Bacterium, Not Stress, Is the Villain.

Once a lifelong condition that affected mostly men, peptic ulcer disease now counts an equal number of women among its victims. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), females as well as males generally develop first onset of symptoms at age 35, and the risk of ulcer disease rises with increasing age. Each year, approximately 500,000 new cases of peptic ulcer disease are diagnosed in the U.S., half of those in women.

Ninety percent of ulcers are caused by an infection with the bacterium Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori), not by stress or spicy foods, as once was believed. The infection rate is higher among older age groups, African-Americans, and Hispanics. For the 25,000,000 Americans who will develop an ulcer at some point in their lifetime, the news is good, since it means their condition can be cured with antibiotics.

Antibiotic therapy, a combination of appropriate antibiotics and acid-suppressing drugs, represents a dramatic medical advance in ulcer disease and could reduce the cost of hospitalizations...