IN making small talk with my patients I have made the observation, that many people do not like their jobs. Many more do not like their boss.
If you are fortunate to like both your work and your boss, consider yourself lucky and don’t change jobs. This observation is also confirmed by the difference in the attitudes to Monday and Friday. Monday is always cursed, while Friday is always celebrated.
For this reason, if I ever need to visit a Government or public office, I try to go on a Thursday morning. You will always get the most favourable reception on a Thursday morning. My reasoning is that, it’s not too early in the week to be part of the annoyance that comes with the first part of the week, and it’s not too late to upset the euphoria of the end of the week.
I have tried to speculate on why most people don’t like their jobs and arrived at the following conclusions. I concede that they could be more and better reasons than the ones I propose.
Firstly, jobs are scarce, so people get whatever job they can, just to have a job. In this situation, liking the job is not paramount, it’s having one that matters.
Secondly, the old school curriculum, which has now been changed has not been a great help either. Everyone was mostly schooled for white collar or office jobs, when in fact those jobs are the most scarce and not everyone has an aptitude for them. Blue collar jobs or outdoor manual jobs are more abundant, and are basically largely self-employment jobs, up for the taking.
The office jobs produces a lot of stress. This stress begins from just getting to work on time. In many towns public transport is difficult and traffic is congested, making it to work , in one piece, on time is a major challenge.
If you are lucky to have a car you stand a better chance. However, you have to start by getting your children to school on time.
With the yearly increase in traffic you have to wake up earlier and earlier to achieve this. If you have to use the public transport  the matters are even worse and more unpredictable. When you have overcome this hurdle, then you have to deal with the work load.
Since all organisations are cutting back and rationalising the labour force, you will usually need to do the work which might be done by 3 to 4 people. The volume of work will always exceed your capacity to do it. The job title and job descriptions are generally kept vague, like administrative assistant.
This means you have to be a jack of all trades. No college or university could possibly train you for this. Then there is an unattainable demand for the highest quality of work. The boss is always a perfectionist, and the work is never, ever done to his or her satisfaction.
The folders rain on you as fast as you finish them, and since no one is capable of perfection your work is always below par. If this is not enough,  another area of difficulty is progression or promotion. In most places this is very difficult, you worry more about keeping the job than being promoted.
The jobs are hierarchical, and the positions get fewer and fewer as you try to go up. It takes a lifetime just to be confirmed in a position, in many places let alone to push your way up the ladder.
Last, but certainly not least, the payments, these will often be low and perhaps  late. That is if you are lucky to be  paid at all. Since the prospective of being promoted and being paid are not so good, and  yetthe workers still has to settle several home bills.
Many people spend their time trying to earn additional money elsewhere, through office or home businesses. This, off course compounds the stress.
So it is not difficult to imagine why, a person working in a busy office job might have stomach pains and stomach ulcers. I may have exaggerated a little, to prove the point, that jobs can cause many and different types of stresses. So in this article we will discussion the quite common problem of Stomach pain from Stomach ulcers or more widely Peptic Ulcers Disease.
1. What causes  Stomach pain?
2.What causes Stomach Ulcers?
3.What can I do, if I have Stomach pain or Ulcers?
1.What causes Stomach pain?
How often have you had or heard someone complain of stomach pain. You will probably say, almost every other day.This is a fairly common problem. To such an extent that, in many offices where a sick room or first aid box is available a stash of pain killers are stored away in anticipation of this.
Stomach pains have many causes. When most people speak about the stomach they mean more generally the abdomen rather than the stomach itself.
In this I am distinguishing the organ the stomach bag, in which food from the mouth first arrives, from the region or part of the body, which is more correctly called the abdomen. This region is the part of the body in between the chest and the lower limbs ( or what is most commonly called the legs).
This pain is most easily divided into two. The upper Abdominal pain and lower abdominal pain. Lower abdominal pain is most common in women and is most commonly related to the female organs. This occurs frequently around the monthly cycles and is the result of shedding of the lining of the womb (Uterus) which is part of the periods pains (Dysmenorrhoea).
The precise cause of the pain is the vasospasms or contraction of the blood vessels of the womb, in preparation for the cleaning out of the Uterus for the next cycle. The upper abdominal pain is most often due to pain in the stomach bag.
This is the result of chemical injury to the lining of the stomach or the first part of the small bowel, called the Duodenum. Duodenum literally means 12. This is because this part of the small bowel is 12 inches or 25cm in length.
