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The American Journal of Gastroenterology has published a new guideline on the treatment of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection. H. pylori is a bacterium that infects over half the people in the world, though most are asymptomatic. It can cause dyspepsia, peptic ulcer disease and gastric cancer. This latest clinical practice guideline notes that its prevalence in North America is decreasing, but it still infects 30-40% of the population. A previous guideline was published in 2017. It had maintained the recommendation of a proton pump inhibitor-clarithromycin triple therapy as the primary treatment option. In the new guideline, the number one...

A team of researchers is uncovering how the juice from red cabbage, long used in traditional medicine, can alleviate inflammation-associated digestive health conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in mice, offering hope to Americans who suffer from IBD, including Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Santayana Rachagani's team found red cabbage juice boasts a diverse array of bioactive compounds that improved gut health and alleviated the symptoms of IBD in mice. "Red cabbage juice alters the composition of gut microbiota by increasing the abundance of good bacteria, resulting in increased production of short chain fatty acids and other bacteria derived...

(CNN)Scientists in Australia have voiced concern about an apparent outbreak of Buruli ulcer, a flesh-eating disease that usually occurs in West and central Africa. The infectious disease has seen a spike in cases in recent years in several parts of Australia but particularly in the state of Victoria. In a study published Monday in the Medical Journal of Australia, the authors caution that the outbreak of the ulcers, described as an "epidemic" in the study, requires an "urgent scientific response." They report that Victoria is facing a worsening epidemic "defined by cases rapidly increasing in number, becoming more severe in...

Otzi the legendary “Iceman” wasn't alone when he was mummified on a glacier 5,300 years ago. With him were gut microbes known to cause some serious tummy trouble. These bacteria, Helicobacter pylori, are providing fresh evidence about Otzi's diet and poor health in the days leading up to his murder. Intriguingly, they could also help scientists better understand who his people were and how they came to live in the region. ... Discovered in the 1990s, Otzi lived in what are today the Eastern Italian Alps, where he was naturally mummified by ice after his violent death. The body is...

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...

There is a cold hour just before dawn, when the light is the colour of lead, when the past seems a little closer and a lot more real than it does in the clearer light that comes later in the day. --SNIP-- On that day, IRA gunmen burst into a string of houses that lay along my route to the conference centre and shot dead 14 British officers and intelligence officials. The Ireland of those days was inured to brutality on all sides but there was something about these killings that shocked the Dublin public. Maybe it was the curiously...

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Minister Louis Farrakhan, who recently ceded leadership of the Nation of Islam to an executive board because of ill health, has undergone a 12-hour operation, the organization said Saturday. Physicians have told Farrakhan's family they were pleased with the operation's outcome but will monitor him closely for the next 24 to 48 hours, the Chicago-based group said in a statement. No other details were released, and a man who answered the telephone at the office of Farrakhan's chief of staff declined to reveal the nature of the surgery or where it was performed. Farrakhan, 73, wrote...

A weakened immune system - not an over-active one as had been suspected - may cause the intestinal disorder Crohn's disease, research suggests. Work by University College London (UCL) suggests Crohn's is more likely to be due to a weakened immune system failing to destroy bacteria. The Lancet study also suggests the anti-impotence drug Viagra may help to treat the disorder. Viagra was found to correct low blood flow among Crohn's sufferers. There are several pieces of information that suggest Crohn's is linked to an abnormality of the immune response, rather than an excessive one Dr Alistair Forbes Crohn's disease...

My sister and her son need the FR Prayer Warriors. My nephew is 24 years old and needs your prayers. Here is an email I received from another sister: Chris is very ill and needs to be added to your prayer lists.  He has spent months dealing with bleeding ulcers that have never properly healed.  He spent last evening in the ER but they eventually turned him away and said there was nothing they could do for him. He can't get in to see his doctor until next Tuesday and is in an extreme amount of pain. He took a...

I believe that I have found a natural medicine (refluxed pure natural rubber, and since natural, basically unregulated by FDA) that is anti – carcinogenic and may cure cancer, and natural rubber (the longest known molecule), seams to have the ability to also stop bleeding once in the blood system, which in many cases is the first sign of cancer as an cancerous ulcer. The German scientist Paul Ehrlich (1854-1915) came up with the concept in medicine of a magic bullet that would kill bacteria but not harm Humans. He had some success with an arsenic compound that he add...