Unfortunately for me and for anyone who's ever taken
NSAIDs, these drugs are also notorious for causing ulcers. Luckily for me, however, I knew
about licorice, and I still regularly sweeten some herb teas
with it. Now I'd say that I may owe my freedom from ulcers to this habit.
I never got an ulcer from taking all those NSAIDs.
And even more amazing, I never developed one during the 30 years that I was employed by
the federal government in the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
I don't think this proves that I have a stomach of
steel. Rather, I think I owe my freedom from ulcers to the fact that sweet licorice root contains compounds that have remarkable
anti-ulcer effects. Research
- Technically, an ulcer is any
sore. But when people say that they have an ulcer, they almost always mean an internal
sore in the lining of the stomach
or duodenum, the
gateway to the small intestine just downstream from the stomach. These kinds of ulcers are
also called peptic ulcers because they occur in areas that are exposed to the digestive enzyme pepsin.
An estimated 10 percent of Americans have an ulcer
at some point in life, with about one million new diagnoses a year. Men are four times
more susceptible than women, and risk rises with age. Allergies somehow make people more
ulcer-prone: In one study, 98 percent of people with peptic ulcers also had respiratory
allergies.
Not long ago, scientists thought that stress caused
ulcers. It may well play a role, but now we know that the real culprit is often an
infection caused by the bacteria Helicobacter pylori, sometimes known as Campylobacter
pylori. Simply having H. pylori bacteria in your system doesn't mean that you
will get an ulcer. However, more than 75 percent of people with ulcers show evidence of H.
pylori infection, and that's straight from the pages of the Journal of the American
Medical Association.
- Anti-ulcer Cabbage Soup
- Here's a basic cabbage soup
that's chock-full of anti-ulcer compounds. You'll have to do a little experimenting to
arrive at a flavor that pleases you. If you try the optional spices, use them sparingly.
While they are delicious in cabbage soup, the flavor is rather exotic.
| 3 cups water |
- 2 cups shreddded cabbage
|
- 1 cup chopped celery
|
- 1 cup diced potatoes
|
- 1/2 cup chopped okra
|
- 1/2 cup diced onions
|
- 1/2 cup chopped green pepper
|
- Ground red pepper
|
- Ground ginger
|
- Ground black pepper
|
- Ground cinnamon (optional)
|
- Ground cloves (optional)
|
- Dried licorice root (optional)
|
|
|
- Place the water, cabbage, celery, potatoes, okra, onions and
green peppers in a soup pot. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat, cover and
simmer until the vegetables are tender. Season to taste with the red pepper, ginger, black
pepper, cinnamon (if using), cloves (if using) and licorice (if using).
|
Anti-ulcer Fruit Cocktail
Every one of the ingredients in this tasty,
no-fat dessert contains significant amounts of stomach-soothing, anti-ulcer compounds.
You'll probably have a hard time thinking of this scrumptious treat as potent medicine,
but that's exactly what it is.
| Bananas |
Pineapple |
Blueberries |
Ground cinnamon |
| Ground cloves |
Ground ginger |
Honey (optional) |
|
- Cut up the bananas and pineapple; the amount and proportions
will vary depending on how many people you're serving and which fruits you like best.
Place them in a serving bowl and add the blueberries. Season to taste with the cinnamon,
cloves and ginger (try to be generous) and sweeten with the honey (if using).
- If you like, you can also make a between-meal anti-ulcer
drink by blending blueberry juice, pineapple juice, a banana and the spices listed above.
Garnish each serving with a peppermint sprig.
|
Folk Wisdom Vindicated Again
Here's a story I'd like to share with you about
herbal folk wisdom and modern science. An old herbalist whom I respected, the late A. L.
"Tommie" Bass, who had a little herb farmette outside Leesburg, Alabama, became
the subject of a book, Herbal Medicine: Past and Present by John K. Crellin and
Jane Philpott, published by Duke University Press in 1989.
In this book Crellin and Philpott discussed some 300
herbs that Tommie recommended over the years. For each herb, the authors recounted what
Tommie had to say about the herb and then interpreted his account in the light of
pharmacological research.
One herb that Tommie recommended for ulcers was
yellowroot, which contains some of the same chemicals as goldenseal. Here's what Tommie said about it: "More
people are taking it now for ulcers than anything we know of. I've used yellowroot to help
so many people with their ulcers. They come back to thank me and offer me money. But I'm
not in the business for the money. I'm in it to help people. And yellowroot can help an
ulcer, more than that Tagamet. They throw away their Tagamet once they try the
yellowroot."
