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Extremely low stomach acid

Posted: Thu Feb 20, 2020 7:35 am
by Chonibashi12
Hello everyone I am new to this forum, just signed up to this forum in desperation of help and advice for what I call a rare case of H.pylori infection.

It all started 3 months ago when I was having irregular bowel movements, consistency, indigestion and stool colour. I was going crazy my stool colour kept becoming a more yellow colour. So I did a ton of research and came across low stomach acid as being the culprit. I bought some betain HCl pills in hope that it would make things better, With these pills you are supposed to take one and increase till you get a burning sensation in the stomach, I managed to go up to 20 high strength pills with HCL and pepsin, it improved my digestive issues but it was just not a good idea to take so many pills with each meal, and the risk of developing an ulcer.

I knew there was something not right, I did more research and found H.pylori as a suspected cause, so I did a stool sample and tested positive! I took the 7 day triple therapy with AMOX 1g omeprazole 30g and Clarithromycin 500g all twice a day for 7 days. Now before taking the triple therapy i had extremely low stomach acid, so low that I had joint pain and deficiencies and yellow stools.

So I took the triple therapy and from the very first day my stomach started making a gurgling noise, it was actually producing acid day by day, eventually day by day my stool consistency improved and my indigestion symptoms completely vanished and my stool colour changed to brown. My appetite improved day by day and I was eating more since I had no fear of the low stomach acid issue, even my dry skin problem had disappeared overnight and I had not side effects of taking the therapy.

Now I was extremely shocked at this result as ive read many studies stating that acid secretion does not return till about a few weeks or months after treatment, wherease for me the acid secretion started from the second I swallowed the pills.

As soon as I finished the 7 day triple therapy the next 2 days my stool consistency changed and i went back to having indigestion problems (the low stomach acid symptoms).

I’m so frustrated now I do not know what to do, I wish they had given me 14 days instead of 7 days.

So I went back and I tested positive again, they gave me metronidazole 400mg AMOX 1g and lansoprazole 30mg twice a day, but guess what my stomach was not producing acid like it was on this treatment (maybe the first course caused a resistance to the bacteria?) and nothing has improved even though this course is 14 day course, I know for sure that this treatment is not working whatsoever, I seriously feel suicidal at this point since I have lost about 10kg due to my low stomach acid, my mother cries everyday when she looks at me losing all this weight.

What could be going wrong in my case? I have done so much research about parietal stomach cells and how they are affected by H.pylori.

I have done research also on hypochlohydria and Achlohydria and I’m scared I may die from not eating.

( I have 100% no other H.pylori symotoms whatsoever, just the low stomach acid issue)


Please please please if anyone can give some help or advice I will be truly greatful, because I am just losing hope. I have had to leave my job because of this.

Thank you

Re: Extremely low stomach acid

Posted: Thu Feb 20, 2020 8:20 am
by Helico_expert
You are doing great following the instruction.

Please get a follow up breath test one month after your metronidazole, Amoxicillin, lansoprazole treatment.

You can only recover when H. pylori is eradicated.

Re: Extremely low stomach acid

Posted: Thu Feb 20, 2020 4:54 pm
by Chonibashi12
Thank you for your reply,

I would like to ask some questions:

1. Is the damage to parietal cells reversible?
2. Will my acid levels return to normal after successfull eradication?
3. What if the problem is that the pills are not melting in my stomach? Could I receive injected antibiotics instead? I read somewhere this is possible

Re: Extremely low stomach acid

Posted: Fri Feb 21, 2020 10:20 am
by Helico_expert
Quick answer.
1. Maybe not reversible
2. If your acid is because of damaged parietal cells, then no.
3. many pills are water soluble. but you can do IV antibiotics. we tried that before.

So how do you know if your parietal cells are damaged? Have you been diagnosed with athrophic gastritis? Usually that happens in people over 50 yr old.

Re: Extremely low stomach acid

Posted: Fri Feb 21, 2020 5:56 pm
by Chonibashi12
Many thanks for the reply, It’s really helping in this very tough time of not being able to eat any food.

My assumption of parietal cell damage, is based on the fact that maybe I have not been producing acid for 4 months and therefore it has probably been damaged? I am 26 years old health male, also to note that zinc L-carnosine helps my stomach to produce acid, any thoughts why?

Thank you again

Re: Extremely low stomach acid

Posted: Fri Feb 21, 2020 11:26 pm
by Helico_expert
hmm... what makes you think that you are not producing acid? is it because you always feel that there is food in the stomach? if that's the case, it could be because the stomach has weak motility. If that's true, then you can get some Domperidone to help with the motility.

Then again, it is best to make sure you are free of H. pylori.

Re: Extremely low stomach acid

Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2020 12:12 am
by Chonibashi12
Hello, thank you again for the reply I do appreciate it really.

With regards to my stomach producing acid, I know this because on my first 7 day treatment I knew that my stomach was producing acid for the following reasons:

1- my silent reflux came back and I felt the lump in my throat again.
2. My digestion became better: consistent stool shape, colour, bowel movements.
3. I experimented with much less Betain HCL pills on the 7th day, my silent reflux went away since I took a few betain HCl pills and my LES closed shut and the lump in throat went away after taking the pills which hinted to the stomach LES that the stomach has adequate acid levels.
4. My appetite went up I had no bloating, gas or burping.

As soon as I stopped the 7 day treatment acid levels dropped. Now from my understanding this was because H.pylori was not eradicated as I tested positive again with a stool test.

I am now on my second course which is 14 days, however this course has no signs of improvement as shown in my first 7 day course. I am just absolutely mind boggled, it’s definitely due to the resistance of bacteria to metronidazole.


Many thanks

Re: Extremely low stomach acid

Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2020 8:40 pm
by Helico_expert
perhaps you can book an endoscopy and ask the Gastroenterologist to test the acid level.

Re: Extremely low stomach acid

Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2020 8:20 pm
by Chonibashi12
Thank you for your reply I do appreciate it, I have a endoscopy scheduled in a few weeks with a gastro doctor. But I have a few questions I would like to ask if you can please support me with.

1. How long should one wait after eradicating H.pylori to see acid levels returning considering I have had low acid for a good few months.
2. Which test is most accurate for H.pylori and should I do multiple tests to see if I have eradicated.

Thank you for the support

Re: Extremely low stomach acid

Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2020 10:51 pm
by Helico_expert
I think 2 weeks without PPI is enough to test acid level.

by examining the inflammation level via histology, you can tell if you still have H. pylori, and the amount of acid producing cells.

by doing blood test, measuring pepsinogen, can also tell your acid secretion activity.

Your specialist can also do Rapid urease test by taking a biopsy to tell if you have H. pylori within 10 min.