The myth
Stomach ulcers are caused by stress, too much booze, too many fags, too much spicy or acidic food, worry and anxiety.
The “truth”
The belief that. They went on to win the Nobel Prize for medicine, and now it’s universally accepted that the vast majority of stomach ulcers are caused by , with the rest accounted for by prescription drugs, but at the time they were met with a stonewall of scepticism. Their 1983 paper to the Gastroenterological Society of Australia was turned down by reviewers. In an act of self-experimentation that has entered fortean folklore, Marshall then deliberately infected his own gut with . Before and during the experiment he underwent a series of biopsies and endoscopies, while recording his symptoms – vomiting, nausea, bad breath, and so on. The results were published in 1985, and the wall began to slowly crumble. Today, almost all stomach ulcers are simply and quickly treated with antibiotics, instead of bland diets or radical surgery, as Marshall always predicted.
