Nobel Prize Awarded for Stomach Ulcer Discovery 291
gollum123 writes to tell us the BBC is reporting that the Nobel prize for medicine has been awarded to two Australian scientists for their work with ulcers. Their research has shown that the majority of ulcers are caused by bacteria and can be cured with a short-term course of drugs and antibiotics. From the article: "Dr Marshall proved that H. pylori caused gastic inflammation by deliberately infecting himself with the bacterium. The Nobel citation praises the doctors for their tenacity, and willingness to challenge prevailing dogmas."
Re:1982! (Score:5, Interesting)
This proves that it is still possible to do great medical research in the mould (sorry) of Fleming and Penicillin, and you don't need a $100m research budget.
He suffered a lot of problems getting the medical establishment to believe him, and it took at least 20 years, but once it did, the Nobel was bound to happen sooner or later.
Good on you Bazza
My kingom for... (Score:2, Interesting)
How much is can someone pay for a cure of something that can not be cured?
Obvious (Score:5, Interesting)
From another BBC article [bbc.co.uk]
Mr Warren said he was a "little overcome" by the award.
"It is nice to be officially recognised and it gives some sort of a stamp of approval, but we believed it within a few months because it was so bloody obvious," he told reporters.
Re:My kingom for... (Score:1, Interesting)
Ouch (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:My kingom for... (Score:4, Interesting)
Seriously - been on them for a week, no symptoms. Not a cure, but a hell of a better life.
J.
Re:About time! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re-infection can be a serious problem for people in areas like that. Apparently much of his work at UVA dealt with susceptibility studies and clustering. Fascinating guy.
Diagnosing "Conditions", not finding Causes (Score:5, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Ouch (Score:5, Interesting)
The Nobel prize, on the other hand, is awarded purely for groundbreaking research, usually on the basis of a single seminal piece of research but sometimes something more like a 'lifetime acheivement' award. In almost all cases, it is awarded long after the original research, when the impact can be properly judged in the historical context. For many Nobel lauriates, the work they received the prize for was an exception in an otherwise ordinary career. And in some cases, (the physics prize for the 3K microwave cosmic background comes to mind) the recipents were not actually scientists, but just stumbled upon the discovery by accident.
Re:1982! (Score:5, Interesting)
Rather chilling when you consider one of the body's mechanisms of protection against bacteria is stomach acidity. Hence why European versions of this drug include the ancient antibiotic bismuth (also found in a famous pink stomach medicine)
So treating a symptom and possibly making it worse in the long run; good business plan - almost as graceful as nicotine enlarging airways and easing breathing: early adverts recommended cigarettes as a cure for bronchitis!
Re:My kingom for... (Score:0, Interesting)
Interesting book on experiments (Score:3, Interesting)
I am not sure if there is an English translation, but the web site [verrueckte...rimente.de] has some excerpts.
It sounds like 19th century medicine (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Nobel awarded on merit of utility or tenacity?? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:1982! (Score:2, Interesting)
Short term course of antibiotics (Score:3, Interesting)
Admittedly, this is short term compared to the years of antibiotics that some people wind up using, and it's better than living with an ulcer for the rest of your life.
Re:1982! (Score:2, Interesting)
OPTION 1. Excersise. Muscle fat will cause more BP problems than fat on outside. Salt buildup is the major cause of high BP. Aerobic excercise for a few hours every week (you have to sweat
For proper cholesterol, well, stop eating *#$#$#* crap fats. Cholesterol is made by your liver based on the type of fat you eat.
Polyunsaturated fat - lowers total cholesterol levels
Unsaturated fat - increases good cholesterol
Saturated fat - increases bad cholesteros
Transfat - liquid plastic that'll make sure you get a quad bypass.
So excercise and eat good fats (poly/unsat to sat ratios matter. Good is olive oil. Bad is pig lard or coconat oil) instead of crap and your cholestorol and BP will be good.
My BP used to be 160/90. Now excercising for two years and it is 110/70. Still have to watch the salt intake and if I eat too much I'll have to go "excrete" it, but whatever.Salt retention in the evolutionary time scale was a good thing because you need it to prevent dehydration hence most people's bodies tend to store too much of it. And now they eat too much of it and you have the results we have.
OPTION 2. Get pills and pills for pills. You will need statins that can screw you liver. These will set you back a few hundred $$$ a year. Then you will need some high BP medication. That will set you back a little too. Now the problem remains with extra fat causing all sorts of problems including cancers. You will probably need drungs for that...
Now you are old, fat on all sorts of drugs. Probably can't move around very well. Well, you will probably get some drugs so you can stare out the window.
But whatever. Most people WILL chose the 2nd option because it *seems* easier. It is, in the short term. Very short term.
A human body is a machine that will break if you DO NOT use it!
Re:Short term course of antibiotics (Score:3, Interesting)
Still many unknowns regarding ulcers (Score:1, Interesting)
The scary part about this was none of the doctors I went to had any idea what could have caused it. The H. Pylori tests came up negative, I was too young to have an ulcer that severe from stress, and I didn't have any family history of it. How can you develop a hole in your stomach over such a short period of time and not be able to explain it? Very scary.
Re:1982! (Score:2, Interesting)
If the awards were given out in the manner you recommend then the two new Lauriates would never have received thier prizes. Thier discovery was not recognised in the year they made it. Just because it takes a long time to convince the medical comunity that your discovery is valid should not mean that you are inelegible for a prize.
Wouldn't it be irritating if two amazing, world changing discoveries, were made in the same field in the same year (a cure for cancer and a vaccine for AIDS perhaps). Who would you pick? The way they currently allocate the awards they have a degree of flexibility
worthless doctors (Score:3, Interesting)
Finally I end up going to an Doctor of Osteopathy who specializes in Osteopathic Manipulation. He's like, "yeah, you're fucked up. I can fix you, no problem." And he does his ten-fingered medicine, and I slowly but magically start to feel better. Neat.
And over the course of the treatments, I realize that my being "fucked up" didn't start with the typing injury, or the head injury which preceded it by a year. My mom reminded me constantly last fall of what a "difficult baby" I was, as I was always crying for not provocation. Especially compared to my younger brother, who "would just coo...". I was crying because I hurt - "mom, please help". Mom takes me to my M.D. pediatrician, "nothing's wrong with him, he'll grow out of it." It's kind of weird to realize that I've been "fucked up" for my entire life - I have no idea what it means to be normal.
While it's true that some osteopaths go to D.O. school because they're somewhat easier to get into, more and more students are CHOOSING D.O. colleges because they believe in the philosophy. My Osteopath discovered the benefits of Osteopathy when a D.O. took away back pains that he'd had since injuring his back in a martial arts class 7 years earlier. 3 visits. Now he has the occasional patient who's been dealing with a health problem for TEN YEARS, and he's able to fix them in a single visit.
My D.O. isn't cheap. Unless you consider what I would go through with an M.D. - expensive tests, expensive drugs, expensive surgery. So, when I look at how I could be throwing money at not getting any better (at worthless tests, worthless drugs, and worthless surgery), I'm perfectly happy with his payment policy (cash or check, $175/20 minute visit, bill your own insurance).