MrDarwin

Something for y'all to discuss, as I don't have time right now:

<a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/11/021105080955.htm" target="_blank">Stomach-Dwelling H. Pylori Bacterium Reveals Its Age </a>

This is really fascinating research because it supports the theorized migration of humans from east Asia into the Americas, giving rise to Native Americans (Indians).

DMB

Quite fascinating! Thanks, MrD!

MrDarwin

This topic might generate more interest in Science & Skepticism.

Boro Nut

No, it won't generate any interest here either.

Boro Nut

MrDarwin

Boro Nut, I seriously doubt that that's true.

Dr Rick

Helicobacter pylori is probably the most prevalent bacterial infection in humans, chronicly infecting over half of our stomachs. Related species infect many other mammals such as dogs and cats. The organism is uniquely adapted to thrive in the gastric enviroment and creates its own higher pH micro-environment within the gastric mucosa to protect itself from the acid that kills almost everyother germ.

Most H. pylori infections are clinically asymptomatic, but it is nonetheless considered a class 1 carcinogen by the World Health Organization and, because of its prevalence, is quantitatively the single biggest cause of gastric and duodenal ulcers and is probably one of the leading causes of gastric cancers.

The first report by Marshall and Warren in 1982 finding the bacteria associated with peptic ulcers was greeted with not just skepticism, but outright derision. Their ground-breaking abstract was rejected for presentation or publication that year because it was ridiculous to even consider that any bacteria could cause ulcers; everyone "knew" that ulcers were due to stomach acid and that no bacteria could survive in the stomach for long, so these guys were obviously wackos.

Marshall and Warren were so certain that they were right despite their rejection from the academic community that Marshal and a lab technician deliberately infected themselves by drinking an innoculum of H. pylori. The two underwent pre- and post-infection endoscopies which confirmed inflammatory changes in the stomach with the later and finally got the attention of infectious disease and gastroenterology experts.

Why was it intially so hard for the medical community to accept Marshall and Warren's findings? Because doctors had been looking at gastric ulcer biopsies microscopically for decades and had "never" seen any bacteria. Why should they suddenly be causing ulcers, now? As it turns out, the bacteria were there all along, but doctors, microbiologists, and lab technicians were biased against the idea by conventional wisdom, so even though H. pyloribacteria were in the specimens, they just weren't being recognized for what they were. In fact, biopsies taken and stored from the middle of the 20th century were re-examined in the 1990's, and many of those were found to have the infection even though that wasn't appreciated when they were first evaluated almost a half-century earlier.

Nowadays, the pathologists in my hospitals routinely report finding H. pylori in the biopsies I get from my patients, and when it's associated with ulcers, I eradicate it with combination antibiotic therapy.

By the way, Marshall and Warren didn't really discover H. pylori; ulcer-related bacteria had been described decades before by a pathologist. His finding was published in abstract form, but no one payed attention to it or followed it up until Marshall and Warren independently "re-discovered" the bacterium, and sometime later the older abstract was "re-discovered" as well.

Rick

zwi

Hello guys

H Pylori is not transmitted generation to generation as that source suggests but human to human

It was not suggested as proof that Asians came to America, but simply assumed that. The migration was never in doubt

Zwi