But Crellin and Philpott noted that "little
physiological evidence exists to suggest any specific activity on ulcers" from
yellowroot's known active compounds, most notably berberine.
Perhaps they were understating the case. When I
checked my database, I saw that berberine had, in fact, been reported to have anti-ulcer
effects. In addition, Crellin and Philpott's commentary was written before the discovery
that most ulcers are caused by bacterial infections. Yellowroot is a potent antibiotic,
and berberine is a compound that has antibacterial effects even at very low
concentrations, meaning that a few spoonfuls of tincture a day might well cure an ulcer,
just as Tommie claimed.
I'm including this story as yet another example of
how often folk wisdom about plants turns out to be scientifically valid. It also serves as
a reminder that sometimes scientists need to take a second look at something that they've
initially rejected as unscientific, especially when new data accumulate. The wisdom gained
by long experience may prevail.
 |
- Natural Supplements for
Ulcers
|
- These days, doctors generally
treat ulcers caused by H. pylori with a combination of antibiotics plus bismuth
(Pepto-Bismol) or similar drugs. In addition, you might try a number of herbal anti-ulcer
approaches.
|
 - Ask the Expert about Natural
Digestion Supplements (click)
|
|
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Product Recommendations |
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- Licorice flavonoids help inhibit acid
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protective mucosa, Promotes the growth and activity of mucosal cells, Safe, de-
glycyrrhizinated licorice extract.
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- Primadophilus Bifidus is designed to deliver
helpful bacteria to the gut. These microorganism strains are essential to maintaining
healthy intestinal flora. Under normal conditions, trillions of bacteria exist in the
intestines. As part of the body's defenses they help maintain good health by preventing
harmful microorganisms from infiltrating the body. Medications taken to combat illness or
infection can reduce the number of beneficial bacteria as an unwanted side effect. To
maintain the healthy balance add Nature's Way Primadophilus Bifidus to your daily health
regimen.
|
|
| Ginger (Zingiber officinale).
How about candied ginger as an herbal alternative to cimetidine (Tagamet),
ranitidine (Zantac) and famotidine (Pepcid)? It would sure taste a lot better! Ginger is well-known for its
anti-inflammatory activity, but it's considerably less known as an herbal treatment for
ulcers. In fact, ginger contains 11 compounds that have demonstrated
anti-ulcer effects. These chemical compounds are a real mouthful, but I think that you
might find it interesting to know just how much anti-ulcer chemistry can be concentrated
in a single, humble spice. Here they are in order, from most to least abundant: 6-shogaol,
6-gingerol, 8-shogaol, 8-gingerol, 10-gingerol, ar-curcumene, beta-bisalene, 6-gingediol,
betases-quiphellandrene, 6-gingerdione and 6-paradol. Eating honey-candied ginger is a pleasant-tasting treatment for
ulcers, according to Paul Schulick, New England herbalist and author of Ginger: Common Spice and Wonder Drug. The
combination of honey and ginger is particularly effective, he
notes. In addition to the antibacterial compounds that are available from ginger, honey has |
| Licorice (Glycyrrhiza gla-bra). German
physicians have always been more open to herbal medicine than doctors in the United
States, and they have researched herbal alternatives extensively. Commission E, the body
of scientists that advises the German counterpart of the Food and Drug Administration,
approves licorice as an ulcer treatment. This recommendation is
based on the medical traditions of Asia, the Middle East and Europe, plus literally dozens
of scientific studies. antibacterial action, and the two together seem to produce
synergistic effects. Ginger is a key ingredient in my Anti-ulcer Fruit
Cocktail. Licorice contains several anti-ulcer compounds, including
glycyrrhizic acid. Licorice and its extracts are safe for
normal use in moderate amounts, up to about three cups of tea a day. However, long-term
use--daily use for longer than six weeks--or ingestion of excessive amounts can produce
symptoms such as headache, lethargy, sodium and water retention, excessive loss of
potassium and high
blood pressure. These side effects,
however, can be largely eliminated by using a slightly processed form of the herb called
deglycyrrhizinated licorice (DGL). In one good study, DGL was
at least as effective in speeding ulcer healing as the newest class of pharmaceutical
drugs, called histamine-blocking agents, that were designed to do this. DGL also seems to
protect the digestive lining from aspirin's ulcer-promoting effects. Commercial licorice preparations containing DGL are readily available
