MY OWN EXPERIENCE WITH HELICOBACTER

Several months ago, a random blood test revealed that I have an helicobacter pylori infection. Imagine my surprise, especially when I was not experiencing any apparent symptoms… or so I thought. Since blood can carry antibodies from a previous infection, I’ve confirmed the existence of the infection with two additional simple tests that can be carried out at home (one is a stool test and the other is a breath test, both test are inexpensive, done at home and posted to the lab in the UK for quick diagnosis).

The general theme of bad bug overgrowth wasn't new to me through my clinical experience– I'd already been treating patients with Candida, SIBO, Lyme, EBV, herpes, strep, pylori, candida and many others. Maybe sometimes when we work on resolving some of these other infections, we make progress with any lurking pylori issues too, as many herbs and probiotics are effective against multiple bad bugs.

People with poor methylation function are apparently at risk of all kinds of chronic infections and a high total microbial burden. I often find that pylori issues are the cause of people’s health problems as well as the consequence of other underlying issues like nutritional deficiencies.

I've also been aware of an intriguing connection involving mast cells. Pylori causes mast cells to proliferate, which then maintains a state of inflammation and presumably, makes you more prone to mast cell-mediated allergic reactions. Various sources describe a connection with histamine-related allergies. There definitely does seem to be something like this going on for several of my patients, as I've noticed that environmental exposure to perfume or mould sometimes sets off an attack of gastritis, an inflammatory state that could, from my understanding, be triggered off by mast cell activation.

H. pylori can produce not only the well-known stomach and GI symptoms, but also an assortment of more insidious health problems elsewhere. Therefore, I’ve decided that there’s no question of not taking it seriously, the question was whether or not to treat it the traditional way with a 3-drug combo or to give it a run with alternative medicine combining herbal supplements and diet. Having discussed it with my GP, I’ve decided to combine both.

This has definitely been the case for me – I have been amazed by the benefits of just 6 weeks of taking anti-pylori foods and supplements. Bearing in mind the match-up with my symptoms and the innocuous nature of this treatment, I personally have been happy to explore this idea and confirmed it with definitive test results.

If you want to read more about helicobacter pylori, testing, treatment and more please read my article which also contains a list of foods and supplements that can help eradicate this nasty little bug.