Free Republic

The German government has warned that in some circumstances a vegan diet can be harmful to a person’s health, as the non-meat, non-dairy lifestyle experiences a boom in Berlin. “A purely plant-based diet makes it more difficult to give the body some of the important nutrients it needs,” the government statement from last week reads. Vitamin B12 is a particularly important nutrient that is almost exclusively present in meat, the statement adds, explaining that the only way vegans can consume it is by taking supplementary pills. …

Experimental animal studies have shown that H. pylori shares several antigenic regions in common with acid secreting cells in gastric mucosa. Antibodies triggered by H. pylori destroy acid secreting cells due this antigenic mimicry. H. pylori infection is very common in humans, and about half of the infected patients develop atrophic changes over the years. In end stage severe atrophy, H. pylori disappears and signs of a previous infection are difficult to detect. This research, lead by Dr. L Veijola and her colleagues in the University of Helsinki, Finland, has recently been published on January 7 , 2010 in World...