Submitted by: Submitted by deolbaba
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Category: Science and Technology
Date Submitted: 02/20/2013 09:55 PM
Adeoluwa Ogunlere
Professor Maike Hudson
English 1013-85
October 3, 2011
The Myth about Ulcers
Many people have taken any little inflammation of their stomachs to be ulcers, but an ulcer is more than that. Ulcer, also known as PUD, is the most common ulcer of an area of the gastrointestinal tract that is usually acidic hence, extremely painful. Doctor’s dictionary defined ulcers as mucosal erosions equal to or greater than 0.5 cm. Contrary to general belief, four times as many peptic ulcers arise in the duodenum, the first part of the small intestine, just after the stomach rather than in the stomach itself. Johannessen stated that about 4% of stomachs ulcers are caused by a malignant tumor, so multiple biopsies are needed to exclude cancer. Duodenal ulcers are generally benign. Hence the steps in knowing if you are suffering from ulcers is not different from a cancer patient because it is advised to see the doctor if you are experiencing inflammations often. Ulcers generally have been a pain to mankind and has killed many people, thus it is important to get to the root of its continuous spread.
John Lykoudis, a general practitioner in Greece, treated patients for peptic ulcer disease with antibiotics, beginning in 1958, long before it was commonly recognized that bacteria was a dominant cause for the disease (J. Marshall). Helicobacter pylorus was rediscovered in 1982 by two Australian scientists, Robin Warren and Barry J. Marshall as a causative factor for ulcers (A. Marshall). They contended that most ulcers were caused by colonization of the bacterium not by stress or spicy food as it was assumed before.
In the act of self-experiment, Marshall drank a petri dish containing organisms extracted from a patient and five days after, and he developed gastritis and the symptoms cleared after two weeks, then he took antibiotics to kill the remaining bacteria. Studies observed by Van Der Wayden shows that mastic gum, a tree resin extract actively...