 Heartburn, Stomach Ulcers, Acid Reflux: Treat the Symptoms, or Cure?
If you suffer from heartburn, stomach ulcers or acid reflux you are probably familiar with brands like Zantac and Prilosec. Like most people, you may assume that stomach ulcers are the result of stress. Almost everyone occasionally experiences mild heartburn. There can also be some simple factors contributing to heartburn: unusual pressure to the stomach after eating (or because of eating). There are some simple cures: take an antacid like Tums, loosen your clothing, lose some weight, or just don't eat so damn much. Turning to a product like Zantac is like using a cruise missile to kill a field mouse. It might work, but it is a massively expensive and overpowered solution for a simple problem. However, maybe you need an overpowered solution for stomach (peptic) ulcers. After all, you can't cure the stress of your life, can you? Well, hold onto your hats: in many cases, heartburn and stomach ulcers can be cured. They are due to a bacteria called Helicobacter pylori, not because of your job, your marriage, or your other source of stress. H. pylori is a tough bacteria that specializes in living in your stomach. Infections cause irritation in the stomach, and the irritations triggers your body to fight back by releasing more acid into the stomach -- most bacteria can't survive this chemical warfare, but H. pylori is adapted for this. Here is an excellent write-up from the Australian Gut Foundation on Helicobacter pylori. You can further research this bacteria at the Helicobacter Foundation, or if you prefer something more scholarly try the U.S. National Library of Medicine. The literature regarding the relationship between Acid Reflux and H. pylori is less clear; various studies support a link while others show no correlation. However it is a widely-accepted view that many ailments involving excessive stomach acid due stem from an H. pylori infection, and clearing up the infection with a strong dosage of antibiotics can lead to a complete cure for these ailments. If you experience serious problems with heartburn, you may ask your doctor about testing for H. pylori. It might not be your job killing you, it may be a tiny parasite.  Epilogue: A Genuine Science Thriller
Prior to 1982 the common scientific wisdom was that no bacteria could survive in the harsh conditions that existed in the stomach. To this day the myth that stomach ulcers are due to stress persists. In 1982 J. Robin Warren and Barry Marshall discovered H. pylori; and like many great scientific discoveries they found it as a result of an accident, or perhaps laziness. They theorized, against common wisdom, that there was an organism responsible for stomach ulcers, and spent many long nights trying to grow a culture from samples obtained from patients. The usual routine for developing the culture consisted of preparing the culture, and waiting up to 2 days to see if anything grew. Then during one long Easter weekend a culture was left sitting accidentally for 6 days instead of the usual 2. The culture showed a positive result: as it turns out, H. pylori takes an unusally long time to grow. | 
