Helicobacter Forums

Hello everyone,

I am a college student from Zhengzhou, China, and I have a problem with my stomach that has been bothering me for a long time. I hope someone here can help me or give me some advice.

My main symptom is that I often hiccup, especially after meals. The hiccup lasts for 10 to 30 minutes every time, and about 1 to 2 hours per day. I have done the H. pylori test before, and it was positive. I took the quadruple therapy and then it turned negative, but my symptom did not improve. I have also done the gastroscopy, and it showed that there was no anatomical abnormality in my stomach, only superficial gastritis.

My guess is that there are some other bacteria or microbes in my stomach or intestines, besides H. pylori, that can break down food and produce a lot of gas, which is expelled through hiccup. I want to do some experiments to verify this hypothesis, and to identify the type and number of microbes in my stomach.

The experiments I want to do are:

1.To culture the gastric juice or brush the gastric mucosa to determine whether there are such microbes in my stomach, and to identify the species of microbes.

2.To analyze the gas composition of my hiccup by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and compare it with normal people, to determine whether there are any abnormal metabolic products in my stomach, and also to assist in finding out whether there are any abnormal microbes.

The help I need is:

1.Gastric juice culture or gastric mucosa brushing are very rare tests in general hospitals, and may require special equipment and sterile requirements. So if anyone knows any laboratory or hospital that has such equipment, please let me know.

2.I am not very familiar with the operation of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, so I need to borrow a laboratory or laboratory equipment, preferably with someone to guide me to complete the experiment.

I would appreciate it if anyone could help me or give me some suggestions. Thank you very much for reading my post!

Hi,

sorry for the late response. I am not sure why your post did not pop up on my end when you posted.

1st of all, I admire your spirit of wanting to do research.

then we need some basic knowledge of the stomach and its bacteria.
The stomach is normally very acidic and so no other bacteria can grow.
If you read up on the literature, you'll find scientists have proven that the stomach is usually sterile without bacteria.
If you check the stomach biopsies from healthy people without H. pylori, it's normally clean and has no detectable bacteria.

Nevertheless, it is possible to have some bacteria temporarily present in the stomach. They come from the mouth when you swallow saliva.

your hiccup symptom is most likely caused by some sort of "stress" in the stomach.
it could be the inflammation has not recovered yet.
it could be a certain food that triggers some irritation of your stomach.
it could be some permanent damages left by H. pylori.
it could be mental stress.

I personally know someone who has never been infected by H. pylori, but always get hiccups when she is under stress, such as before exam or standing on stage.

'[Gastric microbiota in health and disease]: This review paper summarizes the current knowledge on the gastric microbiota in health and disease. It discusses the factors that influence gastric microbiota composition and diversity, such as diet, lifestyle, host genetics, medications, infections, and diseases. It also reviews the roles of the gastric microbiota in gastric physiology, immunity, carcinogenesis, and therapy.'

'there are some special microbial groups that can break down food and produce gas, these microbial groups are mainly some anaerobic bacteria that can ferment proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, such as Clostridium perfringens, Bacteroides, Escherichia coli, etc. These microbial groups can use food that the host cannot or has not had time to digest as substrates and produce a lot of metabolic products, such as short-chain fatty acids, ammonia, polyamines, hydrogen sulfide, phenols, indoles, etc. Some of these metabolic products are beneficial, such as short-chain fatty acids can provide energy, regulate metabolism, inhibit inflammation, etc.; some are harmful, such as ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, etc. can stimulate nerves, damage mucosa, cause bad smells, etc.

Some of these metabolic products will be expelled from the body in the form of gas, causing hiccups, bloating, farting, and other phenomena. A hiccup is the sound made by the sudden contraction of the diaphragm causing the trachea to close quickly. The contraction of the diaphragm may be due to the expansion or stimulation of the stomach. Therefore, if there are too many gas-producing microbial groups in the intestine, it may cause the stomach to be filled with gas, which may trigger hiccups.

Of course, this is only a possible explanation and may not apply to the situation. Perhaps the hiccups are related to other factors, such as food allergies, gastritis, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), etc. To determine whether the hiccups are related to intestinal microbes, it may need to do some tests, such as stool culture, breath test, gene sequencing, etc. These tests can help understand the composition and function of the intestinal microbiota and whether they are related to your hiccups.'

They are produced by New Being.

We are the same people. I just found my username. Before I use both names 'Tarrylowe' and 'Shengtao'.