Medicine: Ulcer Pacifier

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Is there any sure way, short of surgery, to quiet a peptic ulcer? New York University's China-born Dr. Frank Wang Co-Tui called in the press last week to say that there is, and he has it. He has been doing some experiments on hydrolysates, the new concentrated, predigested proteins, now being used abroad to build up war-starved people. He had fed the hydrolysates to several ulcer patients as preparation for operations, and was surprised when the patients began to get well without surgery.

Dr. Co thus accidentally put two & two together. It was already known that ulcer patients need protein to use up their excess stomach acids and that many ulcer patients are low in blood protein, which contributes to their run-down condition.

When fed the proteins every two hours, some of the 47 Co patients were free of pain in two days, and after three weeks some ulcers no longer showed up on X-ray films. Many of the patients gained weight.

Results are sometimes as good—but rarely so dramatic—on the conventional Sippy diet of milk, cream, bland and gooey foods and acid-neutralizing powders. But the Sippy diet does not do much for blood protein. Both diets, being extreme, have a good psychological effect on ulcer patients, which doctors think is one of the most important factors in treatment. Simple proof: ulcer patients, generally a moody, brooding lot, have shown marked improvement after inoculations with distilled water.