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Robin Warren, pathologist who rewrote the science on ulcers, has died

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Robin Warren, pathologist who rewrote the science on ulcers, has died

#31

Post by kevinmchugh »

redhed wrote: post #22
tombert wrote: post #13

I got an ulcer about ten years ago, well after Warren's research, I went to a doctor and he told me that the ulcer was caused by stress. I said something like "didn't someone get a Nobel prize proving that ulcers were bacterial?" and the doctor hadn't heard that and "prescribed" me to get more rest and try and be less concerned about work. I got a different doctor after that. Robin Warren is someone who I respected t…

Same thing happened to me about 6 years ago. Told me to relax and not eat spicy foods. Makes me wonder how long medical advancements like this take to really spread to most doctors.

Science advances one funeral at a time

Re: Robin Warren, pathologist who rewrote the science on ulcers, has died

#32

Post by deangiberson »

I was diagnosed with ulcers at the age of 10, well before Warren's work. For 11 years I dealt with constant pain and people telling me I just needed to learn how to relax. At the age of 21, at my next twice-yearly doctor appointment, my doctor asked me if I had heard about this news. I had, and I was willing to try it out as an experimental treatment. Eight weeks later I was cured. No pain. No after effects. Robin Warren impacted my life in a very real way.

Re: Robin Warren, pathologist who rewrote the science on ulcers, has died

#33

Post by BurningFrog »

kevinmchugh wrote: post #31
redhed wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same thing happened to me about 6 years ago. Told me to relax and not eat spicy foods. Makes me wonder how long medical advancements like this take to really spread to most doctors.

Science advances one funeral at a time

Several, if you count the patients.

Re: Robin Warren, pathologist who rewrote the science on ulcers, has died

#34

Post by MichaelDickens »

kevinmchugh wrote: post #31
redhed wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same thing happened to me about 6 years ago. Told me to relax and not eat spicy foods. Makes me wonder how long medical advancements like this take to really spread to most doctors.

Science advances one funeral at a time

Robert Warren is most likely older than the doctor in question, so it would seem the science needs at least two generations of funerals in this case.

Re: Robin Warren, pathologist who rewrote the science on ulcers, has died

#35

Post by cpncrunch »

phkahler wrote: post #25
cpncrunch wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats a bit of a myth though. Stress is still known to be a factor in causing ulcers. https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ben/cpd/2020/00000026...

What is a bit of a myth? Sounds like stress is a factor but the bacteria is a direct cause in 90 percent of cases. The myth was that stress is "the cause".

50% of people are infected with H.Pylori, so clearly the bacteria isn't a cause on its own. The myth is more that "stress doesn't cause ulcers", which many people now believe.

Re: Robin Warren, pathologist who rewrote the science on ulcers, has died

#36

Post by taeric »

tombert wrote: post #13

I got an ulcer about ten years ago, well after Warren's research, I went to a doctor and he told me that the ulcer was caused by stress. I said something like "didn't someone get a Nobel prize proving that ulcers were bacterial?" and the doctor hadn't heard that and "prescribed" me to get more rest and try and be less concerned about work. I got a different doctor after that. Robin Warren is someone who I respected t…

This is the poster example I use for how dramatically information can change within our lifetime. I still encounter people that are unaware that most of the "stress causes ulcers" was just wrong.

Re: Robin Warren, pathologist who rewrote the science on ulcers, has died

#37

Post by memcg »

I had a bleeding ulcer in high school in the 70s, so assuming it was stress, the staff at my all male Catholic HS started to treat me like a human being. It wasn't stress, but I enjoyed the change.

I believe that my ulcer was caused by daily doses of the antibiotic Tetracycline which the family Dermatologist prescribed for acne. Once I stopped taking it, my symptoms were gone.

Re: Robin Warren, pathologist who rewrote the science on ulcers, has died

#38

Post by tombert »

taeric wrote: post #36
tombert wrote: post #13

I got an ulcer about ten years ago, well after Warren's research, I went to a doctor and he told me that the ulcer was caused by stress. I said something like "didn't someone get a Nobel prize proving that ulcers were bacterial?" and the doctor hadn't heard that and "prescribed" me to get more rest and try and be less concerned about work. I got a different doctor after that. Robin Warren is someone who I respected t…

This is the poster example I use for how dramatically information can change within our lifetime. I still encounter people that are unaware that most of the "stress causes ulcers" was just wrong.

It certainly matters more in medicine, where you have very serious risk of causing people pain, but as I've gotten a bit older I've become a lot more sympathetic to people having trouble keeping up with the world sometimes.

Like, it's not a good excuse, don't get me wrong, but as much as I try, I simply cannot keep up with the entire state of the art of computer science. I wish I could, and a younger me without a family and responsibilities actually would mostly keep up with everything, but now it just feels like there's never quite enough time to learn everything I really should.

I do try and keep up, I have a million textbooks and the like, and I try and at least go through the example problems for them, but it's pretty easy to fall behind in that stuff.

While a GP should keep up to date with ulcer research, and "I'm busy!" isn't a great excuse when serious pain and/or lives are on the line, but it's something I at least understand better now.

Re: Robin Warren, pathologist who rewrote the science on ulcers, has died

#39

Post by xenadu02 »

dralley wrote: post #20
tombert wrote: post #13

I got an ulcer about ten years ago, well after Warren's research, I went to a doctor and he told me that the ulcer was caused by stress. I said something like "didn't someone get a Nobel prize proving that ulcers were bacterial?" and the doctor hadn't heard that and "prescribed" me to get more rest and try and be less concerned about work. I got a different doctor after that. Robin Warren is someone who I respected t…

The handful of times I've had ulcers in the past it was certainly correlated with stress. Perhaps indirectly through some other effects, but stress feels like part of the equation IME, at least for some people.

Stress can aggravate ulcers, as it can aggravate any number of underlying conditions. Similarly eating spicy food can make the symptoms of acid reflux much worse thanks to capsaicin in the refluxing acid. But in both cases the root cause is something else.
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