For most of the 20th century, the causes of peptic ulcers were a mystery to scientists and doctors. The most popular theory was that it was a disease caused by stress. The mystery was finally unraveled in the 1980s when Australian physician Barry Marshall deliberately infected himself with the H. Pylori bacteria, got sick, and cured himself with an antibiotic treatment. The discovery that bacteria caused ulcers earned Marshall and his research partner a Nobel Prize in 2005.

But why did it take so long to discover the true cause and treatment of ulcers? The answer lies in bad evidence collection methods, medical dogma that caused scientists to fully understand the evidence, and pharmaceutical companies that didn’t stand to profit from an antibiotic cure of ulcers. This resulted in many missed opportunities to discover the real cause of ulcers, and countless needlessly suffering patients and even deaths.

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Written by Travis View. Theme by Nick Sena (https://nicksenamusic.com). Additional music by Pontus Berghe & Nick Sena. Editing by Corey Klotz.

REFERENCES

Clendening, Logan (May 7, 1944) Stomach Ulcer Treatment, The Times (Muster, Indiana)

Fremont-Smith, Paul (1999) Letter To The Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1999/05/letters/377612/

Graham, David (2014) History of Helicobacter pylori, duodenal ulcer, gastric ulcer and gastric cancer
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4017034/

Marshall, Barry (2005) Nobel Lecture
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2005/marshall/lecture/

Marshall, Barry (2002) Helicobacter Pioneers: Firsthand Accounts from the Scientists who Discovered Helicobacters 1892 - 1982

Palmer, E.D. (1954). Investigation of the gastric mucosa spirochetes of the human. Gastroenterology.

White, Peter (2005) Biopsychosocial Medicine: An Integrated Approach to Understanding Illness