provocatively proposed that duodenal ulcers were not caused by stress but were actually the consequence of a bacterial infection, he was literally laughed down, with nearly all the world’s “ulcer experts” claiming that Marshall’s theory was rubbish.
.....So Marshall decided to do a real-world test of his theory: he swallowed a mixture of the bacteria he felt was the cause of ulcers and then he had himself repeatedly scoped for several days, during which he demonstrated that as the bacterial growth took hold in his gut, he developed classical duodenal ulcers.
.....It took a few years, but Marshall’s theory eventually took hold, and the medical world now acknowledges that most duodenal ulcers (85-95 %) occur only in the presence of a bacteria now named Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori), although we also now know that lots of people carry H. pylori without developing an ulcer, so other factors must play a role in why a particular carrier of H. pylori goes on to develop a frank ulcer, factors such as smoking, excess alcohol intake, the use of certain drugs such as pain-killers, and most interestingly, perhaps stress, too.
.....Why do duodenal ulcers matter so much?
.....Because of what they can lead to.
Thus, duodenal ulcers not only cause uncomfortable symptoms such as pain, persistent feelings of hunger, belching, heartburn, and reflux (although many ulcers are “silent”, that is, they produce no symptoms), ulcers can also bleed (often silently, sometimes producing “black” bowel movements), rupture, and cause blockage of the bowel, all of which can lead to life-threatening crisis.
.....One of the other really interesting things about duodenal ulcers is how much the treatment has changed since Marshall’s discovery.
.....So in the long ago past, those same know-it-all “ulcer experts” mentioned earlier were sure that the only way to treat an ulcer was with a bland diet (commonly known as the “milk and Maalox diet”) consisting of boiled white rice, milk, antacids, boiled fish, boiled white meat, and so on, in other words, everything white, gooey, and generally inedible (some of you may recognize this description from the old days when Air Canada still served meals), which is why, of course, no one
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