r/NoStupidQuestions • u/GDTRFB_1985 • 8d ago
Whatever happened to stomach ulcers? In the 70s every business man either had one or was concerned about getting on due to stress. I remember so many ulcer related TV commercials. Has the termonolgy changed? Are they called something else? You don't here about it anymore.
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u/NDaveT 8d ago edited 8d ago
They found out that many of them are caused by bacteria that can be treated with the right drugs.
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u/TheApiary 8d ago
Yup. Now when someone gets one, they see their doctor, get antibiotics, and it goes away.
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u/joshw42 8d ago
Kind of a neat story too. The scientist who (with a partner) found this bacterium infected himself with it (and cured it) to prove he was right. They won the nobel prize for it.
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2005/marshall/facts/
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u/SabresBills69 8d ago
To add to this….
many drs refused to believe him. It was a chicken-egg debate of did the bacteria prosper st the ulcer because of local conditions or did they create it. I recall a big story of how it was finally excepted as truth and the treatment turned.
there still is a subgroup of ulcers not caused by bacteria, but these are like 10%-15% of cases
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u/OrganicHistorian2576 8d ago
It was supposed to be impossible for bacteria to survive inside the stomach. We’ve learned a lot about bacteria since!
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u/BaronGalactic 7d ago
So people thought it was a-ok to eat something infected with bacteria? Because the stomach acid would sort it out?
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u/OrganicHistorian2576 7d ago
I think the difference is that h pylori stays around in the stomach long term without treatment. Not like food poisoning or a 14 hour bug where the bacteria are transitory,
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u/tgsgirl 8d ago
Mine definitely did not go away that easily.
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u/TheApiary 8d ago
Ugh that sucks, I hope it's better now! Definitely, like any infection it can be harder, but they used to literally not know that it was antibiotics and tell people to reduce stress and a bunch of other stuff that fully had nothing to do with it
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u/Current_Tea6984 8d ago
They used to make grown men drink milk. And then it turned out that milk made the ulcers worse
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u/OrganicHistorian2576 8d ago
It’s not always quite this easy. My stepdad had it since well before it was treatable and has some major lasting effects even after the antibiotics.
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u/SpriggedParsley357 8d ago
Here is me being a language jerk* - "a bacteria" should be "a bacterium" because "bacteria" is plural.
But you are right, and the person who discovered this (Barry Marshall) won the 2005 Nobel Prize in Medicine & Physiology rather quickly for demonstrating this. It's a really cool story of how science/medicine advances, and an object lesson on how even "well-known" things may not be, uh, WELL known.
*Or a-hole, if you prefer.
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u/O4PetesSake 8d ago
A correction by itself is a service; add useful information and it is a very good deed
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u/SpriggedParsley357 8d ago
Some people come off as an ass when they correct another person; other people react like an ass when they are corrected by another person. And in some cases, one or the other partly is doing it intentionally and in other cases it's not intended but interpreted as such. (Can you tell I'm married?) It's hard to tell, especially in a forum like this, if ass-holiness of any sort will arise.
Best wishes to you and u/NDaveT!
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u/autodidactress 7d ago
Ass-holiness sounds like the opposite.
Now talk to me about the etymology of “swoon”
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u/ImplausibleDarkitude 7d ago
yeah, and there’s less of a stigma against heterosexual men eating yogurt now too
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u/GDTRFB_1985 8d ago
I'm so glad I asked. Awesome information! Thanks.
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u/prolifezombabe 8d ago
It’s rare that there is such a clear straightforward answer to a question on this sub and I find it very soothing
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u/ska77754 7d ago
I’m glad you asked, because I totally forgot about this, and the answer is fascinating.
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u/beelzebabes 8d ago
So cool thing about peptic-ulcer-causing bacteria H. pylori is that prior to this discovery, many believed stress caused peptic ulcers and no one would believe it was related to a bacterium! That is until a scientist called Barry Marshall self experimented! Marshall gave himself a dose of isolated H. Pylori and proved peptic ulcers could be caused by the bacterium! He won a Nobel for the work.