in natural food stores that sell herbs. If you have an ulcer, this is the preferred form
of licorice to take, but clearly some of the power of the
herb is lost with the lost glycyrrhizin. If you'd like to take licorice from time to time as an ulcer preventive, you can
do what I do. When you're brewing some other herbal tea, add a little licorice. Licorice by itself makes a sweet, pleasant-tasting tea,
and when added to other teas, it serves as a sweetener. |
| Banana (Musa
paradisiaca). Bananas are an old folk remedy for many gastrointestinal problems
because they soothe the digestive tract. And studies with experimental animals suggest
that bananas do, in fact, have an anti-ulcer effect. One researcher noted that
"bananas may be another useful addition to such well-established anti-ulcer foods as
raw cabbage, green tea, garlic and legumes." |
| Cabbage (Brassica
oleracea). Raw cabbage juice is a hallowed folk remedy for ulcers. It turns out
that cabbage and its juice contain considerable amounts of two compounds with anti-ulcer
activity, glutamine and S-methyl-methionine. Melvyn
Werbach, M.D., assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California,
Los Angeles, School of Medicine and author of the excellent Nutritional Influences on
Illness, cites a study of people with ulcers who were given raw cabbage juice as a
treatment. Ninety-two percent showed significant improvement within three weeks compared
with 32 percent of those taking a lookalike treatment (a placebo) without cabbage juice.
In studies of just the active compound glutamine, daily doses of 1,600 milligrams proved
as effective as conventional antacids in treating ulcers. The folk recommendation for
treating ulcers is to drink one quart of raw cabbage juice a day. That may be hard to
swallow, so I offer a recipe that might help: Anti-ulcer Cabbage Soup. |
| Camomile (Matricaria
recutita). Several herbalists I admire recommend camomile tea for ulcers, notably
Rudolf Fritz Weiss, M.D., the dean of German medical herbalists and author of Herbal
Medicine. He writes that for stomach ulcers, "the remedy of choice is camomile. .
. . There can be no other remedy more tailor-made, including all synthetic products."
Widely used as a digestive aid in Europe, camomile is uniquely suited to treating
digestive ailments, including ulcers. This is because it combines anti-inflammatory,
antiseptic, antispasmodic and stomach-soothing properties. If I had an ulcer, I'd take my
camomile tea with licorice. |
| Garlic (Allium sativum). Garlic is a potent, broad-spectrum antibiotic. Paul
Bergner, editor of Medical Herbalism, suggests that those who are wary of
pharmaceutical antibiotics for ulcer treatment might want to try a course of garlic therapy. This would involve eating nine raw cloves
a day. You can chop the garlic and mix it with any food that makes it palatable, such as
carrot juice. Try blending two raw cloves of garlic with one carrot, for instance. I tried it, and the
combination tasted better than I thought it would. It's a painless way to take a couple of
cloves of garlic. You can also try whipping up an anti-ulcer
gazpacho, heavy on the garlic and red pepper. |
| Pineapple (Ananas
comosus). Like cabbage, pineapple is fairly well endowed with glutamine, a
compound with experimentally verified anti-ulcer effects. Pineapple also contains bromelain, a general digestive aid. |
| Red pepper (Capsicum, various species). Many
Americans believe that hot spices cause ulcers. The truth is, they don't. In fact, they
may even protect the stomach and duodenal lining against them. Capsaicin, the compound
that gives red pepper its heat, has been shown to prevent ulcers in experimental animals
that were given high, ulcer-causing doses of aspirin. |
| Bilberry and blueberry (Vaccinium, various
species). Both of these fruits contain compounds known as anthocyanosides. In studies
with experimental animals, these compounds have been shown to offer significant protection
against ulcers. They help stimulate the production of mucus that protects the stomach
lining from digestive acids. |
| Rhubarb (Rheum
officinale). In a Chinese study of 312 people with bleeding ulcers, rhubarb helped
improve some 90 percent within a few days. I'd be careful when using this herb, as it's
also a powerful laxative. If you experience diarrhea, cut back the amount you're taking or
discontinue use altogether. |
| Turmeric (Curcuma longa). This culinary herb,
used in Indian and Asian curry dishes, might be called the poor person's ulcer treatment.
In a good study by physicians in Thailand, turmeric (250-milligram capsules taken three times a day)
relieved ulcer pain only about half as well as pharmaceutical antacids after six weeks.
However, the antacid was eight times more expensive than the turmeric. If you're low on dough, this herb might be a
good way to go. |
