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What are the signs of a stomach ulcer?

Answered by the AskDoc Medical Team · Medically reviewed under our Medical Director, MBBS

A gnawing or burning upper-belly pain with a relationship to food, easing or worsening after eating, often waking you between 2 and 4 am, with bloating, early fullness or nausea alongside.

The two dominant causes are H. pylori infection and regular anti-inflammatory painkillers, not spicy food or stress alone, though both aggravate.

Alarm signs are black tarry stools, vomiting blood or coffee-ground material, weight loss and worsening pain: those need urgent care. Otherwise, an H. pylori test and a treatment course cure most ulcers permanently.

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