Does physical activity reduce the risk of developing peptic ulcers?

Background-Although Helicobacter pylori has been identified as a major caus e of chronic gastritis, not all infected patients develop ulcers, suggestin g that other factors such as lifestyle may be critical to the development o f ulcer disease. Aim-To investigate the role physical activity may play in the incidence of peptic ulcer disease. Methods-The subjects were men (8529) and women (2884) who attended the Coop er Clinic in Dallas between 1970 and 1990. The presence of gastric or duode nal ulcer disease diagnosed by a doctor was determined from a mail survey i n 1990. Subjects were classified into three physical activity groups accord ing to information provided at the baseline clinic visit (before 1990): act ive, those who walked or ran 10 miles or more a week; moderately active, th ose who walked or ran less than 10 miles a week or did another regular acti vity; the referent group consisting of those who reported no regular physic al activity. Results-With the use of gender specific proportional hazards regression mod els that could be adjusted for age, smoking, alcohol use, body mass index, and self reported tension, active men were found to have a significant redu ction in risk for duodenal ulcers (relative hazard (95% confidence interval ) for the active group was 0.38 (0.15 to 0.94) and 0.54 (0.30 to 0.96) for the moderately active group). No association was found between physical act ivity and gastric ulcers for men or for either type of ulcer for women. Conclusions-Physical activity may provide a non-pharmacological method of r educing the incidence of duodenal ulcers among men.