Ulcers

[Shez1970]

I keep forgetting to take my tablets on a morning... I've been told that I have IBS plus reflux which is caused by uclers in my stomach

[Hidden]

Reflux is from the valve in the chest not closing properly. Unless you have that ulcerated I'd be questioning your Dr more. The only correlation I see is the discharge from the ulcer escaping back up through the valve. I keep my meds next to my breakfast equipment so I have to be pretty spaced out to miss it, but not entirely impossible!

[Hidden]

Ulcers are a direct cause of h pylori. I take it you have had treatment for this??

[Stickyman in reply to Hidden]

I have my omniprazole by the side of the bed and take it on waking with the water from the night before on my bedside cabinet. I put the tablets in a Monday to Friday pill container so that I know if I have taken it or not. This is the only way I can get mine to work. I think it works better if you take it half and hour or an hour before food so I have 40mg on waking up well before my breakfast. Perhaps a routine like this would help?

[Hidden in reply to Stickyman]

Yes I get that your on ppi but have you had a stool, blood, breath test for h pylori? You would have been tested for this probably when you had a endoscopy to discover your ulcers

[Stickyman in reply to Hidden]

I took a home blood test for H pylori and also they took a biopsy when I had endoscopy which were both negative for it, but I was unable to give up ranitidine due to severe acid reflux which came on after a bad tooth extraction where the gum became badly infected as I was refused antibiotics after the tooth was extracted due to new government guidelines about anti biotics. So by the time I had them I had to have double dose of one that caused me to become very sick (metrondiazole). I had a bout of vomiting also before the tooth was eventually extracted and ended up in hospital dehydrated. The endoscopy revealed nothing abnormal but I still felt sick all the time and my stomach could hardly tolerate any food without feeling full up so eventually I paid to see a gastrologist and had CT scan as I had lost 2 stones in weight and had malnutrition. Luckily the CT scan was fine and so he diagnosed severe acid reflux and changed me on to a ppi double strength just one in the morning and it worked. I came off the sickness pills - did pilates class every morning and gradually became okay again except I still have the severe acid reflux which is fairly well controlled by omniprazole - I do have to stick to a restricted diet though - no fatty food, tomato's, citrus fruits etc.

[Hidden in reply to Stickyman]

Try and reduce your omeprozole slowly. 40mg is quite strong. Maybe two 20mg day and night for a few weeks then just one 20mg per day and rennine as and when you need it. Avoid alcohol, tomato’s, starch like potatoes. Coffee and chocolate. Also everybody has a reflux trigger weight. If your a bit over that it can trigger reflux. Mine is around 13.5 stone if I go over that it’s back! If I’m under I get no issues

[Stickyman in reply to Hidden]

Thanks for your reply. I have tried to reduce the dose but I went back to feeling sick all the time so my GP advises me to stay on the 40mg. He said that some people are even on a higher dose than 40mg. I take vitamin B12 and vitamin D as deficient in them. I avoid coffee and chocolate and only have the odd fairly sweet wine or gin and tonic which seem okay for me. I am a bit underweight which probably does not help matters. Struggling to keep at 8 stones. I take Gaviscon at night but cannot take during the day as I am on gabapentin for back nerve problems and herniated discs etc. and it stops the gabapentin working as does the calcium tablets - its actually a problem trying to fit doses in at times that won't affect the gabapentin! Luckily ppis are okay with gabapentin - I take gabapentin 4 times a day.

[Hidden in reply to Stickyman]

Oh well good luck. For me they stopped the reflux and was part of the triple therapy. But they just messed with my guts and ended having poo like I’d been on the beer every night lol

[Edgar77 in reply to Hidden]

I have a small ulcer in my large intestine top left side. I was tested for hpylori about 6months before the colonoscopy that found the ulcer but it was negative??

[Hidden in reply to Edgar77]

I use to be thought that stress and spicy foods caused them. But they now know that they are caused by pylori. You may be one of the few percent that just get them

[Ivan1 in reply to Edgar77]

Read about behcets syndrome

[19-43_Old in reply to Hidden]

H Pylori can/may cause ulceration in the stomach or gastric region "pipes" but they are not always a direct cause of GI ulcers. Medicine is an ever expanding understanding of everything to do with medicine. Stress? Yes/no. Vagal shenanigans? Yes/no. There are fashions in medicine, and a few absolutes. MB ChB 1977.

[Hidden in reply to 19-43_Old]

It use to be thought it was caused by stress. H pylori was discovered in 1983 as a direct link to ulcers that may in turn into stomach cancer or perforation

[19-43_Old in reply to Hidden]

Sorry that I didn't get my point over. I don't know your experience or qualifications in medicine, but I did give you mine. My point is that there are fashions in medicine. Causes / aetiology of a disease changes with it. There are few absolutes. Whilst HP can be linked to ulcer formation it is not the only cause and never will be. Papers are written because that's the way PhD's are earned and sometimes they're right, sometimes not. Consider this - do they yet agree on the source of the Covid bug :-)Medicine, I can assure you, is not an exact science and you'll find many well qualified physicians and such disagreeing with one another on almost everything. What worked yesterday doesn't necessarily work tomorrow. We find out new stuff as we go, and we have been right and wrong many times along the way. I'm not arguing here, just saying that it is somewhat dangerous to be too sure of anything in medicine.

[Hidden in reply to 19-43_Old]

I’m not saying your wrong. I’m merely saying that we know that h pylori is almost certainly linked to ulcers and the damage that the bacteria causes to the mucosal layers. Interestingly, many doctors fail to understand even now that this bug causes havoc and mimics ibs. Infact it’s such a clever bug that it will bury deep into the lining and lowers serotonin which leads to more anxiety with patients already being misdiagnosed with ibs! The other problem is that up to 40 percent of the Uk population has it. And yet a simple stool test is not always carried out. People can suffer for many years for no good reason when a triple therapy can eradicate in 80 percent of the time in first line treatment. I get your point re covid and conflicting ideas but h pylori has been around for many years that we know of and as such has effective treatments that should be investigated more as a routine. It can cause ulcers which can lead to cancer long term. The risk is still low. I agree you can get ulcers form without the presents of pylori. But unlikely to be caused by what they first thought back in the day.

I’m sure you can get worts from boiled egg water but it’s unlikely