Characteristics Of Nutritional Therapy
The objective of peptic ulcer dietotherapy is to prevent hyper secretion of pepticchloride in order to reduce the sore and pain in the gastric and duodenal mucosa. Inaddition, nutritional therapy aims to promote healing, based on a complex sequence ofevents going from the initial trauma to the repair of the damaged tissue.Investigation of nutritional deficiencies is essential in the preparation of anappropriate recovery diet. In the early 20th century, Sippy proposed adiet based on milk and milk cream, combined with antacids, for treatment ofgastrointestinal ulcer, based on the principle that milk would provide gastricalkalinization and relieve pain. Today milk is not recommended due to the bufferingeffect and the significant gastric acid secretion effect of milk29.
According to Marrota and Floch,calories distribution for patients with peptic ulcer should be normal, with valuesranging from 50-60% of carbohydrates, 10-15% of proteins, and 25-30% of lipids, withtotal energy value sufficient to maintain or recover the nutritional status.
Foods To Avoid If You Have Stomach Ulcer
Trying to manage or heal stomach ulcers? See foods to stay away from as an ulcer patient…
Ulcer happens when painful sore forms around the stomach which happens when the thick layer of mucus meant to protect the stomach digestive juices is reduced in which case, the digestive acids eats away the tissues lining the stomach!
In ulcer patients, some foods are best avoided so as not to keep irritating the already sore area:
What To Eat If You Have A Stomach Ulcer
Since H. pylori bacteria is now known to be an important cause of ulcer formation, scientists are exploring what foods may have a role in fighting against an infection.
In addition to taking the antibiotics and acid-blocking medications recommended by your doctor for your ulcer treatment, eating these foods may also be helpful against the ulcer-causing bacteria:
- cauliflower
for ulcer treatment. These foods, such as miso, sauerkraut, and kimchi, may prevent reinfection.
Turmeric is currently being studied as a potential treatment for ulcers as well.
Garlic, decaffeinated green tea, and licorice round out the list of things you might want to incorporate in your diet.
Also Check: Is Soy Sauce Ok For Ulcerative Colitis
Milk And Other Dairy Products
Some people may find that a cold, creamy cup of milk provides some temporary relief, but in reality it worsens the symptoms of a peptic ulcer.
Whole milk as well as many dairy products are high in fat that can aggravate your current symptoms. Also, the protein in milk may encourage the production of excess stomach acid that can make an ulcer worse.
Even drinking milk on a full stomach can make things worse. Along with whole milk, strong-flavored cheeses, cream and buttermilk should also be avoided.
List Of Foods To Avoid If You Have Stomach Ulcers
Besides needing to take antibiotics and anti-acid to treat stomach ulcers you will also need to avoid certain types of foods that could worsen the symptoms including gas, pain, burning sensation, nausea and vomiting.
There are two types of stomach ulcers. Peptic ulcers which are gastric sores that develop in the stomach and duodenal ulcers which are sores that develop in the upper part of the small intestines.The cause for stomach ulcers is mainly an infection with Helicobacter pylori . Other cases may include long term use for painkillers aspirin, ibuprofen and naproxen sodium.In order to allow your body heal a stomach ulcer quickly then make sure to avoid the following foods.
1- Alcohol.
Alcohol was found to be a key cause for Peptic ulcers when consumed in high quantities however the intake of alcohol can also aggravate the symptoms for an existing ulcer.
2- Coffee.
Coffee as well as all caffeinated beverages should be avoided if you are suffering from a stomach ulcer. While coffee doesnât cause stomach ulcers, the Caffeine and other substances found in coffee can irritate and existing ulcer thatâs because coffee causes an increase in the stomach acids and speed up the gastric emptying.
3- Spicy Foods.
4- Red Meat.
5- Carbonated Beverages.
6- Dairy Products.
