Ulcers

My 12-year-old son has had ulcers in his mouth two or three times in the last few years. What causes them and how can I treat them -- they are very painful when present.The two most common causes of recurrent mouth ulcers in someone your son's age are aphthous ulcers and ulcers caused by the herpes simplex virus. Of the two, aphthous ulcers (commonly called canker sores) are the most common. Typically, these ulcers manifest themselves during the second decade of life, as is the case with your son.It is believed that up to 20 percent of the general population has this condition.

There was a significant uptick in the number of serious problems reported by Maryland hospitals in fiscal 2010, according to the annual report on patient care and safety released by state health officials. There were 265 top level adverse events reported in 2010, compared with 190 the year before. Health officials attributed the rise to better identification and reporting rather than more problems – particularly when it came to pressure ulcers. Falls remained the No. 1 adverse event at the hospital.

Thirteen years after a young Australian doctor said he had discovered the cause of most ulcers, American medicine appears to have accepted the fact that a common, curable bacterium -- not spicy foods, not stress -- causes the disease.Now, doctors say, it's time for the American public to discard the myths about ulcer disease and reconsider the long-term need for Zantac, Pepcid, Prilosec and Tagamet -- the acid-reducing ulcer medications -- and embrace a new therapy, which involves a short course of antibiotics.

Older women can add to strength Most people can build muscle through strength training, it has long been thought - even people in their 80s who have never hoisted a dumbbell. But it may be time to tweak that idea. A new study found that women in their 80s who do resistance training might not boost their muscle mass. However, this doesn't mean older women are off the hook from working out - the study also found that despite the lack of muscle growth, the participants could lift more weight after the weight-training program.

Antibiotic treatment of peptic ulcers -- performed now on only about 2 percent of patients in the United States -- could dramatically decrease the incidence of the ailment, sparing Americans a lot of stomach pain and saving billions of dollars now spent on surgery and drug therapy.However, widespread use of antibiotics for this problem could also lead to development of drug resistance in the bacteria, Heliobacter pylori, thought to cause peptic ulcers, as well as other intestinal bacteria, and should be carefully considered.

Q.For several years, my husband and I have been taking enteric- coated aspirin. We understand that these dissolve in the intestines rather than the stomach, thus avoiding the danger of ulcers. Is this a misconception? Is there some other reason why enteric-coated aspirin is not more frequently recommended by professionals?A.Enteric coatings do keep aspirin from dissolving in the stomach. This reduces irritation caused by the aspirin tablet itself. But once aspirin is circulating in the bloodstream, it can have an indirect effect on the stomach.

Two small Maryland companies reported encouraging results yesterday from early clinical trials using thalidomide, the sedative banned since the 1960s for causing birth defects, to treat cancers and an AIDs-related condition.The results add further weight to a growing body of evidence that the drug may have potential in treating some of humans' most vexing diseases.In one clinical study, co-sponsored by Andrulis Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Beltsville, researchers found that thalidomide dramatically reduced or eliminated AIDS-related mouth and throat ulcers.

For the first time, scientists have found strong evidence that some types of cancer may be caused by bacteria.Stanford University researchers reported in today's edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute that virtually all their patients with the most common type of stomach cancer are infected with a bacterium that has previously been linked to inflammation of the stomach and ulcers -- strong evidence that the infectious agent plays a role...

Encouraged by the results of clinical tests that were to be released today, Human Genome Sciences Inc. will expand human testing of a protein designed to promote wound-healing, marking an advance for one of the first drugs developed with a system that uses computers to find genes that give rise to therapeutic proteins. The system is known as genomics-based drug discovery, and Human Genome is betting that it will be superior to the less precise approach pharmaceutical companies traditionally have used to find drug candidates.

I want to thank you because your article on a potential cause of bad breath has solved a long-standing problem of mine. No doctor was able to tell me why I had halitosis, and standard tests were not useful.When I read in your column about a blood test for a germ in the stomach that causes ulcers, bad breath and gastritis, I checked with my doctor. He had never heard of this condition but he gave me the blood test and was surprised when it turned up positive. He was so interested in Helicobacter pylori that he told other doctors about it. He prescribed antibiotics to kill it.Now I am fine after years of bad breath.

