Digestive Ailments 51
four of whom made a complete recovery in three to four weeks.^6 Of the
nineteen patients in the group treated with conventional medicines,
only six recovered. Dr. E. M. Vermel in a Russian medical journal, Clin-
ical Medicine, published in 1960, stated that many independent investiga-
tions confirmed Dr. Cheney’s research and that stomach ulcers
disappeared in 85 percent of the 500 subjects in these studies.^7 Ver mel
believes that vitamin U, about which nothing is k nown, supplies a nutri-
ent needed for the formation of mucus. I would say, rather, that the
factor in bananas and cabbage that rebuilds the stomach’s mucous lining
is hyaluronic acid, the substance in mucilage that gives it its slippery and
gluelike texture.
Despite all the documentation showing the healing effect of cabbage
juice and banana powder on ulcers, the treatment of choice for ulcers in
recent years has become antibiotics. This is due to the two Australian
medical researchers, Doctors Barry Marshall and Robin Warren, who
concluded from their research that H. pylori bacteria is the cause of ulcers.
Their discovery made antibiotics appear to be a cure for ulcers and so
obscured the need to fi nd out why the bacteria settled in the stomach in
the fi rst place. In fact, bacteria thrive on acidic waste; so they settle wher-
ever acid levels are high, and wherever this is the case the tissue is already
infl amed. Infl amed tissue in the stomach and duodenum (uppermost part
of the small intestine) is likely to become ulcerated. As bacteria die and
the remains turn into acidic waste, infl ammation becomes more severe,
increasing the likelihood that more ulcers will form. By killing off the
H. pylori bacteria, antibiotics reduce the infl ammation, but they can’t
eliminate the redness and swelling caused by dietary acidic waste. Only
after the foods that triggered the infl ammation are no longer eaten can
infl amed and ulcerated tissues heal completely.Gallbladder Problems
It is ironic that a cholesterol-rich saturated fat diet helps prevent gallstones
when bile crystallizes into gallstones only when the gallbladder becomes
supersaturated with cholesterol. Two siblings, John and Margaret, are
examples of what happens when cholesterol is excluded from the diet.
Their mother gave them plenty of vegetables, salads, and fruit, but being
excessively cholesterol conscious, she served only lean meat and no butter.