1. Bacteria are real. So are feelings.
Stomach ulcers are caused by stress. No they aren’t. Yes they are. No they … Do you also get the idea that people see what they want to see in this? Since scientists are people, that is true for them as well.
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In human affairs, there’s always something for everyone. So people who want an ulcer to have a material cause, like bacteria for instance, can look at it that way. They will surely find ‘supporting evidence’. People who want to see a psychological cause, can also get what they want. They will equally well find ‘supporting evidence’ of one kind or another.
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My truth in this is: these bacteria like stress. They just love a stressed stomach. They indulge in the microclimate stress provokes in a stomach, especially when the appropriate genetic predisposition makes the climate even more favorable for them.
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If you eradicate the bacteria, you reduce the chance of an ulcer. That’s a good thing, especially if you’re myopic and do not (even want to) see whether something else may occur instead of the ulcer (like a depression, another psychosomatic symptom, or maybe something like ‘diminishment of life’…).
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Hey there! Who cares what this writer is talking about? Well, at least this writer does. So should the whole medical community… but that seems to be a utopia for the future. Back to the ulcer now.
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The link with bacteria doesn’t prove that the bacteria are the cause any more than the presence of a key, even if it’s the right key, proves this key to be ‘the cause’ of the opening of any door. Someone is a user of the key, in which case it’s much more interesting to look at this person as ‘cause’. To disregard the user because of the key, is downright foolish.
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Nevertheless, the following is true: if you take away the key, the door will not open…
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…until the key-user finds another way to bang his way through the door or the wall beside it. Maybe in the end you would prefer not having taken away the key in the first place?
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But now who cares? Do you?
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