This chemical injury is often precipitated by stress, which causes the release of stomach acid. Now you, might wonder, what is the idea of putting or allowing acid in the stomach? Well acid helps to sterilise the food you eat, in short it cleans out any food you may have eaten before it is cleared for processing by the rest of the body, thus keeping you safe.
2. What causes Stomach ulcers?
There are two key elements in the development of Ulcers. The first is the stomach wall lining which acts as a protective barrier for the stomach and has a thick mucus layer for this purpose.
The second important element is hydrochloric acid produced by special stomach cells in the small pits of the stomach lining. Normally there is a balance between the amount of acid produced by the acids cells (Parietal cells) and the mucus barrier created by the mucus cells in the stomach pits.
The two counteract each other so that the acid only works on the food in the stomach and not the stomach wall itself. This is because when the acid comes into contact with the stomach wall its effect is neutralised by the mucus barrier.
However this balance may be lost when either, too much acid is produced by the acid cells or when too little mucus is produced to neutralise the effect of the acid.
One of the commonly recognised circumstances in which this happens is the environment of stress. When a person is constantly under stress the body senses a threat and it produces stress hormones which prepare the body to cope with the stress.
One of the things the body needs, in order to cope with stress is more food. So the body produces more chemicals in order to digest more food. Obviously one of these chemicals is acid. Many people, paradoxically, eat very little when faced with stress.
Instead most will begin to increase their alcohol consumption. This combination of events, leads to excessive stomach acid at a time of  low food content in the stomach. The result is the acid and mucus balance is lost. So the acid begins to digest or burn the stomach wall.
This is the cause of stomach ulcers. People who take lots of pain killers, called Non-Steroidal Anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID), increase their risk of ulcers. These drugs impair the stomachs mucosal barrier.
Another important additional factors is the common bacteria found in the stomach called Helicobacter pylori, this bacteria damages the mucosal barrier as well, and further increases the risk of stomach ulcers.
3. What can I do if I have Stomach ulcers?
The first questions, should really be, how will I know if I have stomach ulcers? The most typical symptom is abdominal pain related to food. Either you will have pain soon after eating food, especially spicy foods, or you will be woken up at night when the stomach is empty by pain.
The pain will be in the upper centre of the abdomen and is burning in nature. You feel like there is a small fire in your tummy, much like the sensation on your lips after raw chili. Some people get relief, when the vomit, and many will get transient subsidence, by taking milk.
Many people who have had ulcers, will know that certain foods will trigger their stomach pain, in fact just looking at that type of food reminds them of it and they will avoid it by instinct. Foods which are rich or heavily spiced tend to trigger the body to a rapid realise of digestive juices.
This, is in fact , the purpose of the starter in a 3 course meal. The wines, spring rolls, Buffalo wings and soups are intended to get the juices running in anticipation of the main meal.
When these foods hit the mouth the body gets the message that food is on its way and starts pouring the stomach juices into an empty stomach.
Therefore you can get stomach pain even before the food hits the stomach.If the ulcers are slightly further along in the food passage, just after the stomach, the area called the Duodenum, the pain comes latter. This is because the signal that food is coming comes a little later to the duodenum. So when you get pain in the middle of the night, which wakes you up, then this is most likely from the duodenal ulcers.
You may get relief from taking milk which neutralises the acid, however its effect is short. The calcium in the milk , will trigger a second release of acid and you will have a second bout of pain stronger than the first. So milk is not recommended.
It is a good idea to keep a first aid box, in the home, and keep a supply of anti-acids. The most common one is a sweet large white tablet called Magnesium Triscilicate, this will neutralise the acid and give you some relief in the middle of the night.
You should go to the hospital and have some tests for ulcers when you have this types of pain. One common test that will be done is a blood test to look for the stomach bacteria, which promotes ulceration called Helicobacter pylori.
This bacteria can be treated and cleared from the stomach in a period of 3 weeks. When this is done the ulcer will be cured.
The second test will be an endoscopy test. This test involves the use of a telescope to look for ulcers in the stomach. Additional drugs which are given are drugs like Omeprazole which completely shut down the production of acid until the ulcer has healed, this usually take about 3 to 6 weeks.
In addition two antibiotics are given to remove the load of the ulcer causing bacteria Helicobacter Pylori. You should look out for discolouration of the stool.
When the stool begins to look tarry black this is a sign that the ulcers is becoming deeper and causing bleeding. If the bleeding is brisk or a lot, a person may vomit fresh bright blood.Remember that ulcers can recur.
To stay free from ulcers, spend some time learning to manage your stress, stop smoking, minimise spicy foods and take your holidays.