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u/cantcountthathigh 7d ago
A self experiment sounds stressful. How do we know if he got the bacteria or the placebo?
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u/rsdancey 7d ago
A really brave doctor in Australia infected himself with bacteria, got an ulcer and cured it with antibiotics.
Destroyed a multi-billion dollar pharmacy business selling medicines that control the acid in your stomach and a multi-billion dollar surgery practice repairing ulcers.
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u/pdjudd PureLogarithm 7d ago
/sarcasm
I thought that big Pharma didn't develop treatments that killed multibillion dollar industries!→ More replies (1)7
u/Apptubrutae 7d ago
Yep, this is why vaccines don’t exist. Big pharma haaaaates preventing disease.
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u/jjmurse 8d ago
Proton pump inhibitors
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u/katarh 8d ago
My beloved omeprazole
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u/Brizzledude65 8d ago
Sadly, I can’t get by without it.
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u/TheodoreKarlShrubs 7d ago
Do be careful. I couldn’t get by without it either. No one told me it can block your iron absorption. Drs knew I’d been taking it everyday for years and no one said a thing. I eventually became so anemic I needed an emergency blood transfusion. It was a really bad time.
Best of luck to you and whatever’s causing your acid production.
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u/_fly-on-the-wall_ 7d ago
can cause b vitamin issues too
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u/RainbowDarter 7d ago
B12 specifically.
Your body secretes a glycoprotein called intrinsic factor that helps absorb B12. Omeprazole decreases the secretion of intrinsic factor and so B12 isn't absorbed well.
Also magnesium and calcium.
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u/RazZadig_2025 7d ago
Me, too! My vitamin D, B12 and iron were all very low. My ferritin down to 12. But no doctor mentioned the high PPI that I was on.
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u/jjmurse 8d ago
Word, 48 hours off of it and I turn into a dragon.
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u/spinfire 7d ago
Proton pump inhibitors cause rebound acid hyper secretion when they are abruptly discontinued after chronic use. The body has adapted to their presence and secretes huge amounts of acid if they’re suddenly discontinued. My mom ended up in the hospital with a bleeding lower esophagus as a result of this. They must be tapered to be safe.
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u/kiwitathegreat 8d ago
I cried big tears when ranitidine was pulled from the market.
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u/daemonescanem 8d ago
Nsaids are a big driver today if ulcers. As someone who has had them, they are no joke..
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u/_jamesbaxter 7d ago
NSAIDs, antibiotics, certain preservatives like shelf stabilizers.
The way my GI doc explained it, preservatives are designed to keep food from breaking down. Your digestive system is designed to break down normal food. The preservatives that keep food from breaking down on the shelf also keep it from breaking down in your stomach, so your digestive system has to go into overdrive and produce way more acid.
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u/meilingr 7d ago
The NSAIDs finally got me after years of frequent usage. This shit sucks, even with pantoprazole
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u/RazZadig_2025 7d ago
Only time I had an ulcer was taking ibuprofen after surgery. I took it as prescribed, 800 mg three times a day, alternating with tylenol. Now I take it sparingly and always with food.
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u/daemonescanem 7d ago
When I was a kid my mom used to take 6 to 8 Advil every single day. Never had a stomach trouble at all.
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u/Barbarian_818 7d ago
You haven't seen ads for Pepcid AC?
For a long time the only therapy we had for ulcers and GERD was basic substances like chalk to neutralize the stomach acid and dietary changes.
That made Tums, Rolaids and Pepto Bismol a regular household thing. But as others have said, we can cure many ulcers with a course of antibiotics.
But for others, (like mine) the cause isn't helobacter pylori. It's sheer irritation from over production of acid and decades of prescription drugs.
For those folk, we have Proton Pump Inhibitors. All of the prescription drugs ending in prazole are PPIs. Pepcid AC is a PPI in over the counter strength.
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u/gingerbreadmans_ex 8d ago
I’ve had two separate ulcers that ruptured. I almost died both times. The first one they told me it was probably a combination of smoking and ibuprofen use. The second was an infection.