My brother-in-law sent me an e-mail about how to remove ticks. It was attributed to a school nurse who suggested applying a glob of liquid soap to a cotton ball and covering the tick with the cotton ball for 20 seconds. Presumably, when you remove the cotton ball, the tick will come out and be stuck to the cotton ball. Is this a good way to remove ticks? We are having a bumper crop this year. According to Snopes.com, this e-mail has been circulating on the Internet for more than two years.

My granddaughter is 10 years old, and she still wears diapers to bed every night. Can you give me some advice on how we can get her up to go to the bathroom? I remember years ago discussion of an electrical device that sounded an alarm to wake the child. Do these devices still exist? If there is no underlying medical problem, a bed-wetting alarm is a good treatment. At first the alarm may wake everyone in the house except the sleeping bed-wetter. Waking the child and getting her to the bathroom to finish urinating should address the problem within a month or two. Devices such as SleepDry or Wet-Stop2 cost $50 to $75. I suffered for years with stomach ulcers and had to be hospitalized when they turned into bleeding ulcers.

The widely used pain reliever diclofenac poses the same cardiovascular risk as the withdrawn drug Vioxx and should not be used by people with heart disease or high blood pressure, researchers reported yesterday. Diclofenac, an older drug sold as Cataflam or Voltaren, increased patients' chance of heart attack by 40 percent, according to an analysis of 23 clinical studies, the same risk observed in patients who took low doses of Vioxx. The report was released early by the Journal of the American Medical Association because of its health implications.

Should you disinfect your computer keyboard? Will this harm it? Computer keyboards are a breeding ground for bacteria, especially when keyboards are shared, according to a recent study published in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology. Researchers at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, led by William A. Rutala, an epidemiologist at the UNC Health Care System, swabbed 25 computer keyboards that were used frequently by multiple nurses and other health care providers. As expected, the keyboards were teeming with bacteria, Rutala said.

Scientists unraveling the story of mankind's ancient migrations have enlisted the help of an unlikely historian: an ulcer-causing bacterium that lives in the gut. An international research team reports in Science that the S-shaped bacterium Helicobacter pylori, best known for its miserable role in peptic ulcers and stomach cancer, may also harbor clues to human whereabouts over the centuries. Half the population of the planet may be infected with the bug, which is thought to be passed by contact from mother to child during infancy.

Q. I have a 19-year-old cat to whom I am very attached. I know her time will come soon. I don't want to take her to the vet to be put down because she is terrified of both vets and needles. I would like to give her medication myself that would put her to sleep. My wife and I have prescriptions for Serax and lorazepam. Would either of these work? What dose would I need? A. Please do not attempt to put your cat to sleep yourself. Cats react quite differently from humans to many medications.

My brother-in-law sent me an e-mail about how to remove ticks. It was attributed to a school nurse who suggested applying a glob of liquid soap to a cotton ball and covering the tick with the cotton ball for 20 seconds. Presumably, when you remove the cotton ball, the tick will come out and be stuck to the cotton ball. Is this a good way to remove ticks? We are having a bumper crop this year. According to Snopes.com, this e-mail has been circulating on the Internet for more than two years.

Q. I have a 19-year-old cat to whom I am very attached. I know her time will come soon. I don't want to take her to the vet to be put down because she is terrified of both vets and needles. I would like to give her medication myself that would put her to sleep. My wife and I have prescriptions for Serax and lorazepam. Would either of these work? What dose would I need? A. Please do not attempt to put your cat to sleep yourself. Cats react quite differently from humans to many medications.

Q. I have been eating an energy bar with extra potassium and taking a potassium supplement along with a multi- vitamin containing potassium. About a week ago, I woke up in the night with heart palpitations. They disappeared by morning, but this event scared me. I quit taking the potassium and eating the energy bar. Can you tell me if too much potassium could have caused my heart to beat funny? A. Excess potassium can be dangerous, even lethal. Symptoms might include heart palpitations, weakness, numbness or tingling in hands, feet or lips, difficulty breathing or anxiety.

An Antex Biologics vaccine against a bacteria that causes stomach ulcers and that has been associated with cancer will be moved into a second stage of human tests next year, after getting positive Phase I test results, the company said yesterday. The vaccine, known as Helivax, resulted in no serious side-effects when 45 healthy volunteers drank five doses over an unspecified period of days, the Gaithersburg company said. The vaccine also stimulated the production of antibodies, a sign of potential effectiveness.