Helicobacter Forums

Hi Helico_expert

You mentioned that "it's common to have "H. pylori"-like symptoms even after H. pylori eradication"

Why woukd this be the cases especially if I have been virtually symptoms free for months until a few days ago.

Has the H pylori infection made my acidity secretion very sensitive to good or stress because no one else in the family has suffered

hmmm.... good question.
the symptoms are not because of H. pylori. It's actually from the inflammation and damage done.
Unfortunately, some damage can be non-reversible. Like a scar.
In addition, sometimes the inflammation just refuse to go away or easily triggered.
Because everyone's immune response is different. So the symptoms are different; and the recovery is different.

You mentioned the a lot of people in Australia have been cured of h pylori infection

Is it common to see acidity continue on an on and off basis post eradication in those patients with varying degrer of intensity.

I agree that stress can aggravate the symptoms but still not convinced that it can be the reason for sudden increase in acidity

I have now started omeprazole 10mg for last 3 days just to calm things done a little

Hi Helico_expert

My GP had suggested taking Amitriptyline 10mg a while back after I had completed the eradication therapy in January 21. I never took this as my symptoms gradually settled down. Now that symptoms have resurfaced should I start it?

Also as I took omeprazole 10mg for 3 days only up to 31 January 22 how long should I wait for until doing a stool test for helicobacter?

In Australia, even when H. pylori infection is rare, GERD is still a common problem. We are not sure why.

It is better to stop PPI for at least 2 weeks before stool test.

If you think omeprazole is not helpful, perhaps you can try other PPI, such as rabeprazole, pantoprazole, etc...
they all work the same, just being metabolized differently in the body. Some people can have very fast metabolic rate on certain PPI and so it doesnt last very long in the body. So trying different PPI will help.

Hi Helico Expert

I do find Omeprazole helpful but the problem is stopping it for 14days before doing a stool test. I have 2 questions

1. I understand the PPI needs to be stopped for 14 days before taking a stool sample for testing otherwise the bacteria hides in a less acidic stomach. However under the tripe therapy treatment the PPI does is doubled to kill the same bacteria. Is that not contracting the first reason?

2. Why is that something like famotidine is ok to take before stool test and not PPI. They both work to reduce acid production so why one could affect the test but the other doesn't.

You views much appreciated as always.

1. we are not exactly sure how PPI kill H. pylori. There are some developing theories. Perhaps as the stomach is not so acidic, other microbes start growing and they can sometimes produce some anti-bacterial agents for their own advantage and kill off some H. pylori by accident. Anyway, taking PPI alone cannot fully eradicate H. pylori.

2. H2 blockers like famotidine works differently to PPI. PPI is absorbed into the blood and give a more complete blockage of acid secretion. H2 blocker just temporarily block acid secretion.

Thanks

My question actually was why taking ppi even 14 days before could possibly fail to detect helicobacter but then to kill the same bacteria we need to take double the dose of ppi together with antibiotics

I have started to take Amitriptyline 10mg for pain management. Would this affect the h pylori stool test results?

as I mentioned, PPI can reduce bacterial load and cause false negative. That's why you need to stop PPI for at least 14 days. If there is any survival of H. pylori, they will grow up in big number within the 14 days and they can then be detected via breath/stool test.

Amitriptyline is fine to take. It will not affect the sensitivity of breath/stool test.