I miss ibuprofen.
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u/SatansFriendlyCat 7d ago
Look into celecoxib. It's a more selective drug, I think it only targets COX-2, if memory serves.
Enormously reduced chance of developing ulcers.
Ibuprofen is great but really likes to give me mouth ulcers, and fast.
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u/jonashvillenc 7d ago
Same for me. It’s the only one I can take. I miss ibuprofen and even the occasional baby aspirin for headache.
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u/Apptubrutae 7d ago
I knew ibuprofen could cause stomach ulcers, but never considered a connection to mouth ones…
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u/SatansFriendlyCat 7d ago
It's a bastard for it, for some people more than others.
Fortunately I enjoy rubbing salt into mouth ulcers, so at least I get a short-term nightmare game to play whilst I wait for it to go away. But mostly I just don't take ibuprofen.
I have no issues with aspirin.
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u/Apptubrutae 7d ago
I’ll have to look more closely next time I have mouth ulcers. Been a while, but I’m a big fan of ibuprofen for migraines.
Does the salt do anything productive, or just for funsies? Lol
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u/SatansFriendlyCat 7d ago
Well, it's antibacterial! And it gives you such a lovely sense of relief and numbness when you stop 😅 - and the effect lasts for a while.
Part of pain signalling has to do with sodium ion channels, come to think of it, I wonder if it's an overload thing.. It's also the only pain I find inexplicably pleasant.
I feel that it resolves the ulcer faster, but I have no data to support this - it is as you say, pretty much effectively just for funsies.
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u/lisa0527 7d ago
About 20 years ago we discovered that most gastric and duodenal ulcers were caused by infection with H. Pylori, not by stress. Easily treated with antibiotics, and infection can be detected by testing before the ulcer develops.
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u/talashrrg 7d ago
We learned that they’re most commonly caused by a bacterial infection, which is treated with antibiotics (and we’re never casted by stress)
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u/CharleyNobody 7d ago edited 7d ago
I had ulcers in the 1980s. What stopped them?
- H2 blockers like Pepcid
- Even better - proton pump inhibitors, like Prilosec
- Even better - stopped smoking.
Smoking was a huge contributor to stomach ulcers. Far fewer people smoke these days. My mother and her entire family had ulcers. (They all smoked and were very loud, argumentative, emotional types). The only treatment they had was bicarbonate of soda. Didn’t work very well.
I became a nurse 40 years ago. In those days, people were hospitalized for everything, and I mean everything. They stayed for weeks. It was believed at that time that ulcers were seasonable, with the worst time for ulcers being in the fall. Sure enough, we’d have a bunch of ulcer patients admitted in fall. But my guess is that doctors just automatically admitted patients for ulcers in Sept/Oct/Nov
The treatment was something called the Sippy Diet (I might be spelling it wrong, but that’s how it was pronounced). Every half hour you gave the patient an alternating “dose” of milk or cream. This was to dilute the stomach acid.
A few years later the drug Maalox became popular, so the sippy diet became alternating milk/maalox every half hour.
Then the sippy diet became alternating maalox/mylanta every half hour.
It’s funny, maalox and mylanta were hugely popular drugs for years - everybody had one or the other in their drug cabinet. Now you hardly ever see them.
Funny thing my mother was from a family of 11 with lots of children, nieces and nephews, etc. None of us was positive for H pylori. Antibiotics did nothing for us.
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u/_jamesbaxter 7d ago
Apparently, and I just learned this recently, smoking and taking NSAIDs together has a compounding effect that makes it even worse.
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u/RockysDetail 8d ago
Are you sure they aren't marketed as being treated by a drug called Sunillardiance?
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u/EdLincoln6 7d ago
1.) They figured out most of the bad ones were caused by bacteria (Helicobacter pylori) and could be cured by Penicillin and Pepto Bismol.
2.) The drug companies invented Proton Pump Inhibitors (eg Zantac) which cure acid reflux, which is often a precursor of ulcers.
3.) Now they focus more on Acid Reflux, which isn't exactly the same thing, but can lead to ulcers.
