Aaron Hartman, MDFunctional Medicine Specialist | Clinical Researcher

Stomach Ulcer Treatment Went From a 90% Failure Rate to a 90% Success Rate P #shorts

23 Jun 2026 · 2 min

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1:36

In this short video, Dr. Aaron Hartman explains how stomach ulcer treatment dramatically improved after Barry Marshall and Robin Warren identified Helicobacter pylori as the primary cause of most ulcers. He contrasts the pre‑1982 era—when ulcers were managed with antacids, risky surgeries like vagotomy (with a 1–2% mortality rate) and a 90% failure rate—with the post‑discovery era, where targeted antibiotics achieve roughly a 90% cure rate. Hartman highlights how the medical community initially dismissed the idea that bacteria could survive in the acidic stomach, leading to a decade of ostracism for the discoverers and unnecessary surgeries for patients. He then broadens the discussion to other historical medical blind spots, such as misconceptions about dietary fat and hormone replacement therapy, urging viewers to stay vigilant about current medical dogma. The video ends with a call to share the information to help prevent medical errors, which he notes are a leading cause of death in the United States.

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Stomach ulcer treatment used to have a 90% failure rate. Now it has a 90% success rate. What happened? Before '82, before Barry and Marshall, um, um, sorry, Marshall Warren discovered that H. pylori can cause stomach ulcers, were treated with antacids, surgical procedures, and the surgical procedure itself, uh, doing a vagotomy, had 1 to 2% mortality rate, meaning 1 to 2% of people who got the surgery had bad abs and died. Since discovering that stomach ulcers are caused by bacteria, antibiotics now have a cure rate. We now have a 90% cure rate. But what did wrong— the first thing they got wrong was bacteria can't survive in your stomach. Now, actually, certain bacteria can live in your stomach, one of which is Helicobacter pylori. This bacteria, about 50% of the world's population has it, and it causes 80% of stomach ulcers. Did we miss that? How do we get that so wrong? Well, When Marshall and Warren discovered it, it took 10 years. They were ostracized for 10 years before their idea finally got accepted. And in that time before, millions of people underwent the surgery that had, you know, 1 to 2% mortality rate. The question that comes here, are there other examples of blind spots, of medical mayhem, of things we thought were all right that are just plain wrong? Yes, we have them today. Fat wrong for half a decade, now fat's back. We got hormone replacement therapy wrong for 22, 23 years, now it's back. What else are we getting wrong? I want to educate you about to avoid these blind spots, to avoid these bumps in your healthcare road, because if you avoid those, you potentially can prevent medical error, which probably is the third most common cause of death in our country. Information is helpful for you. Like, share, subscribe. We want information out there because this can literally be life-changing.