of the body. If there are too few red cells, symptoms may occur. Some of these symptoms are pretty non-specific, like

What Are Some Ulcer Symptoms

Some people with ulcers dont experience any symptoms. But signs of an ulcer can include:

• Gnawing or burning pain in your middle or upper stomach between meals or at night.
• Pain that temporarily disappears if you eat something or take an antacid.
• Bloating.

In severe cases, symptoms can include:

• Dark or black stool .
• Vomiting.
• Severe pain in your mid- to upper abdomen.

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How Is A Peptic Ulcer Treated

Some peptic ulcers heal on their own. But if you donât treat them, the ulcers tend to come back.

They can erode the blood vessel wall in your stomach or small intestine. The ulcers also can eat a hole through the lining and get infected. Or they can cause swelling, which may block food from moving from your stomach into your small intestine.

If H. pylori is the culprit, your doctor may prescribe a mix of antibiotics to kill it. If aspirin and other NSAIDs are behind the ulcer, you may need to cut down on them, stop taking them altogether, or switch to another pain reliever.

Your doctor may also give you antacids to fight stomach acid, or prescribe medicine to lessen the acid your body makes. Prescription drugs called cytoprotective agents can help protect the lining of the stomach or small intestine so the ulcer can heal.

If Your Ulcer Was Caused By An Anti

If possible, you should stop taking the anti-inflammatory medicine. This allows the ulcer to heal. You will also normally be prescribed an acid-suppressing medicine for several weeks. This stops the stomach from making acid and allows the ulcer to heal. However, in many cases, the anti-inflammatory medicine is needed to ease symptoms of arthritis or other painful conditions, or aspirin is needed to protect against blood clots. In these situations, one option is to take an acid-suppressing medicine each day indefinitely. This reduces the amount of acid made by the stomach and greatly reduces the chance of an ulcer forming again.

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Will Surgery Cure A Peptic Ulcer

Medical therapy works in most people with peptic ulcers. Sometimes, medical therapy does not work, or a person can’t take the therapy for some reason. Surgery is an alternative to medical therapy for these people.

Surgical operations often used in peptic ulcers include the following:

• Vagotomy: Cutting the vagus nerve, which transmits messages from the brain to the stomach, can reduce acid secretion. However, this can also interfere with other functions of the stomach. A newer operation cuts only the part of the nerve that affects acid secretion.
• Antrectomy: This is often done in conjunction with a vagotomy. It involves removing the lower part of the stomach . This part of the stomach produces a hormone that increases production of stomach acid. Adjacent parts of the stomach may also be removed.
• Pyloroplasty: This procedure also is sometimes done with vagotomy. It enlarges the opening between the stomach and duodenum to encourage passage of partially digested food. Once the food has passed, acid production normally stops.
• Tying off an artery: If bleeding is a problem, cutting off the blood supply to the ulcer can stop the bleeding.

Presence Of Blood In Stool

When the person uses the toilet, he may experience and be surprised with the presence of a blood in the stool discharge. It is one of the most well-known symptoms of a bleeding ulcer.

If the person goes for a long call of nature and notices dark red traces of blood in the feces, he should seek medical assistance. Blood traces in the stool of a given individual is reasonable enough to believe that he may be experiencing a problem of bleeding ulcers within the digestive track.

It is important to note that blood in the stool is an indicative sign and symptom of internal bleeding ulcers that needs to be confirmed through examinations by a medical professional.

• Biecker E, Heller J, Schmitz V, Lammert F, & Sauerbruch T . Diagnosis and management of upper gastrointestinal bleeding.

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When Should You Call Or See A Doctor

If you think you have a stomach ulcer, call your doctor. Together you can discuss your symptoms and treatment options. If you dont already have a physician, you can use the Healthline FindCare tool to find a provider near you.

Its important to get a stomach ulcer taken care of because without treatment, ulcers and H. pylori can cause:

• bleeding from the ulcer site that can become life-threatening
• penetration, which occurs when the ulcer goes through the wall of the digestive tract and into another organ, such as the pancreas
• perforation, which occurs when the ulcer creates a hole in the wall of the digestive tract
• obstruction in the digestive tract, which is due to swelling of inflamed tissues
• stomach cancer, specifically

Symptoms of these complications can include those listed below. If you have any of these symptoms, be sure to call you doctor right away:

• weakness

Treat Your Sleep Disorders

Its a constant cycle: stomach ulcers make sleeping difficult, and not having enough sleep increases the risk of gastrointestinal diseases like stomach ulcers.

Because the issues are relevant, it would be best to address them both.

Consult a doctor about screening and treatment solutions for any sleep issues you may have. Also, seek medical therapy for your stomach ulcer.

