Discover why so many people have stomach ulcers
Is it due to stress, spicy foods, or something much smaller?
The main cause of an ulcer may come as a surprise to many. Thinking that it’s due to too much hot spicy food or living a stressed-out lifestyle, is an outdated school of thought that is wrong – around 90% of the time.
Instead, scientific tests have proven that small ‘stealth invader’ type bacteria colonize in your GI tract without you even knowing about it, and it can cause some serious health problems if left unattended.
Over 55,000 people have already used the information on this page to overcome this bacteria with a success rate of over 98%, so we encourage you to keep reading.
The No.1 cause of an ulcer
The No.1 cause of a stomach ulcer is proven beyond all doubt to be an infection of H. pylori (or Helicobacter pylori) bacteria. With nearly 3 in every 4 people in the world infected right now, this is the most widespread infection known to man.
H. pylori is responsible for causing 80% to 90% of all peptic ulcers and the World Health Organization reports that it is also present in 50% of all new gastric cancer cases.
Your stomach is naturally designed to protect itself against ulcers. A layer of mucus protects your stomach lining against powerful acids (pepsin and hydrochloric acid). These acids are extremely harmful to unprotected body tissue, but at the same time are absolutely essential for proper digestion.
There is a fine balance that has to be kept between the aggressive acids and the defensive mucous layers. When that delicate balance is broken, ulcers can develop. H. pylori can upset this balance by producing urease which eventually neutralizes the stomach’s acid and allows H. pylori to thrive in an acid-free zone.
The No. 2 cause of an ulcer
The second biggest cause of ulcers is through regular use of pain killers – in particular nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (more often referred to as NSAIDs).
These drugs typically contain aspirin or ibuprofen (and others) and basically make your stomach lining vulnerable to the harmful effects of acid and pepsin, by blocking the natural secretion of mucus needed to protect your stomach lining. This allows H. pylori to get through your stomach acid and into your stomach lining.
In the meantime, the ‘antacid’ effect fools your stomach into producing more acid. This process upsets that fine balance and sets you up for a peptic ulcer or chronic heartburn.
If you really have to take these NSAIDs, then do so only when necessary and always take them with meals. This will greatly reduce your risk of getting an ulcer, or more ulcers in the future.
Some less common causes of ulcers
There are also some other contributing causes or factors as well that may aggravate or encourage the development of ulcers, but these are fairly low risk by comparison to H. pylori and NSAIDs.
Here are the lesser causes of ulcers – most of these are to do with your lifestyle. It seems the “pleasure” of smoking and drinking can hurt you in the end – if you over-indulge that is! So, if you think your lifestyle could be the cause of your ulcer, then you have to ask yourself if you need to slow things down a bit.
- Unbalanced diet
Common sense with eating can avoid future problems if you don’t already have an ulcer. Click here to see our easy-to-follow ulcer diet – don’t worry, it is EASY and you can still enjoy life – most of it is just plain old common sense! - Smoking
Cigarette smoking is a definite cause of an ulcer. The nicotine in tobacco increases the amount of stomach acid and concentration of stomach acid, (which again upsets the all-important balance) and this will increase your risk of an ulcer. The healing process may also be slowed by tobacco and nicotine intake. - Alcohol Consumption
Peptic ulcers have been found to be more common in heavy drinkers who have cirrhosis of the liver. Alcohol irritates and erodes the mucous lining of your stomach. This causes the volume of stomach acid to increase to a higher level than your stomach naturally needs. It is not proven that alcohol alone can be the sole cause of an ulcer or whether H. pylori bacteria or NSAIDs must also be present. - Stress
Stress alone cannot be the sole cause of an ulcer, but it is considered a contributing factor. Like smoking, both emotional and physical stress will delay the healing process. Physical stress can increase the risk of developing gastric ulcers. - Caffeine
Caffeine intake also increases the amount of stomach acid and concentration of stomach acid and can worsen an existing ulcer. The increase in your stomach acid levels is usually not due to caffeine only, and there will always be a partner to this – such as H. pylori, smoking, or alcohol consumption. There are many people that do all 3, and they drink copious quantities of coffee as well. - Acid and Pepsin
Too much acid and pepsin can damage a healthy stomach lining and cause ulcers. Most times the damage is caused by other factors first, weakening the stomach lining’s protective mucus layer defenses to a point when even an ordinary level of gastric acid can cause an ulcer. Too much acid can also cause acid reflux, or GERD, which is really chronic heartburn. - Zollinger-Ellison syndrome
This is a rare condition characterized by the development of gastrinomas (a type of tumor) in the pancreas or duodenum. Excessive gastrin hormones produced by these tumors end up causing abnormally high levels of stomach acid that leads to peptic ulcers in the stomach and duodenum. - Family History
If your direct blood relatives have suffered from duodenal ulcers, and blood group O is also present in the family, then you are more at risk of getting this type of ulcer. Other than this there is no known correlation here. This is probably the least likely cause of an ulcer and is not worthy of undue worry.
REMEMBER! The main cause of all types of stomach ulcers is H. pylori.
Stomach ulcers caused by h .pylori will not just go away…
…you need to treat the H. pylori infection first
Stomach ulcers will not go away without using a treatment that will remove H. pylori first. This is the widely accepted method of treatment for ulcers caused by h. pylori infection.
H. pylori infections and stomach ulcers can get worse when left untreated – and when treatments fail!
So, your best course of action is to make sure you get a treatment that is guaranteed to work the first time around.
When your health is at stake you should not be taking any chances with treatments that do not work, or that don’t at least guarantee results. Click here or on the button below to see how to easily filter out treatments that probably won’t work for you.
It’s a fact that diets and supplements will not clear H. pylori – at best they may offer temporary relief of some symptoms. The most commonly prescribed treatments have high failure rates and only work for some people – if those people are able to cope with the harsh side effects. But! If you want to get better first time around, read on!
There is a safe and effective way to get rid of stomach ulcers and H. pylori without any further risk to your health – or your finances. Simply click on one of the buttons and see how…
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*Information Disclaimer: Please note that we cannot guarantee specific results as quoted in testimonials, or in any general claims made. Results are individual and can vary from person to person. For more information on our Money-Back Guarantee please click here.
Bibliography & References
The following articles relate to Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) and its association with stomach ulcers;
- Bernstein, S. and Gleim, S. (2023). H. pylori Infection: Symptoms, Causes, Diagnosis, and Treatment.
- Marshall, B. J., & Warren, J. R. (1984). Unidentified curved bacilli in the stomach of patients with gastritis and peptic ulceration. The Lancet, 323(8390), 1311-1315.
- Gisbert, J. P., & Calvet, X. (2009). Review article: Helicobacter pylori-negative duodenal ulcer disease. Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 30(8), 791-815.
- Labenz, J., & Börsch, G. (1994). Role of Helicobacter pylori eradication in the prevention of peptic ulcer bleeding relapse. Digestive Diseases and Sciences, 39(4), 762-765.
- Peterson, W. L. (1991). Helicobacter pylori and peptic ulcer disease. New England Journal of Medicine, 324(15), 1043-1048.
- Malfertheiner, P., Chan, F. K. L., & McColl, K. E. L. (2009). Peptic ulcer disease. The Lancet, 374(9699), 1449-1461.
- Graham, D. Y., & Yamaoka, Y. (2000). Disease-specific Helicobacter pylori virulence factors: the unfulfilled promise. Helicobacter, 5(Suppl 1), S3-S9.