Australians win Nobel for gastritis,ulcer discovery

While this does not have the high profile of say a human cloning, this years Nobel Prize winners in medicine have helped scores of people through thier discovery. By discovering that it was a bacteria that was the primary cause of peptic ulcers, Australians Barry Marshall and Robin Warren total changed the way the disease is treated. They made the discovery in 1982

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Australians Barry Marshall and Robin Warren won the 2005 Nobel Medicine prize for discovering a bacterium that causes gastritis and stomach ulcers, said the Nobel Assembly of Stockholm's Karolinska Institute on Monday.

They made the "remarkable and unexpected discovery" in 1982 that the stomach inflammation known as gastritis and ulceration of the stomach and duodenum known as peptic ulcer disease are caused by the bacterium Helicobacter pylori, the Assembly said.

The bacterium causes more than 90 percent of duodenal ulcers and up to 80 percent of gastric ulcers. About two thirds of the world's population is infected with H pylori but most people never suffer any symptoms. It predisposes people to stomach cancer, which is the second most common cause of cancer death.
No more bland diets needed

Good !

i've have 3 ulcers, and let me tell ya , it's not funny. When i had it 3-4 years ago my doctor told me they only recently dicovered that a bacteria (which i got in Canada btw) was the reason for the ulcers.