Curing Stomach Ulcers

Ulcer treatment is a medical success story. Our Health Writer, Colleen Shannon, reports.

- Colleen Shannon

JUST a few decades ago, a stomach ulcer was a dreaded diagnosis. It caused terrible pain that was difficult to stop. Many people required surgery, which had a lot of side effects.

Since then, treatment has improved dramatically and surgery is now rarely needed.

Two important developments – new drugs to control stomach acid, and the discovery that most ulcers are caused by bacteria – made this possible.

To find out how ulcers are managed today, I had a chat with Professor Chris Hawkey, Professor of Gastroenterology at Nottingham University and Chairman of Core, the charity that is committed to fighting all digestive diseases.

He explained that an ulcer is a hole in the inner layer of the stomach’s protective lining, which is called the mucosa.