Stomach Ulcers

A strange, but true, tale of stomach ulcers. I happen to be somewhat of an expert on the bastards as I suffered from one from the mid-70's to the arse-end of the 80's.

When I was first diagnosed, treatment was a bit crap. Magnesium Trisilicate if I remember correctly. White chalky liquid that tasted faintly of peppermint. I used to buy it by the litre and carry it with me everywhere. Bloody vile stuff.

In those days, stomach ulcers were thought to be caused by a variety of factors including, but not limited to:

Stress
Smoking
Alcohol
Bad diet
Genetic predispostion.
Not enough exercise.
Too much exercise.

You get the picture. The reality was the medical profession didn't have a bastard clue what caused them. They also didn't have a clue how to fix them. By the time they decided that surgery was the best option for me (after a bad bleed. Shitting black, partially-digested blood is not the best way to greet the day as I found out one morning), the operation of choice was a partial vagotomy. That meant cutting part of the vagus nerve that was supposed to control how much acid your stomach produced. As the vagus nerve also regulates things like heartbeat it was a little chancy.

The chance of success was around 30%. On odd figure because it was exactly the same figure for any surgical procedure! In other words, any invasive surgical procedure had a 30% chance of curing stomach ulcers - but they didn't know that at the time. So they went and ahead and hacked and cut and left me with a scar from bellybutton to sternum and it achieved the square-root of fuck all. Still had the ulcer, still had the pain and now had a massive scar for my troubles.

Around this time the first effective antacid drug was developed, Tagamet, and I was put on this for the forseeable. That was later changed to a more effective one, Zantac, and I could live a pretty much normal life as long as took the drugs.

Then I read something on the new-fangled internet in 1989. A couple of Austrlian doctors had proven that stomach ulcers were caused by a bacteria, Helicobacter pylori, and the bacteria could be wiped out by a course of 2 types antibiotics along with Zantac (a proton-pump inhibitor). This killed the bacteria and hence cured the ulcer.

I persuaded my GP to give this a go (backed up with printouts of the relevant articles ) and became one of the first people in the UK to be cured by this revolutionary treatment.

On looking back at this it seems that the medical profession were behaving exactly like witch doctors when performing surgery for stomach ulcers. They knew that it cured a proportion of the patients, they just couldn't predict which ones it would cure, which ones it would harm and who would be left unchanged. What they didn't realise was the ones who got cured weren't cured by the surgery - they were cured by the antibiotics that every patient gets when they go under the knife. Later studies also showed that people who developed post-op infections were more likely to be cured - because they got more and different types of antibiotics. Hindsight is a beautiful thing.

Last note. The two doctors who developed this treatment and were almost laughed out of the profession, Dr Barry J. Marshall and Dr J. Robin Warren, were awarded the Noble Prize for medicine in 2005. It's worth reading their story.

Cheers
( Legless Mister Stabby - shanks for the memory, Sun 14 Mar 2010, 11:56, 13 replies)

I was diagnosed with Helicobacter pylori many years ago.
Thanks to one little tablet a day I'm free from any symptoms. I remember watching a documtary about them too. Interesting stuff.
( girlinthehole, Sun 14 Mar 2010, 12:03, closed)

Good story.
(FleetlordVT, Sun 14 Mar 2010, 12:31, closed)

I remember reading about this
I'm pretty sure that one of them proved it by drinking a petri dish of the bacteria, getting a stomach ulcer, then curing himself with antibiotics.
( MatJ LOOK, Sun 14 Mar 2010, 12:35, closed)

It Was A Little More Involved
but yes. He deliberately infected himself, developed ulcers, and cured himself.

Talk about putting your money where your mouth is.

Cheers
( Legless Mister Stabby - shanks for the memory, Sun 14 Mar 2010, 14:39, closed)

This is my new info of the day. Thanks.

( Jimbuktu See? Right here, Sun 14 Mar 2010, 12:39, closed)

Did the tagamet give you man-boobs (BIG ones)?

(porkylips looks better as the sun goes down., Sun 14 Mar 2010, 13:19, closed)

Oh Yawn

a troll.

Which is a shame as your normal posts come over as intelligent.

Cheers
( Legless Mister Stabby - shanks for the memory, Sun 14 Mar 2010, 14:40, closed)

Moobs
A doctor writes...

Actually, one of the side effects of cimetidine (Tagamet) is gynaecomastia (medical term for man boobs)... Can also make you lactate.
(suxamethonium, Sun 14 Mar 2010, 17:08, closed)

porkylips is ace

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Sun 14 Mar 2010, 18:45, closed)

I only asked cos my dad got them and they went away when he stopped taking the tagamet. Ho hum.

(porkylips looks better as the sun goes down., Sun 14 Mar 2010, 23:32, closed)

Have click
One benefit of the discovery is that ulcer sufferers no longer emit the most horrendous farts. I was in a hospital bed next to a guy on Tagamet and the stink made my earwax dissolve.
(all my scars face forward possesses 2.5% of a hyperalloy combat chassis, Sun 14 Mar 2010, 19:24, closed)

I didn't know that!
My dad always blamed the dog. I never did believe a wee collie could be responsible for so much stink.
(porkylips looks better as the sun goes down., Sun 14 Mar 2010, 23:33, closed)

Dr Marshall and Warren
Interesting way they proved H. pylori caused ulcers, Marshall downed a culture of the bacteria, and hey presto, he got stomach ulcers!

Also interesting is that 1/2 the world population is infected with H. pylori, though almost all are asymptomatic.
(Soulman87, Sun 14 Mar 2010, 23:48, closed)