Cause of Ulcer

Cause of Ulcer :

1) Stress  :

Stress can arise from prolonged anxiety, tension and emotion, sever physical discomfort, haemorrhagic and surgical shocks, burns and trauma, thereby resulting in sever gastric ulceration.

Ulcers due to stress condition arising mainly from physiological discomfort and the mechanism of ulceration caused in this case may be different from ulcer caused due to other factors. 

However, mechanism of gastric ulceration is poorly understood.  Recent researches have shown that restraint cold stress causes severe haemorrhoagic ulcer through derangement of the mucosal antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide, dismutase and peroxides.  The stress generate highly reactive OH^– radicals that causes oxidative damage of the gastric mucosa and that the radical is formed by metalcatalysed.  Harber weiss reaction between O₂^– and H₂O₂ following induction of the superoxide dismutase and oxidative damage of gastric peroxidase.

2) Alcohol  :

Alcohol causes secretion of gastric juice and decrease mucosal resistance. Due to of which protein content of gastric juice is significantly increased by ethanol.This could be leakage of plasma proteins in to the gastric juice with weakening of mucosal resistance barrier of gastric mucosa.This lead to peptic ulcer.

3) H. Pylori  :

It is a gram negative bacteria found in gastric and duodenal mucosa of most persons particularly the elderly.  They, while in the mucosa, split urea into ammonia and thus elevates the local pH, damage of local region of the mucosa by high alkalinity.  In this way they strongly help the peptic ulcer development.