Your stomach secretes an acid known as gastric acid with a pH of less than 3.5 enough to burn through your skin, why doesnt this burn your stomach?
This is because your stomach is protected by a sheet of mucus like substance that protects it from being destroyed by this acid
When you get infected with H Pylori, it can survive the harsh environment of the stomach by netutralizing the acid around it
It is able to colonise the stomach, sometimes for years, this can lead to inflammation and create a chance for acid to reach the stomach wall
This H Pylori can be gotten from contaminated water, utensils and even from the saliva of infected persons
Many people get this during childhood, but adults can get it too. It can also live in the body for years before people start to get symptoms
Other causes of ulcers are drugs, some drugs can lead to the breakdown of this protective lining, for example drugs like Ibuprofen, Diclofenac, felvin, etc, abuse of these drugs can lead to what you know as ulcer
Some antibiotics can also lead to this condition also
Alcohol also irritates the lining of the stomach and but there is little evidence that it may directly lead to ulcers, same for caffeine and smoking.
However these things are risk factors, things that make it easier for you to get an ulcer, others are genetics also
Smoking however, if you already have a H Pylori infection can increase the chances of you getting ulcer, smoking is harmful to the lining of the stomach
Severe stress can also cause ulcer, not traffic stress o. But having burns, severe illness, brain trauma or injury
Some uncommon causes are conditions where people secrete a lot of stomach acid. I won't bore you with those details. Some of them are when the cells of the stomach are enlarged and hence secrete more acid than the lining can handle
In simplest of terms, an ulcer is just a wound on the inside of the stomach. To treat it, you would need to remove what is causing the wound and reduce the acid in the stomach so it can heal.
If I keep pouring acid on a wound, will it heal?
Ehn? Answer me! Will it heal?
If the cause is an infection, your doctor will treat that infection with antibiotics and drugs that reduce the acid and protect your stomach.
There will be tests that to confirm that you have an infection, questions and examinations to determine the exact cause of your ulcer
If ulcers are not treated properly, or if they occur for a long time, there is a risk of getting gastric cancer, this risk is small however,
H Pylori is associated with a condition that is associated with gastric cancer.
In other cases, this ulcer can perforate the stomach and may hit an artery to cause bleeding into the stomach, this is an emergency! So if you ever vomit what looks like coffee or have stool is black and tarry, please see a doctor immediately!
If you have a stomach ulcer
. Avoid fizzy drinks, it makes it worse
. Limit spicy peppery meals
. Don't fast for long hours
. Don't smoke period
. Manage stress
. Limit caffeine
. Avoid drugs known as NSAIDs, inform your doctor also.
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As you get older, the speed at which your body breaks down food onto energy starts to drop
This means that when you swallow that fufu, a huge portion of it is saved as fat.
You noticed that you're not eating as much as you used to when you were younger yet, belle dey big abi?
Also, all foods are not the same when it comes to energy.
100 naira and 100 dollars are not the same, in the same vein, 100g of vegetables and 100g of cake are not the same even though they might weigh the same.
Some meals are more calorie dense than others.
What can you do?
I'll focus on one thing today.
Build muscle... your muscle is one major guy that actually uses the energy from the food, as you get older, your muscle mass drops, and your metabolism drops which makes it easier to gain weight.
So when I was a child, o was the delivery boy for my mum's business.
She added ready-made pap to the akara, and I was the one delivering it from house to house.
This exposed me to quite a lot of people and characters. Some I became friends, others I didn't.
Follow me
In that area, there's a cartel of thugs that ran the area. They were one of my mum's best customers, and they sort of "liked" me. This meant I delivered pap to them often and went back to pick up the plates they used (there weren't disposable plates back then)E
Every time I went there, they made me run other errands, some included buying cigarettes for them, gin, etc, and they would also taunt me then. Omo something something, I only spoke English to them and not pidgin, cos my dad insisted we spoke only clear English.
Throughout December of 2022, I was fighting for my life. I went blind in one eye on the 3rd of Dec. 2022 & on the 5th, I was diagnosed with a brain tumour.
Today I stand here before you to share my story. It has been a long road to recovery but each day is better than the last.
The full story of how this brain tumour affected me and my family is up on my YouTube, you can click the link below to watch the full video.
Link:
It was Dr. Tayo Ojo, a neurosurgeon here in Nigeria that did the surgery. So many people begged me to leave the country and get the surgery done but something kept me back here because I still had trust in us.
We just need more investment in our health sector.
I started putting aside at least 60% of my income, and this is how it changed my life, but before that, let me take you back.
I wasn't always a person that saved. After all, this life na one… Until I learned a terrible lesson. Luckily for me, this lesson was early
I believed money was for spending and rightly so, but not all your money is for spending. After medical school, I got a few gigs where I got paid and I was supposed to keep that money in preparation for my housemanship. I earned quite some money in those gigs.
But why save when "They will give you 6 figures in house-job"? So, I spent almost everything - from livin' la vida loca, to spending weekends in hotels because this life na one and I go live am
The idea was "Hungry no dey catch doctor", so life was set. Until I started house job