Read Also: What Does Asacol Do For Ulcerative Colitis
Alternative Treatments Without Proven Efficacy In Peptic Ulcer
The potential of plants as source of new drugs still offers a large field forscientific research. Even if is observed a large number of known plants, a smallpercentage has already been phytochemically investigated and only a fraction of themhas already been assessed to determine its pharmacological potential. Even amongtraditional medicinal plants there is still a large percentage that has not beenstudied to confirm their efficacy and safety in humans.
In peptic ulcer this is also observed. In a study conducted by Mentz andSchenkel, in which theyassessed plants with popularly known effects to scientifically prove them, theyobserved that plants like Symphytum Officinale L. , besideshaving no proven efficacy it may be harmful because of their pyrrolizidine alkaloids,of proven hepatotoxic action. Another studied plant was Zantoxylon rhoifoliunLan , popularly indicated for ulcers and healing, butits benefits have not been proved either. In addition, Maytenus ilicifoliaMart, commonly known in Brazil as “espinheira-santa”, used for healingpeptic ulcer, has not proven this effect in trials either.
The use of natural products in treatment of ulcer has been widely studied. However,most of the studiesthat haveproven an anti-ulcer effect were conducted with animals, and therefore do not providereliability for alternative treatments in the prevention of relapses or for treatmentof peptic ulcer in humans.
Supplements May Be Beneficial
If your stomach ulcer is being treated with an antibiotic, consider taking a probiotic supplement as part of your diet plan. This can help reduce antibiotic-associated symptoms. It may also improve the effectiveness of the antibiotic.
Ask your doctor what probiotic would be best to take with your antibiotic medication. Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium, and Saccharomyces supplements have shown benefits in people with H. pylori ulcers.
Deglycyrrhizinated licorice and curcumin extracts have shown promise in some ulcer research due to their action against H. pylori.
You May Like: Psc Liver Disease Ulcerative Colitis
If Food Isnt The Culprit How Did We Get Here
Say hello to Helicobacter pylori , the bacteria best known for causing stomach ulcers and gastritis .
Gastritis occurs when the stomach lining weakens, allowing stomach acid to seep in and create a burning sensation, typically felt in the middle part of your stomach and chest.
Whats more, salty and fatty foods can actually alter the cells in your stomach, increasing the likeliness of an H. pylori infection. Adios potato chips!
No taco shaming!
While a specific diet wont cause stomach ulcers, research shows that certain foods may help your body fight off that ulcer-causing H. pylori.
The best preventative defense against H. pylori includes *wait for it* fruits, veggies, and probiotics. Shocking, we know. They help protect your gut, fight bacteria, strengthen your immune system, and more.
Add these to your shopping list:
- fruit
- food with probiotics, such as yogurt or kimchi
Orange And Grapefruit Juices
The main foods to avoid with ulcers are orange and grapefruit juices. They are very high in acid and can cause discomfort and the spread of the ulcer virus.
The orange and grapefruit juices are well-known for their powerful acidic nature.
They can increase the acidic content in your stomach and lead to severe pain after eating them.
You wont like it if you have an ulcer and eats the juice from the oranges or grapefruits.
Don’t Miss: Foam Dressing For Pressure Ulcer
Eatthese Foods For A Stomach Ulcer
Medical professionals generally agree that healing a stomach ulcer requires a two-pronged approach. Besides taking medications that target the ulcer, the patient should ideally modify diet and lifestyle until the ulcer has healed. However, there’s now a divergence of thought on the best stomach ulcer diet menu. As a result, the list of foods to eat when you have a stomach ulcer has undergone some changes.
Previously, physicians recommended a bland diet for their stomach ulcer patients. However, Gastrointestinal Associates note that the development of increasingly powerful ulcer medications has reduced the bland diet’s importance in patient treatment. With that said, some patients have found relief while eating “bland diet” foods.
Read more:High Antioxidant Fruits & Vegetables
Howto Ease Stomach Ulcer Pain
Stomach ulcer pain is no joke, and you’ll do everything you can to alleviate the discomfort and feel better. To get some relief, place vegetables, fruits and whole grains on your stomach ulcer diet menu.