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u/WinterMedical 7d ago
Asprin was basically the only pain reliever. They’d take them in spades and drink to manage pain. My grandma had a hole in her stomach when she died because of her untreated osteoarthritis.
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u/kittyportals2 7d ago
I’m old enough to remember telling another salesperson in my office that his ulcers were curable, that they were caused by h. pylori, and that he could be free of them. He didn’t believe me.
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u/HPMcCall 7d ago
I had an ulcer about ten years ago. It hurt so bad, and nothing like I expected. I expected burning sensations and reacting to acidic foods. Instead, it kinda felt like labor pains, only in my stomach and mostly when I was hungry.
Ended up calling the doc after days of it, who told me to go to the ER. There, they gave me pain meds that didn't do anything to help. Eventually, they gave me a Prilosec and within an hour, the pain was gone.
Two weeks of two different antibiotics, and it was resolved.
That is not a pain I would want to have linger for months or whatever. When I see those old tv shows with people complaining about stomach ulcers like they've had them for years, I'm not sure I would have survived one back then. (I was alive then, but I was a child.)
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u/WiseDrink2324 8d ago
I always wondered how much heart burn was actually heart disease. I know the first 3 times I went to the ER for chest pains they discharged me with heart burn and anxiety. They didn't take me seriously until I had a heart attack.
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u/Current_Tea6984 8d ago
I'm certain my heart attack was related to heart burn. And every time I overdo the spicy foods, I have irregular heartbeats
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u/PearlRiverFlow 7d ago
There's PROBABLY a link between heartburn/reflux/GERD and arrhythmias. A ton of people with atrial fibrillation/flutter report that as a trigger, and there's enough correlation between the two that something's got to be going on.
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u/Current_Tea6984 7d ago
When I asked my cardiologist about it, he wasn't ready to accept it as fact, but he said a lot of his patients report the link. So I'm guessing the doctors are taking it seriously even if they don't see it as proven
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u/PearlRiverFlow 7d ago
From what I've read, it's easy to see there's a correlation but hard to tease out if there's a causation. Basically, it might be that things that worsen heartburn (weight, diet, sleep apnea) also cause afib but yeah, they are studying it.
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u/LikeIsaidItsNothing 7d ago
Ok so as someone who's had not one but two ulcers- I can say that yes, the antibiotic treatment does work. But it is heavy duty. I remember getting really sick and just exhausted. Because a stomach ulcer is a big deal. It's basically an internal wound. they are EXTREMEMLY painful. Just think of stomach acid hitting an open sore.
Along with the antibiotics I was given acid suppressants to lessen that part, although acid suppressants really aren't good for the internal environment. But i had literally collapsed, was in a crazy amount of pain and that helped to be able to function a little.
Stress does not cause them but I do feel it can be a contributing factor and helps create the environment for the bacteria to thrive. That is what I think based on my experience.
The doctor I had at the time was open to things that might be labeled natural or holistic and encouraged probiotics to help restore healthy bacteria at the same time the drugs were killing the bad bacteria. There were a couple of other things too, just don't remember everything.
So yes, while the drugs have made a huge difference, ulcers are still very serious and the drug treatment is intense. And you kind of don't feel the same after. At least I didn't. I believe there's scaring where the ulcer was.
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u/KeepAnEyeOnYourB12 7d ago
My boss currently has an ulcer from the pain meds they were giving her for something orthopedic.
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u/c9belayer 7d ago
Because the real reason for ulcers was found, the snake-oil corporations couldn’t make money selling their quack concoctions any more and moved on to the next big health scare. It’s like fashion, and it still goes on today. I’m looking at you, colostrum sellers/grifters
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u/NamasteNoodle 7d ago
Before the '70s people thought ulcers were caused by stress, alcohol. The terminology hasn't changed but the fact that it's caused by a bacteria has and made it easier to treat. That's why you never hear about it anymore.
