| Description |
1 online resource (streaming video file) (26 min. 41 sec.) ; 161199902 bytes |
| Summary |
Not so long ago it was thought worry and stress triggered the chronic pain of stomach ulcers. So how would yesterday's doctors have reacted to scores of peaceful, meditating Tibetan monks rolling up to the surgery complaining of crippling pain. Thankfully, new medical science has sorted it all out. Oh and a dedicated team of Australian helpers.In Sydney, a film-maker puts the finishing touches to a powerful and intriguing documentary called Tibet: Murder in the Snow. Nearby, an Australian charity worker is marshalling a visiting band of Tibetan monks on a visit to raise awareness and support. She's discovered previously that many of them suffer from chronic stomach pain. Several have been treated successfully in Australia for Helicobacter Pylori.The film-maker Mark Gould wants a knowledgeable audience to preview his film and crosses paths with the Tibetan advocate and supporter Maureen Fallon. Mark gets his audience. And soon - serendipitously - Maureen and the Tibetan monks would have their answers.Maureen quickly discovers Mark Gould has also recently completed a film about two Nobel-prize winning Australian scientists who'd busted the myth of stomach ulcers. Stress was not the cause, rather a bacteria they called helicobacter pylori. This week's Foreign Correspondent joins the fascinating journey to discover whether or not Helicobacter Pylori is the cause of what a community of Tibetan monks in India call Phowa.Since 1994 Maureen Fallon and her Tibetan Australian colleague Sonam Rigzen have toured groups of refugee Tibetan Buddhist monks from India around Australia and they've raised enough money to build and maintain a monastic university near Dharamsala in India, now housing 550 monks.With the collaboration of a top medical team in Australia, and accompanied by Courtney Harrington, a nurse and third year medical student, Maureen and Sonam return to the foothills of the Himalayas. Courtney's interviews with the monks revealed decades of pain. And soon we learn 77% of those tested are infected with Helicobacter Pylori . That means they can be treated with antibiotics and many can look forward to a new inner peace.The monks are grateful but the exchange is far from one-sided says Courtney Harrington:"It's been life changing. It shows for the first time that all my studying and late nights in the books, can actually help someone somewhere, make a little bit of a difference."Now there are plans to build a gastric clinic just outside the monastery grounds where Tibetans and local Indians can be treated. The team also launched a public health campaign teaching the young monks to wash their hands and installing taps and sinks outside their dining room.When Perth scientists Robin Warren and Barry Marshall discovered the bug that causes stomach ulcers, they turned medical science on its head and won the Nobel Prize for Medicine. But they could never have imagined that their discovery would later be used to cure an ancient Tibetan affliction |
| Notes |
Closed captioning in English |
| Event |
Broadcast 2010-06-01 at 20:00:00 |
| Notes |
Classification: NC |
| Subject |
Buddhist monks.
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Charity organization.
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Helicobacter pylori infections.
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Nobel Prize-winning scientists.
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Public health -- Study and teaching.
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Stomach -- Ulcers.
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India.
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Streaming video
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Bowden, Tracy, reporter
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Corcoran, Mark, host
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Fallon, Maureen, contributor
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Harrington, Courtney, contributor
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Rigzin, Sonam, contributor
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