Add foods that contain probiotics, such as yogurt, miso and aged cheeses. Because milk consumption can lead to excess stomach acid production, ask your physician if milk is one of the foods to avoid when you have a stomach ulcer.
Because stress can aggravate your peptic ulcer symptoms, pinpoint ways you can knock down your stress level. Delegate some responsibilities at work or home, treat yourself to some form of daily exercise and spend time with people who are important to you.
Adequate sleep is another stress-fighting tool, and getting some extra rest will also support your immune system. So, turn off your devices , and ensure that you’re getting plenty of sleep every night. If you don’t nosh on your favorite snack before bedtime, you’ll set yourself up for a good night’s rest.
Ask your physician to recommend a pain reliever that won’t trigger stomach ulcer problems. Next, realize that heavy alcohol consumption can erode and irritate your stomach’s mucous lining, setting the stage for bleeding and inflammation. Limiting alcohol should considerably reduce that risk.
Read more:Diet Plan for a Stomach Ulcer
You May Like: How Do You Know If You Have Ulcerative Colitis
When To Seek Medical Advice
You should visit your GP if you think you may have a stomach ulcer.
Seek urgent medical advice if you experience any of the following symptoms:
- vomiting blood the blood can appear bright red or have a dark brown, grainy appearance, similar to coffee grounds
- passing dark, sticky, tar-like stools
- a sudden, sharp pain in your tummy that gets steadily worse
These could be a sign of a serious complication, such as internal bleeding.
Discomfort At Night After Meals
ulcers can also lead to discomfort after your meals, especially, when you are sleeping.
This is very common when you eat at late night and sleep immediately. It is always important to eat early before you get to bed for the gravitational actions to take place after eating.
- Feeling uncomfortable between meals
It can also cause discomfort between meals. Maybe you may feel pain a period between breakfast and lunch or between lunch and supper.
Anytime after your meals, you might feel the pain due to the reactions of acids and bases during the absorption of food.
Don’t Miss: Removing Colon Due To Ulcerative Colitis
Which Foods Should You Avoid
Not all foods will affect every ulcer sufferer the same way, so you will have to learn by trial and error what your triggers are. However, these are the food, beverages and spices that generally do cause serious aggravation when eaten in large quantities and thus should be avoided, advises Walters:
What Foods Can Ulcer Sufferers Eat
I have a family member suffering from an ulcer.
She is trying to control it with her diet and asked me for advice, so of course, I researched this painful, debilitating infection.
Discovering much conflicting and contradictory information, I finally found some consistent information.
Yes, an ulcer is an infection however, there are 3 major types of ulcers
- peptic
- gastric
- duodenal.
All are basically born from an infection called Helicobacter Pylori or commonly referred to as H. Pylori.
Read Also: Can Ulcerative Colitis Lead To Crohn Disease
A Natural Approach To Helping Yourself Through Your Diet
Ulcers are sores that can happen in your digestive tract, including your lower throat , stomach and intestines. Ulcers are usually caused by the bacteria Helicobacter pylori that many of us have in our bodies already. The symptoms can be made worse by your stomach acid.
It is not entirely clear why ulcers start but stress and diet, especially a fatty diet, are big contributing factors. A higher intake of fat can greatly increase your chance of getting an ulcer in the first place and cause other gastrointestinal problems. High salt intake is also implicated.
STOMACH ULCER TREATMENT
You can treat ulcers. A doctor will recommend antibiotics to kill the bacteria, a medical herbalist will recommend herbal antibiotics such as goldenseal.
Carefully controlling your diet is crucial to successful treatment. This is to make sure that your stomach produces less acid when digesting your food. Eating large meals requires the stomach to produce large amounts of stomach acid. So it is best to eat small meals. Ideally, you should be having 5 to 6 small meals a day and not 2 or 3 large ones.
Your meals should be low in fat and sugar and high in fibre. A diet based on fruits, vegetables and whole grains is just that. The reason for avoiding fatty foods, is that they are harder for you to digest, so your body then produces more stomach acid and aggravates your condition. Foods that are low in fat can speed up your recovery.
