Does eating groundnuts cause ulcers?

Dear Doctor: Whenever I eat groundnuts, I get pain in the stomach. Do groundnuts cause ulcers? When this happens, I take magnesium or milk but this has not been helpful.
Tania Amoit

Dear Tania: Peptic ulcers affect the stomach and close areas of the gut before (oesophagus) or after the (duodenum) stomach. Most peptic ulcers are caused by a germ called helicobacter pylori, although painkillers such as aspirin and diclofenac can also cause the condition.
That said, stress, alcohol and smoking may aggravate already existing ulcers.
Often times, pain caused by peptic ulcers gets worse if a person has not eaten.
This may be relieved but not cured by antacids such as milk of magnesia or milk itself. The fact that your pain is not relieved by any of these could be a pointer to another cause.
Groundnuts are known to cause symptoms of allergy, including running nose, cough, itchy skin, abdominal discomfort and headache.
This usually runs in families and may get worse if a person eats groundnuts more frequently, though in some children, this may improve with time. The symptoms are immediate and in some cases may be serious.
Also, some people do not digest groundnuts well leading to the undigested nuts reaching the large intestines where intestinal bacteria break them up, causing a lot of gas, abdominal pain and sometimes diarrhoea.
This groundnut intolerance means that the more amounts of groundnuts one eats at any one time, the more serious the symptoms they will experience. With an allergy however, eating even little amounts of groundnuts can cause serious symptoms.
It is therefore advisable for you to visit your doctor for further information. In the meantime, you should avoid these nutritious foods completely.
There is a tendency by people to eat roast groundnuts quickly, taking in a lot of air with the nuts, and leading to abdominal discomfort.

Dear Doctor: Why do I feel hungry every time I exercise? Sometimes the hunger happens even when I am exercising.
James Kermundu

Dear James: Hunger is the body’s way of saying, “I am low on nutrition, please refill.” Exercise burns a lot of calories, resulting in the brain informing a person of the need to refill through hunger.
Hunger or the feeling of the need to eat happens when the stomach is empty or there is low blood sugar and this information is relayed to the feeding centre in the brain.
Exercise consumes calories and lowers blood sugar, the reason people with diabetes are told to use an exercise programme as a way of lowering their blood sugar levels.
I do not know whether you are diabetic or on diabetic treatment, but exercise makes a person’s body more sensitive to the sugar lowering effects of the drug, with a likelihood of being too low on blood sugar and creating a lot of hunger during or after exercise.
Exercise may also lead to frequent emptying of bowels, which increases a person’s need to replace the digestible contents.
Unfortunately, many people will not exercise with a full stomach and when this happens, a person get hungrier after engaging in exercise.
Eating a yellow banana before doing exercise or having a proper meal (instead of snacks) soon after can be helpful. If you are diabetic, please visit your doctor who may choose to adjust your medicines.

Dear Doctor: I have been having regular sex with my boyfriend but then I noticed that I would lose blood whenever we had sex. It has since stopped and I am now fine. What do you think was wrong?
Vivian Nanyonjo

Dear Vivian: When a woman who is not in her periods bleeds after sex, this is called post-coital bleeding. Apart from creating fear, it can be a sign of a serious condition that requires immediate investigation and treatment. Bleeding after sex without any symptoms can occur once in a while in any normal woman especially when she has sex around the time of ovulation, or nearing periods, or when she is on contraceptives especially depo provera or injectaplan.
The bleeding associated with other symptoms such as painful sex, or vaginal discharge may indicate sexually transmitted diseases. Vaginal dryness, apart from bleeding may also be associated with painful sex.Given the fact that such bleeding can be the first symptom of cancer of the cervix, any woman who bleeds more than once on consecutive sex occasions should visit a doctor for further evaluation and treatment. Infections such as venereal warts may not be associated with painful sex and therefore confused with cancer of the cervix. Sometimes a man may be producing bloody semen when he has no other symptoms hence confusing it with blood from a female partner.