Popa's Tales: Ulcers/TITLE> <SCRIPT LANGUAGE = "JavaScript"> function activate(imgName) { if (document.images) { document[imgName].src = eval(imgName + "_on.src"); } } function inactivate(imgName) { if (document.images) { document[imgName].src = eval(imgName + "_off.src"); } } </SCRIPT> </HEAD> <BODY TEXT="NAVY" BACKGROUND="images/texture1.jpg"> <A HREF="/SmartScience/SmartScience.html"> <IMG SRC="images/lilystar50.jpg" WIDTH="50" HEIGHT="50" ALIGN="left" ALT="Click Here"></A> <A HREF="/SmartScience/SmartScience.html"> <IMG SRC="images/lilystar50.jpg" WIDTH="50" HEIGHT="50" ALIGN="right" ALT="Click Here"></A> <CENTER><IMG SRC="images/AVP-banner.gif" WIDTH="550" HEIGHT="50" ALT="BANNER" ALIGN="center"></CENTER> <BR> <A HREF="index.html"> <IMG SRC="images/PrevIssues.gif" WIDTH="120" HEIGHT="20" ALT="Previous Issues" ALIGN="right"></A> Vol 4, No 11 <CENTER>Presented by <A HREF="/SmartScience/SmartScience.html">Smart Science ®</A> and <A HREF="PerssonBio.html">Popa</A> as a free service for entertainment and education <BR>To subscribe, click <A HREF="SmartSciencePopaForm.html">here</A> <TABLE WIDTH="100%"><TR> <TD BGCOLOR="#F07070"> <IMG SRC="images/clear.gif" ALT="line" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="3"></TD> </TR></TABLE> <TABLE><TR><TD> <FONT SIZE="+3" FACE="Arial, Sans-serif"> <B><I><P ALIGN="center">ULCERS</P></I></B></FONT> <CENTER> <FONT SIZE="+2">"The greatest obstacle to knowledge is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge." — Daniel Boorstein</FONT></CENTER> </P><P> <TABLE BORDER="0" ALIGN="left"><TR><TD ALIGN="center"> <IMG SRC="images/gast_ulcer_wet.jpg" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="204" ALT="Gastric Ulcer"></TD></TR><TR><TD align="center"> Gastric Ulcer </TD></TR></TABLE> For centuries stomach and duodenal ulcers have plagued man. They cause chronic pain, and 3 or 4% will bleed or perforate. </P><P> The cause of such ulcers was universally recognized as being due to high gastric acid secondary to stress. Everyone knew this. </P><P> In the 1970’s, effective antacids were developed and thousands of people were relieved of the symptoms, but the healed ulcers recurred once the medicine was stopped. </P><P> In the late 1970's, a pathologist in Australia named Dr. Robin Warren noted what he thought were bacteria is biopsy specimens from the edge of stomach ulcers. No one agreed because everyone knew bacteria do not grow in the highly acidic environment of the stomach. </P><P> Dr. Barry Marshall was a medical resident at the time and needed a research project to complete his studies. He joined Dr. Warren and supplied him with the clinical specimens and set up a method to grow these bacteria. For six months they failed to find any bacteria. </P><P> <TABLE BORDER="0" ALIGN="right"><TR><TD ALIGN="center"> <IMG SRC="images/hpylori.gif" WIDTH="227" HEIGHT="178" ALT="Heliobacter pylori"></TD></TR><TR><TD align="center"> Heliobacter pylori </TD></TR></TABLE> On Easter weekend in 1982, there was a staphylococcus epidemic in their hospital. Over the long weekend, their culture dishes were not checked from Thursday until Tuesday as they were not of importance to patient care. When they were checked, pure cultures of Helicobacter pylori were found. They had been using the correct method but were not waiting long enough. This was the breakthrough that they were waiting for. </P><P> They set up several experiments to test their hypothesis that the Helicobacter pylori caused ulcers and treatment with antibiotics would cure the ulcers. Still, no one believed them, and the ethics committee would not approve an experiment. Dr. Marshall then, rather dramatically, drank a pure culture of Helicobacter pylori. About a week later, he developed vomiting and other symptoms of severe gastritis or stomach inflammation. His wife, Adrienne, was not impressed. "That's a very Barry thing to have done," she recalls. After two weeks he was treated with antibiotics and was cured. </P><P> <TABLE BORDER="0" ALIGN="left"><TR><TD ALIGN="center"> <IMG SRC="images/marshall-warren.jpg" WIDTH="173" HEIGHT="225" ALT="Robin Warren & Brian Marshall"></TD></TR><TR><TD align="center"> Robin Warren (left)<BR>and Brian Marshall </TD></TR></TABLE> This work was published in The British Medical Journal Lancet in 1983. Soon many studies were being done all over the world that showed that antibiotics would indeed cure ulcers. In 1994 a NIH Conscience meeting was held. It was agreed at this meeting that ulcers and chronic gastritis were caused by the bacteria Helicobacter pylori and that treatment should be antibiotics. </P><P> Why did it take over ten years for general recognition of the role of a bacteria in ulcers and the simple antibiotic cure? Were it not for Dr. Marshall's crusading character, it might have taken even longer. One factor was that pharmaceutical companies had developed powerful acid blockers for ulcer sufferers (Tagamet and Zantac) and were making great profits from them. The antibiotic cure would quickly reduce the demand for the profitable drugs. </P><P> The H. pylori discovery has ramifications beyond simple ulcers. The bacteria have been implicated in gastric cancer, and the concept of an invisible persistent infection as the cause of other chronic disease has gained credence. </P><P> In December 2004, Drs. Marshall and Warren were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for their work. <FONT SIZE="+1"> <CENTER> Click here <A HREF="/SmartScience/SmartScience.html"> <IMG SRC="images/lilystar50.jpg" WIDTH="50" HEIGHT="50" ALIGN="middle" ALT="Click Here"></A> for the Smart Science home page. <BR> <FONT SIZE="-1"> Contents copyright 2005 by Dr. A. V. Persson and ParaComp, Inc. All rights reserved.<BR> <BR> <A HREF="disclaimer.html">Disclaimer</A> </FONT> </BODY> </HTML>