What cause ulcers? Stress, Coffee, Spicy food? Wrong, wrong, wrong, according to Daniel Haney of the Associated Press. For years that is what doctors presumed caused ulcers, but in the early 1980s two doctors—Barry Marshall and Robin Warren—discovered a bacterium in the lining of the digestive system that they suspected might be the real cause. The bacterium is called Heliobacter pylori.
The proof of Marshall and Warren’s idea was slow in coming, but by the early 1990s—after some two thousand articles had appeared in medical journals on the subject of the bacterium—gastroenterologists agreed with them.
“It turns out that about half of all U.S. adults are infected with H. pylori,” writes Haney. “Most don’t get ulcers. But when ulcers do occur, the bug is probably responsible for 80 percent or more. The only major exception is ulcers triggered by aspirin and some other pain killers.”
Nevertheless, most people suffering stomach discomfort don’t go first to a gastroenterologist; they go to their family practitioner or general internist. And news about the real cause of ulcers has been slow to reach them. Instead of prescribing an antibiotic that would cure the problem, many persist in prescribing acid-blocking drugs that may heal ulcers temporarily, but in time they often come back.
In a similar way, many people get only temporary relief for spiritual and emotional problems. If a person has a sin problem, no amount of self-help or technique will completely take away the pain or cure the disease. The antibiotic is repentance.
The proof of Marshall and Warren’s idea was slow in coming, but by the early 1990s—after some two thousand articles had appeared in medical journals on the subject of the bacterium—gastroenterologists agreed with them.
“It turns out that about half of all U.S. adults are infected with H. pylori,” writes Haney. “Most don’t get ulcers. But when ulcers do occur, the bug is probably responsible for 80 percent or more. The only major exception is ulcers triggered by aspirin and some other pain killers.”
Nevertheless, most people suffering stomach discomfort don’t go first to a gastroenterologist; they go to their family practitioner or general internist. And news about the real cause of ulcers has been slow to reach them. Instead of prescribing an antibiotic that would cure the problem, many persist in prescribing acid-blocking drugs that may heal ulcers temporarily, but in time they often come back.
In a similar way, many people get only temporary relief for spiritual and emotional problems. If a person has a sin problem, no amount of self-help or technique will completely take away the pain or cure the disease. The antibiotic is repentance.
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