Stress May Increase Risk For Ulcers

By Dr. Brian McDonough, Medical Editor

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - You've heard people say it many times - "all this stress will give me an ulcer". But is it true?

A Danish study followed nearly 3,400 adults for more than a decade to see how stress affected their risk for developing peptic ulcers. What they found was that participants who had the most stress doubled their odds of developing an ulcer.

Even among those who didn't take NSAIDs and weren't infected with H. Pylori - the two main causes of ulcers - stress increased the risk.

The theory is your body's natural response to stress can increase the amount of acid in your stomach and stress can also affect an area of your brain - the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis - that produces glucocorticoids, hormones that are linked to both inflammation and immune system response.

Of course, there are many other reasons why we try to limit stress - excess stress is not a good thing.