If left unchecked, sleep apnea can become a life-threatening disease. It also leads to health problems like stomach ulcers.

Consult a doctor to deal with your sleep disorder

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Could I Have An Ulcer And Not Know It

5 min Read Time

Around 25 million people will have a stomach ulcer in their lifetime, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Despite their prevalence, the symptoms of an ulcer can frequently be mistaken for other conditions, like heartburnand some people may not show any signs at all. Its also unlikely that stress or your diet is the culprit. If youre concerned that your stomach pain could be something more serious, read on to find out the causes, proper treatment and prevention methods for peptic ulcers.

How Are Peptic Ulcers Treated

Treatment will depend on the type of ulcer you have. Your healthcare provider will create a care plan for you based on what is causing your ulcer.

Treatment can include making lifestyle changes, taking medicines, or in some cases having surgery.

Lifestyle changes may include:

• Not eating certain foods. Avoid any foods that make your symptoms worse.
• Quitting smoking. Smoking can keep your ulcer from healing. It is also linked to ulcers coming back after treatment.
• Limiting alcohol and caffeine. They can make your symptoms worse.
• Not using NSAIDs . These include aspirin and ibuprofen.

Medicines to treat ulcers may include:

• Antibiotics. These bacteria-fighting medicines are used to kill the H. pylori bacteria. Often a mix of antibiotics and other medicines is used to cure the ulcer and get rid of the infection.
• H2-blockers . These reduce the amount of acid your stomach makes by blocking the hormone histamine. Histamine helps to make acid.
• Proton pump inhibitors or PPIs. These lower stomach acid levels and protect the lining of your stomach and duodenum.
• Mucosal protective agents. These medicines protect the stomach’s mucus lining from acid damage so that it can heal.
• Antacids. These quickly weaken or neutralize stomach acid to ease your symptoms.

In most cases, medicines can heal ulcers quickly. Once the H. pylori bacteria is removed, most ulcers do not come back.

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Treatment For A Stomach Ulcer

Special diets are now known to have very little impact on the prevention or treatment of stomach ulcers. Treatment options can include:

• medication including antibiotics, to destroy the H. pylori colony, and drugs to help speed the healing process. Different drugs need to be used in combination some of the side effects can include diarrhoea and rashes. Resistance to some of these antibiotics is becoming more common
• subsequent breath tests used to make sure the H. pylori infection has been treated successfully
• changes to existing medication the doses of arthritis medication, aspirin or other anti-inflammatory medication can be altered slightly to reduce their contributing effects on the stomach ulcer.
• reducing acid tablets are available to reduce the acid content in the gastric juices
• lifestyle modifications including quitting cigarettes, since smoking reduces the natural defences in the stomach and impairs the healing process.

How Are Peptic Ulcers Diagnosed

Your healthcare provider will look at your past health and give you a physical exam. You may also have some tests.

Imaging tests used to diagnose ulcers include:

• Upper GI series or barium swallow. This test looks at the organs of the top part of your digestive system. It checks your food pipe , stomach, and the first part of the small intestine . You will swallow a metallic fluid called barium. Barium coats the organs so that they can be seen on an X-ray.
• Upper endoscopy or EGD . This test looks at the lining of your esophagus, stomach, and duodenum. It uses a thin lighted tube called an endoscope. The tube has a camera at one end. The tube is put into your mouth and throat. Then it goes into your esophagus, stomach, and duodenum. Your health care provider can see the inside of these organs. A small tissue sample can be taken. This can be checked for H. pylori.

You may also have the following lab tests to see if you have an H. pylori infection:

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What Does A Stomach Ulcer Feels Like

Stomach ulcer pain usually begins in the upper middle part of the abdomen, above the belly button and below the breastbone. The pain may feel like burning or gnawing that may go through to the back. The onset of the pain may occur several hours after a meal when the stomach is empty. Patients have reported paint to be worse at night as opposed to the morning. Pain duration may vary from a few minutes to several hours. Pain may be relieved by foods, antacids or vomiting.

What Questions Should I Ask My Doctor

If you have stomach ulcers, you may want to ask your doctor:

• What pain reliever can I use instead of an NSAID?
• How will I know if the H. pylori infection is gone?
• How do we find out if the ulcer has healed?
• What can I do relieve symptoms at home during treatment?

A note from Cleveland Clinic

Contrary to commonly held beliefs, ulcers arent caused by stress or foods you eat. Most of time, bacteria causes them. Doctors can treat the bacteria with antibiotics and other medications.

If youve been popping a lot of antacids lately, youre constantly snacking to get rid of a gnawing pain in your stomach or you have any other signs of an ulcer, the best thing you can do for your health is talk to your provider. Treatment can heal an ulcer in a matter of weeks.

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