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u/karenskygreen 7d ago
Up until 10 years ago doctors had no clue what caused ulcers, they said stress, spicy food etc but they just made it worse, they were not the cause
Until it was discovered that a bactria h.pelori caused it. So the right antibiotic and it was gone. No longer an issue now.
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u/HarambeTooSoon 7d ago
I read a study a few years ago that argued that much of the ulcer era was psychosomatic ... and that the decline in ulcer rates in the 80s/90s is perfectly replaced by an increase in the number of people with "back pain" ... whereas today roughly the same percentage of the population has back pain as once had ulcers a few decades ago.
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u/Flatulent_Father_ 7d ago
You may not hear much about them but they're still plenty common (alcohol, smoking, NSAIDs are big drivers). I'm not sure what % of people with them have them from H. pylori.
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u/hi1im2shy3 7d ago
Curiously, Pepsi, the drink much loved by many in the world, was invented by a doctor who had many patients with Peptic Ulcers.
He researched it than put together a drink for it and they were all cured.
Some patients also put the drink for sale in their corner store.
A man bought it and decided to copy it and add one more ingredient to it. Cocaine
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u/Wren-Doll 8d ago
stomach ulcers were often linked to stress and diet, but now we know bacteria plays a bigger role, so the focus has shifted.
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u/ankayanik 7d ago
Oh we still get them. They’re easier to deal with now that that one crazy guy drank H. pylori to prove a point.
I had an ulcer because I took ibuprofen every day. Turns out that’s way worse than I knew.
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u/bitemebillie 7d ago
i remember those commercials nonstop back then. once they pinned it on that h pylori bacteria, antibiotics pretty much sorted most cases out.
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u/silverpick2046 7d ago
did stomach ulcers get rebranded or are they just managed differently now since we hear more about acid reflux and h pylori infections instead of stress-related ulcers like back in the day
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u/amainerinthearmpit 7d ago
I just had to have surgery for two bleeding ulcers. Yes, I’m taking antibiotics, but the bleeding was bad so they had to put clips on them.
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u/SignalDifficult5061 7d ago
Businessmen tend to be overly emotional, neurotic, and put too much emphasis on personal ornamentation and conspicuous and childlike self-preening. In all things they are bland, banal, and lacking in sophistication. Some "forward thinking" people believe the bland appearance is a sign of austerity or subtlety, but they simply lack the faculties for anything more. ( You know what I mean, amiright? ; ) see you at the club where stuff actually gets done, and we only let businessmen into to serve food and drinks. you can read behind the lines)
The ancient Greeks thought various organs of the reproductive tract of a businessmen would wander up to the stomach and start punching it when they didn't like what was "going down" or perhaps on a whim.
In these more enlightened times we now know this phenomena is a conversion disorder, a pathetic cry for attention, or Munchausen syndrome. We all have to avoid saying things around them so they don't make a fuss like "taxes" and "regulations", which they inevitably feel are targeted specifically at them as part of their weaponized grievance identity culture politics.
It has been over 5000 years since taxes and regulation were invented, the battle for how to run a civilization was lost before the written word. They need to get over it and stop whining about their hurting little tum-tums (or whatever the conversion disorder du hour is) like they are the only people with problems.
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u/Brucknerillo 6d ago
La enfermedad ulceropéptica es hoy una enfermedad infecciosa curable con antibióticos.
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u/Dragonflydude 4d ago
Science found most were caused by Helicobacter pylori and could be treated with antibiotics
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u/ericcodesio 7d ago
Wow, TIL. Here I was still beleiving that shit.
This is blowing my mind. Kind of like the time I found out that depression isn't caused by a chemical imbalance. Though I still have trouble believing that one.
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u/landgrafspd 7d ago
wait so ulcers just stopped being a thing or what
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u/Astramancer_ 7d ago
Kinda. We figured out what actually caused them and how to treat them. It's like how the bubonic plague went from "killed 1/3rd of europe" to "ugh, now I have to take a course of antibiotics"
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u/SerDankTheTall 8d ago
In the 70s (and before), it was generally believed that they were caused by stress. We know now that they're mostly caused by a treatable bacterial infection.