I myself had been diagnosticated with h.pylori about a year ago, was prescribed the classical triple therapy, it failed and then i went on to Pylera.
Now pylera works great and it eradicated my pylori but the treatment has been an hassle and i was out for 5 days, couldn't even walk in the street due to the headaches metro is well known for.
As someone who did study microbiology myself i wondered if there had been another way to solve this since the first treatment almost cured me ( I was only a few units behind the negative limit on the breath test ), I had the feeling that somehow pylera was overkill and obscure way.
My first idea was to use a natural antibiotic supplement to the classic triple therapy in order to get better healing rates, and the best and easiest natural antibiotic out there is Allicin (which is an element found in garlic ).
Little did i know i was not the only one who thought of the ideas and some scientists did the experiments before me, and it has really interesting results.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11811084
This first study divided its patient in different groups in order to see the influence of supplement on a classic triple therapy.
Here is where it gets really interesting ; The group that was given the standard triple therapy + Allicin got a 90% cure rate whereas the group with the classical triple therapy alone only cured 66.6 %.
Scientist also tested a simple therapy with only Allicin and this one had 23% cure rate thus confirming that Allicin was effective against H.pilory but should be taken with triple therapy for the best results.
I am reminding you that this heavy quadruple therapy ( Pylera ) only has a score of 86%.
http://jac.oxfordjournals.org/content/43/6/837.full
This is a second study that focused on Allicin and helicobacter and even tried a double therapy regiment of omeprazole + Garclic for 7 days.
I quote :
The scientist also discovered a synergy between Omeprazole and garlic, the allicin was more effective when used with the PPI this phenomenon probably explaining the 23% of ailicin alone in the first study.the presence of omeprazole (200 mg/L), garlic 2000 or 4000 mg/L, or combinations of both (see Figure, part a), no growth of H. pylori was observed after 24- 48 h. In the presence of omeprazole 100 mg/L (see Figure, part b), the number of H. pylori decreased slowly to zero within 7 days and a slight decrease of H. pylori was found in the presence of garlic 500 mg/L during the first 24- 48 h. In the presence of garlic 1000 mg/L the number of H. pylori decreased to 0- 10 1 cfu/mL during the first 3 days but rose again thereafter. A synergic effect was found when both omeprazole 100 mg/L and garlic 500 or 1000 mg/L were added, showing no bacterial growth after 24- 48 h.
Now on a global scale ( and not H.Pylori ) Allicin and garlic are recognized to be sometimes 100% faster and more effective than traditional antibiotics when it comes to bacterial infections.
Why is is interesting ?
-Because Pylera is expensive
-Because Allicin has WAY LESS SIDE EFFECTS than Metronidazole and Bismuth hence allowing you to have a normal life.
-Because garlic is cheap and good for your overall health.
And most importantly because it is Highly UNLIKELY that bacterias will develop a resistance to Allicin thanks to its complex proprieties ( as it does not only inhibits the bacteria but litteraly cut them up and inhibits some enzymes ) you can read about it here sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1286457999800033
In conclusion i think that garlic has an effect on H.pylori but it should not be used alone, neither should it be used in a double therapy.
The triple therapy given by your doctor should be complemented by Garlic in order to have the 90% eradication rate.
About the quantity if we follow the first study it should be 1000mg / day. A cloth of garlic weights about 3g in general so 1.5 in the morning and 1.5 cloth in the evening seems like a decent way to get 1000mg of allicin in your system.
I advise you to try, garlic for seven days is harmless and will not cause you any wrong ( try to avoid taking it on an empty stomach tho).