CUTTING DOWN ON RED MEAT
TASTY ALTERNATIVES
FRUIT AND VEGETABLES
How To Avoid Irritating An Ulcer
This article was co-authored by Laura Marusinec, MD. Dr. Marusinec is a board certified Pediatrician at the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, where she is on the Clinical Practice Council. She received her M.D. from the Medical College of Wisconsin School of Medicine in 1995 and completed her residency at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Pediatrics in 1998. She is a member of the American Medical Writers Association and the Society for Pediatric Urgent Care.wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. In this case, 88% of readers who voted found the article helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 305,963 times.
A peptic ulcer develops when the stomach lining or first part of the small intestine begins eroding. Symptoms include a gnawing or burning pain in the abdomen between the breastbone and the navel, belching, nausea, vomiting, poor appetite, loss of weight, and feeling tired and weak.XTrustworthy SourceJohns Hopkins MedicineOfficial resource database of the world-leading Johns Hopkins HospitalGo to source If you are diagnosed with a peptic ulcer, your medical provider may prescribe antacids, acid blockers or antibiotics to reduce the pain and heal the ulcer. In addition to following your doctor’s treatment plan, there are several things you can do to avoid irritating your ulcer and prevent future flare-ups.
Recommended Reading: Over The Counter Medication For Ulcerative Colitis
What About Supplements
If youre currently taking antibiotics for a stomach ulcer, you might want to add a probiotic. Probiotics can help counter the negative effects of antibiotics on healthy gut bacteria while also making them more effective. Your doctor can help you decide which probiotic works best in your treatment plan.
Other H. pylori-fighting supplements to ask your doctor about include:
- deglycyrrhizinated licorice
Why Change My Diet
There are so many benefits to changing your diet if you suffer from stomach ulcers that it would be foolish not to. When you follow a diet that primates healthy stomach and gut health you will:
- Obtain the protein and nutrients that your body needs to repair itself.
- Help you to remove all foods that are aggravating the small intestine and stomach lining.
- It can help to minimize or control the symptoms of related conditions like bacterial infections, Crohns disease, or celiac. These can aggravate ulcer symptoms.
- Help to fill in any contributing nutritional deficiencies.
Certain foods help to repair the gastrointestinal lining that erodes form long term use of anti-inflammatory drugs or bacterial infection.
Read Also: Low Residue Diet For Ulcerative Colitis
How Stomach Ulcers Are Treated
With treatment, most stomach ulcers will heal within a month or two. The treatment recommended for you will depend on what caused the ulcer.
Most people will be prescribed a medication called a proton pump inhibitor to reduce the amount of acid their stomach produces and allow the ulcer to heal naturally.
If an H. pylori infection is responsible for the ulcers, antibiotics will also be used to kill the bacteria, which should prevent the ulcer coming back.
If the ulcers are caused by the use of NSAIDs, PPIs are usually prescribed and your doctor will discuss whether you should keep using NSAIDs.
Alternative medication to NSAIDs, such as paracetamol, may be recommended.
Stomach ulcers can come back after treatment, although this is less likely to happen if the underlying cause is addressed.
Read more about treating stomach ulcers.
What Is A Stomach Ulcer
Stomach ulcers are open sores that develop on the stomach lining. They can also be called gastric ulcers or peptic ulcers. They can affect people from a young age, but they are more common in people over 60 years old. Men are also more likely to have stomach ulcers.
Ulcers occur when acids from digested food damage the wall of your stomach. The most common cause of stomach ulcers is infection from a bacteria called Helicobacter pylori . Another cause is long-term use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medicines .
For a long time, people believed that stomach ulcers were caused by certain lifestyle choices. Many thought that eating spicy foods and experiencing stress were linked to ulcers, but theres no concrete evidence that confirms those beliefs.
In rare cases you could have a cancerous or noncancerous tumor in your stomach, duodenum, or pancreas known as Zollinger-Ellison syndrome.
- Unexplained weight loss
Read Also: Budesonide Vs Prednisone For Ulcerative Colitis