BY INFILTRATING OUR stomach’s mucus membrane and swimming around in it, H. pylori weakens this protective barrier. As a result, the aggressive acids in our stomach digest not only our food, but a little bit of our own stomach, as well. If the bacteria also possess the injection-syringe or cell-damaging gene, our stomach cells have little hope. About one-fifth of people who harbor this bacterium develop tiny lesions in their stomach wall.
