About Me

Matt Murray is co-owner and manager for GreenAcres Market in Wichita, Kansas. From 1996 until 2002 Matt was co-host of the nationally syndicated radio show, HealthTalk with Shannon and Matt. Current activities involve writing health-related articles for local magazines and newspapers, seminars and speaking engagements.

Active in lobbying for the natural products industry in Washington, D.C., Matt was president of Rocky Mountain Nutritional Foods Association and a member of the national board for NNfA from 2002 through 2006.

Consumer education, advertising and promotions are the key elements for store growth so he spends time on newsletter development and in-store activities.

Ulcers Complementary Treatments Boost Success

In October 2005, Dr. J. Robin Warren and Dr. Barry Marshall received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for their groundbreaking 1995 discovery that Helicobacter pylori bacteria (H. pylori) and not stress causes peptic (related to digestion) ulcers. The usual course of treatment for H. pylori is antibiotics, but while antibiotics have cured many ulcer sufferers, others develop resistance to antibiotic treatment. Natural supplements such as vitamin C, mastic gum and garlic are effective alternative and complementary treatments for ulcers.

Over a four-week period, 60 patients with dyspepsia (impaired digestion), chronic gastritis (stomach inflammation) and H. pylori infection randomly received either antacids or 5 grams of vitamin C, administered in four divided doses (two grams once, and one gram three times) per day. At the end of the treatment period, all 24 patients in the antacid group were still infected with H. pylori, while 8 of the 27 patients (30%) who had completed the vitamin C therapy were infection-free.

Research from the University of Nottingham, UK, found that mastic gum eliminated H. pylori in seven of its drug-resistant forms. In a two-week double-blind study reported in the journal Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology and Physiology, researchers gave 38 patients with duodenal (the first part of the small intestine) ulcers one gram of mastic gum per day, while another group took a placebo. The mastic gum group had 80% fewer ulcer symptoms compared with 50% fewer symptoms in the placebo group. Doctors examined patients by endoscope (a flexible viewing instrument) and found that 70% of those in the mastic gum group had healed. Mastic gum produced no side effects.

In another study, patients who took allicin (a compound present in garlic) had 23% less H. pylori infection, and those who took allicin combined with conventional antibiotic therapy had 66% to 90% less infection.

Reference: Japanese Clinical Gastroenterology; 2002, Vol. 34, 129-34.