Natural remedy to cure gastric ulcer?

First of all, and probably your mother has already done this, but she should make SURE this is an ulcer and not some other kind of abdominal pain by having an GI series or endoscopy done. She can ask her primary care physician to do this.

So if it is definitely a gastric ulcer... In many cases, if it is something that chronic, it could be an undiagnosed food allergy that's constantly aggravating the ulcer. I'd suggest getting a full range of food allergens tested. If that's the cause (or one of them), it would help the symptoms significantly to eliminate all traces of that food from the system. However, that many not be enough even if an allergy is the original cause, so there are some other dietary steps you can take:

High-fiber foods (and fiber supplements) have been known to relieve these ulcers somewhat. Also, and this sounds kind of gross but is actually not nearly as disgusting as it may seem... raw cabbage juice. There are TONS of studies that show this to have a remarkable effect. (According to "Natural Living" you should take 1 liter a day, interspersed throughout the day.) Bananas also are known to heal the intestinal lining (this would relieve the ulcers as well).

AVOID hot foods (with any hot peppers in them), garlic, and any food with a very high vitamin C content: this irritates the lining and worsens the ulcer.

There are also many supplements (vitamins) you can take. I highly recommend taking something with a high fish-oils component, like Omega-3. Dr. Murray (he deals with natural remedies to ailments) suggests:

* MultiStart (age and gender specific multiple vitamin and mineral formulas).
* Enriching Greens - a great tasting "greens drink" containing highly concentrated "greens" like chlorella, spirulina, wheat grass juice, barley grass juice, etc., and herbal extracts. Take one serving (one tablespoon) in 8 ounces of water daily. [Note from my personal experience... this stuff is DELICIOUS, don't be discouraged by how nasty it sounds.]
* RxOmega-3 Factors - A true pharmaceutical grade fish oil supplement. Take two capsules daily.

There are other supplements and remedies listed on the link provided below.

If your mother sticks to this diet and takes supplements (which isn't too hard because the diet is hardly restrictive at all) there should be improvement within 2 weeks. (It takes longer for some people though, and this is stuff that is good for you no matter what so even if it doesn't work within 2 weeks, she's not in any danger if she keeps following it, because it might be helping even if the symptoms aren't yet going down.)

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NOTE regarding the above comment.... h.pylori has been shown to be a major cause for peptic ulcers, but if the ulcer has been present for 20 years it is very unlikely that h.pylori is still remotely a factor, even if it was in the system to begin with. Also, it can be transferred in the saliva (kissing, sometimes even sharing utensils, etc.) so it would be unlikely that you mother would be the only one who'd have it. She could still get tested for the presence of the bacteria, but even if it was the original cause, what she feels now could be symptoms that have developed and changed over 20 years, with the bacteria itself long-gone.

It's true that there's research that h. pylori causes ulcers instead of just the spicy food and stress that were the only known factors years ago. But those things ARE STILL FACTORS! Especially in a chronic case where it's years down the line from original contact with the discomfort.

Posted in Gastric Ulcer Questions , Gastric Ulcer Treatment