Add a Nobel Prize to the science supporting REAL MILK

[Guest guest]

By Matt

STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- Australians Barry Marshall and Robin Warren

won the 2005 Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for showing that

bacterial infection, not stress, is to blame for most painful

ulcers in the stomach and intestines.

The 1982 discovery transformed peptic ulcer disease from a chronic,

frequently-disabling condition to one that can be cured by a short

regimen of antibiotics and other medicines, the Nobel Prize

committee said.

Thanks to their work, it has now been established that the bacterium

Helicobacter pylori, which the new Nobel winners discovered, is the

most common cause of peptic ulcers.

" This was very much against the prevailing knowledge and dogma

because it was thought that peptic ulcer disease was the result of

stress and lifestyle, " Staffan Normark, a member of the Nobel

Assembly at Karolinska institute, said at a news conference.

The Australians' proposal of a microbial cause instead was very

controversial and unexpected " , said Goran Hansson, who chairs the

Nobel committee that awards the medicine or physiology prize.

" They

had to spend the first few years convincing the rest of the

world. "

Marshall even deliberately infected himself with the bacterium in

1985 and showed that it caused stomach illness, noted Lord May of

Oxford, president of Britain's Royal Society. Marshall suffered

inflammation, which can lead to ulcer.

Marshall, 54, and Warren, 68, celebrated their new honour with

champagne and beer. " Obviously it's the best thing that can

ever

happened to somebody in medical research. It's just

incredible. "

Marshall told the Associated Press by telephone from the Western

Australian state capital, Perth, where the two men were celebrating

with family members. Warren said he was " very excited also a

little

overcome, " at the honour.

" The idea of stress and things like that [ causing ulcers ] was

just

so entrenched nobody could really believe that it was bacteria. "

Marshall said. " It had to come from some weird place like Perth

Western Australia, because I think nobody else would have even

considered it. "

The discovery has stimulated research into microbes as possible

reasons for other chronic inflammatory conditions, such as

Crohn's

disease, ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis and

artherosclerosis, the assembly said in its citation.

Associated Press