Dealing With Stress Ulcer Symptoms
A stress ulcer is an upper gastrointestinal ulcer that is caused from a physical injury such as surgery, major burns or a critical head injury. Stress ulcers can become very serious and so it is important that you are aware of what they are, how they work, and how to properly treat them.
What is a Stress Ulcer?
A stress ulcer is the result of an imbalance between aggressive and defensive factors and the damage can come from a variety of causes but stress itself is almost always the root cause.
Stress Ulcer Symptoms
There are many stress ulcer symptoms that a person may experience if they are dealing with a stress ulcer. This includes nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, loss of weight, fatigue, and weakness. Another of the most common stress ulcer symptoms is a gnawing or burning pain in the abdomen between the breastbone and the navel, and this pain is usually worse immediately after a meal or in the middle of the night when the stomach is empty.
A person may experience stress ulcer symptoms that are mild or severe, and some people do not have any stress ulcer symptoms at all.
Treatment
Once you have determined that you have a stress ulcer it is important that you get proper and prompt treatment. If you do not receive treatment for your ulcer it can lead to a bleeding ulcer which refers to when the ulcer has eaten into the blood vessels and the blood has seeped out into the digestive tract.
Of course one of the first and most important ways to deal with a stress ulcer is to determine the main cause of the stress in your life. If you can then begin to avoid this cause in the future you will be relieving your stress dramatically, but of course this is not always the case. Your doctor may choose to try you on antibiotics first, and with antibacterial therapy there is a very low percent chance of the ulcer recurring.
For more serious stress ulcers surgery may be necessary. Vagotomy is one of the most common types of surgery for ulcers, and involves the cutting of the vagus nerve which transmits messages from the brain to the stomach. There is also the option of the antrectomy surgery in which the lower part of the stomach is removed, the part of the stomach which produces a hormone that stimulates the stomach to secrete digestive juices.
