In general, what patients call “stomach pain” is mostly described by doctors as “epigastric pain”. Many digestive system diseases can manifest as upper abdominal pain, such as gastritis, peptic ulcer, pancreatitis, cholecystitis, hepatitis, etc., but each of these diseases has its own characteristics in terms of the specific location, nature and rhythm of pain. Therefore it is necessary for the doctor to ask further detailed questions about the symptoms. The epigastric pain of typical ulcer disease has the following characteristics: 1. Pain site: Most of the pain sites of peptic ulcers are located in the upper abdomen, but they are slightly different in gastric ulcers and duodenal ulcers. The typical pain site of gastric ulcer is under the saber or to the left of the upper abdomen, while the typical pain site of duodenal ulcer is to the right of the saber, and the site is more limited. 2. Pain characteristics: (1) Long-term chronic pain. Most of the epigastric pain in patients with peptic ulcers is long-term, weeks, months, or even years long. This is due to the self-healing characteristics of ulcers, the symptoms are related to the repeated activity of ulcer disease – self-healing. In some patients, the symptoms heal without special treatment, but the attacks start again at intervals. (2) Recurrent and periodic. This is consistent with chronic pain. Most patients with ulcer disease have pain that is not continuous throughout the year and have a pattern of remission-relapse-remission-relapse. The onset of symptoms is strongly related to the season and climate. Most ulcer patients develop symptoms when the weather suddenly becomes cooler or when the temperature drops, so most of them occur at the turn of autumn and winter and in spring. In some cases, the onset of symptoms is related to factors such as work stress and emotional stress. This cyclical nature makes autumn and winter the most worrying seasons for some ulcer patients. (3) Rhythmic pain. The onset and relief of pain in ulcer patients is closely related to eating. Most of the pain in patients with gastric ulcer occurs about half an hour after eating, and the abdominal pain is relieved after 1 to 3 hours of gastric emptying, showing the characteristics of eating – pain – relief of symptoms after gastric emptying. Most of the pain in duodenal ulcer patients occurs in fasting, i.e., about 3 to 4 hours after eating, sometimes showing pain at night, and can be relieved quickly after eating or taking alkaline drugs, showing the characteristics of fasting – pain – symptom relief after eating. Therefore, it is common to see patients with duodenal ulcer having “extra meals”, and some patients even gain weight due to frequent eating because of pain. In addition to the typical painful symptoms, peptic ulcer disease also presents some atypical symptoms common to digestive tract diseases, such as acid reflux, heartburn, abdominal distension, etc. Patients with gastric ulcer can appear to be “afraid to eat” due to abdominal pain after eating, manifested as loss of appetite and weight loss. On the basis of these symptoms, if combined with the above-mentioned typical pain, then the doctor should consider the diagnosis of peptic ulcer.