What are the symptoms of stomach ulcers?
A stomach ulcer feels like a sore spot in your stomach, which is located in your upper abdomen, between your breastbone and your belly button, a little to the left.
Typical ulcer pain feels like an acid burn in your stomach, or like something is eating it. This feeling isn’t an illusion. Stomach acids, enzymes and other chemicals are eating away at the wound.
Many people experience indigestion with stomach ulcers, which means burning stomach pain together with a feeling of fullness. You might feel full shortly after you’ve started eating and/or long after you ate.
People also report:
These symptoms are related to the conditions that caused your stomach ulcer.
Some people don’t feel their stomach ulcers at all. These are called silent ulcers. You might not experience any symptoms until you develop complications, like bleeding or a perforation (hole).
These symptoms might include:
If you develop any of these symptoms, see a healthcare provider right away.
How serious are stomach ulcer complications?
Bleeding ulcers: Active bleeding from a stomach ulcer can be mild to severe and can affect you a little or a lot. Moderate blood loss can lead to anemia, while severe blood loss can lead to shock.
Perforated ulcers: An ulcer that erodes all the way through your stomach wall is rare, but it’s an emergency. Stomach acids and bacteria that leak from the hole into your abdominal cavity can cause an infection. Infection in your abdominal cavity can easily spread to your bloodstream and lead to sepsis.
What causes stomach ulcers?
The two most common causes of stomach ulcers are the H. pylori bacterial infection and overuse of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). These two causes together account for about 99% of the stomach ulcers U.S. healthcare providers treat.
H. pylori infection
H. pylori is a very common bacterial infection that affects up to half of people worldwide. It primarily lives in your stomach. In many people, it doesn’t seem to cause any problems. But sometimes, it overgrows and takes over. As the bacteria continue to multiply, they eat into your stomach lining, causing chronic inflammation that leads to gastric ulcers.
NSAIDs
NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) are common over-the-counter pain relievers, like ibuprofen, naproxen and aspirin. These medications irritate your stomach lining on contact, and they also inhibit some of the chemicals that defend and repair it.
Your stomach lining is designed to recover from these minor insults. But if you take too many NSAIDs too often, eventually it won’t be able to keep up with repairs. The more the protective lining wears away, the fewer resources it has to recover.
Other causes
Less common causes of stomach ulcers include:
- Other infections. Rarely, other bacterial, viral or fungal infections can take over in your stomach and cause erosive gastritis.
- Zollinger-Ellison syndrome. This is a rare condition that causes your stomach to produce too much gastric acid, which erodes the lining.
- Severe physiological stress. You may develop a stress ulcer if your body is struggling to recover from a life-threatening illness or injury. Severe physiological stress changes your pH balance, making your stomach more acidic.
Does my lifestyle encourage stomach ulcers?
Normal lifestyle factors, like your day-to-day stress levels and what you eat and drink, don’t cause stomach ulcers. But they can make your symptoms worse if you have one. Anything that makes your stomach more acidic can irritate the wound, including:
- Smoking.
- Alcohol.
- Spicy and acidic foods.
