Seeking Moms and Grandmas Who Suffer Peptic Ulcers

I too suffer from ulcers. I do great if I stay away from certain things. There are some trigger foods that affect the majority of people with ulcers. But each person may have something else that triggers theirs too. So listen to your body.

For me: caffeine, chocolate, mint (gum and toothpaste). These cause flare-ups.

Once I have a flare-up I need to stay away from those AND spicy foods. If I don't have a flare-up the spicy foods don't bother me.

As for medication: stay away from NSAID'S(anti-inflammitory) and Ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin).

It may help if you wait to lay down 2 hours after your last meal. And don't wait too long inbetween meals to eat again. An empty stomach will irritate the ulcers. When the stomach is empty it will produce more acid, which you don't need.

There are medications out there to aid in the healing of your ulcers. Not every medicine will work for you. What works for me may not work for you. It took trying 3 medications before I found the right one. I take Protonix. Works great for me. Be careful of these meds. They work FOR you. Therefore, when you do get better and decide to stop taking them do it slowly. Otherwise it will cause a huge flare-up.

Listen to your body. It will tell you what it doesn't like. God bless~

Hi V.,

First, stop worrying. I had my first ulcer when I was ll years old and I am now 52. I had a dueodinal?? (spelling?) ulcer where my large intestine goes into my small intestine. I had to stay on a bland diet for 10 months. You can look up bland diet and see what it consists of. I can tell you basically.

apples (no peeling on anything)
bananas
applesauce
prunes
pears
plums
no acid containing fruit like oranges or orange juice

cooked vegetables such as
green beans
english peas
lima beans
black eyed peas
pinto beans
corn
squash
okra (boiled)

rice
potatoes

rolls
biscuits
butter

Weak Tea
No cola
weak coffee
water
no orange juice
skim milk (I think regular milk was ok, but I didn't have it)

Oatmeal
Rice Cereal or Corn Cereal
No Wheat Cereals

Cream of Rice but no Cream of Wheat

Ice Cream Vanilla, no chocolate

Thats about all I remember. I was ll and I had it again when I was 15.

They have medicine that they can give you now to heal it a lot faster.

:) K.

Dear V.,
There are sights on peptic ulcers if you "google" the words "peptic ulcer" it will explain the cause and treatments. I'm sure that will be of enormous help. They also have a sight on different oils that have testimonies about how different oils aid to reduce the pain. I suggest for now that you skip that sight, and read instead about the cause and treatment. The use of aspirin,and anti-inflammatory drugs can cause pain. Also, the use of alcohol and cigarettes are not good. The acid in your diet, like orange juices, can cause you pain. Doctors now give antibiotics to clear up infection caused by peptic ulcers. All in all, diet and reduction of stress helps, but isn't that true of every ailment? When you google "peptic ulcer" look at many web sights. I had always known that the use of antibiotics with peptic ulcers, along with diet, was something that really aids in the treatment of peptic ulcers. I wondered if your doctor explained to you what peptic ulcers were or if he/she had given you direction in diet and stress along with a dose of antibiotics? I hope so, and I hope the advice helps you. I think the more knowledge you have on peptic ulcers the better you will feel. Knowledge truly does give you power. Good luck and God bless.

I had an ulcer this past year. My iron got so low, I received blood. They treated it with a medley of pills for 3 weeks and that seemed to clear it up. Now I take prilosec every day, and try to eat smaller amounts more often. I don't eat very spicy foods. It has taken me a long time to regain my strength. Being under a doctors care is very important.

I had a Peptic Ulcer when I was 16 years old. They told me mine was stressed induced. My parents where going through bankruptcy, lots of phone call etc. It took the doctors about 1 year to finally figure out what I had and actually I figured it out myself. They put me on Pepcid AC for about 3 months and I had to eat an extremely bland diet. No spicy food, no pepper, no onions, etc. I was thrilled when it was finaly over!

My recommendation is to stick with the meds they give you, follow the bland diet and stay hydrated!

Ulcers are God's way of saying slow your life down.

The most common trigger for ulcers is stress. The most common cause of ulcers is bacteria (Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori)).

Doctors now know that the much maligned spicy foods are neither a cause nor a trigger for ulcer pain. (Some foods, however, are known to trigger episodes of ulcer pain but due more to the chemicals created in the system during digestion and how a particular individual's system reacts to them.)

So your first move is to try to isolate what foods, if any, are helping to exacerbate your ulcer complaints. How do you figure that out? Whenever you have an episode, write down whatever you ate within that last three or four hours. Keep your diary for a couple of weeks or more and see if there are any constants. Are they sugary foods? High fat foods? Whatever looks like it might be a trigger, stop eating it for a while and see if that does not help your condition.

There are several effective medications for the treatment of ulcers and the medicine your doctor prescribes is likely to be different depending upon what type of ulcer (where it is located) you have.

Most ulcers can be effectively treated and they will completely heal within a few months to a year. In rare cases, the ulcer will not heal. Medicines may relieve the symptoms but you will be taking them long term. An ulcer that does not respond to normal treatments may eventually become severe enough to require surgery to cauterize the tissue.

The most important thing to note is, unlike a cold or flu, ulcers will not go away on their own. If left untreated, an ulcer can continue to erode and destroy the effected tissue until the damage is irreversible.

A small percentage of ulcers, which may or may not be caused by the H. pylori bacterium, for some reason simply do not heal. I have been fighting one such ulcer for about five years now. The ulcer does not heal but the medicine does eliminate the symptoms ... as long as I take it. Whenever I go without the meds for one reason or another, within 48 hours, the symptoms are back full force.

In order to avoid taking pills for an ulcer for the rest of your life, you need to act now to treat it. Go back to your doctor for a follow-up and find out what you can do.

Look up Web MD .com they have a wealth of information that will help.I am a grandma of 7