• iconNews
  • videos
  • entertainment
  • Home
  • News
    • UK News
    • US News
    • Australia
    • Ireland
    • World News
    • Weird News
    • Viral News
    • Sport
    • Technology
    • Science
    • True Crime
    • Travel
  • Entertainment
    • Celebrity
    • TV & Film
    • Netflix
    • Music
    • Gaming
    • TikTok
  • LAD Originals
    • Say Maaate to a Mate
    • Daily Ladness
    • Lad Files
    • UOKM8?
    • FreeToBe
    • Extinct
    • Citizen Reef
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • UNILAD
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
Snapchat
TikTok
YouTube

LAD Entertainment

YouTube

LAD Stories

Submit Your Content
Man who illegally tested deadly theory on himself went on to win Nobel Prize

Home> Community

Published 14:23 16 Feb 2024 GMT

Man who illegally tested deadly theory on himself went on to win Nobel Prize

He used himself as a human guinea pig to prove his theory

Claire Reid

Claire Reid

An Australian physician once scooped the Nobel Prize after he deliberately ingested harmful bacteria to prove his theory about the development of stomach ulcers.

For years, experts believed that peptic ulcers were caused by stress, eating spicy foods or having too much stomach acid.

However, Doctors Barry Marshall and Robin Warren discovered that a bacteria called Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) could lead to ulcers.

Advert

Barry Marshall was awarded a Nobel Prize for his groundbreaking work.
WikiMedia/WikiEdtingProfile2021

But upon sharing their theory, the two were met with scepticism by other scientists and medics, most of whom believed that bacteria couldn’t survive inside the acidic stomach environment of humans.

After unsuccessfully attempts to infect animals with the bacteria, in 1984 Marshall took matters into his own hands - or stomach - to prove what he and Warren were saying was correct.

Marshall cultivated the bacteria from the stomach of a patient who had gastritis and was able to successfully treat it with antibiotics. Ta dah!

But Marshall didn’t stop there - somewhat incredibly - he used himself as a human guinea pig and knocked back the same bacteria in a ‘cloudy broth’ in an attempt to infect himself.

Advert

Talking about the experiment, Marshall said: “I went home and told my wife about it, and of course, she was like, ‘Oh, my God, you're gonna infect the whole family. That's why you've got such a bad breath. This is disaster.’”

And she was sort of right, because shortly after, Marshall began to feel unwell and began throwing up - 10 days after ingesting the bacteria, his endoscopy confirmed that he had developed gastritis.

It also showed that contrary to popular opinion at the time, the bacteria had flourished in his stomach.

After proving what he set out to prove, Marshall took antibiotics and soon recovered from the illness.

He was happy to experiment on himself to prove his theory.
Pexels/Chokniti Khongchum

Advert

The unusual experiment was published in the Medical Journal of Australia in 1985 but it would be 20 years before Marshall and Warren were properly recognised for their groundbreaking work after being awarded a Nobel Prize in 2005.

In a statement, Nobel organisers said: “The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly to Barry Marshall and Robin Warren for their discovery of the bacterium Helicobacter pylori and its role in gastritis and peptic ulcer disease.

"Thanks to this pioneering discovery, peptic ulcer disease is no longer a chronic, frequently disabling condition, but a disease that can be permanently cured.”

Featured Image Credit: Pascal Le Segretain/Kateryna Kon/Getty Images

Topics: Science, Health

Claire Reid
Claire Reid

Claire is a journalist at LADbible who, after dossing around for a few years, went to Liverpool John Moores University. She graduated with a degree in Journalism and a whole load of debt. When not writing words in exchange for money she is usually at home watching serial killer documentaries surrounded by cats. You can contact Claire at [email protected]

Advert

Advert

Advert

Choose your content:

17 hours ago
19 hours ago
a day ago
  • 17 hours ago

    People shocked at how ‘relevant’ advice to American soldiers living in Britain during WW2 is today

    Some of the American opinion is surely up for debate

    Community
  • 19 hours ago

    Car salesperson says you should ‘never ever’ test drive a car at a dealership for one reason

    Seems like standard procedure, surely?

    Community
  • 19 hours ago

    Relationship expert explains how to deal with worrying ‘breadcrumbing’ dating trend

    Ever feel like you're being lead on by somebody?

    Community
  • a day ago

    Man sold every one of his possessions and bet whole life savings on a single roulette game

    The Londoner left it all to the very last minute

    Community
  • Biohacker who wants to live forever breaks down 'longevity' routine he spends five hours doing every day
  • Scary thing that happened to guy who went into brain scan after drinking alcohol
  • Man completely unaware he was filming first waves of tragic tsunami that went on to kill 220,000 people
  • How man who lived under water for two weeks went to the bathroom