Stool test negative after homeopathic treatment?

[murfi80]

Hello,
I have a question regarding HP Stool Test reliability.
I had done my first triple therapy treatment fror HP in 2011 december(amoxycilin, azythromicin and nexium for 10 days). Symptoms remained active but subsiding. Been having severe bouts of pain, no nausea.
In april 2012 i went to do a endoscopy which found me still positive (by biopsy), with the diagnosis Erythematous Gastritis. No ulcer was found.

Now comes the weird part:
I asked my doctor for an alternative treatment for HP before begining antibiotics again. My family doctor recommended me an homeopathic remedy for HP which is simply called Helicobacter Pilory 30C. She said she had a 19 year old patient who got cured from this with negative stool test.

I took the remedy for two weeks then after one more week I went to do the stool test and was surprised it came back negative.
My doctor seems confident about the results. I asked her if the test is reliable and if I should confirm it and she said it's not neccesary because the stool test is very accurate.

I feel very weird about this, because obiously I wanted the homeopatic treatment to succeed, but I did not expect it to really succeed, I mean I can't understand how 3 granules of homeopatic medicine can do what two heavyweight antibiotics combined could not. Can I really trust the stool test and move on managing the symptoms, hoping they will fade away?
I drank a lot of Licorice, Chamomille and Salvia tea, and took sucralfate, could that alter the results? I haven't took PPI's for a while (more than 2 weeks) before the test.

I still have symptoms, like heartburn, pain under sternum and sometimes radiating to the left and back, but pain generally subsides if I eat something. I sometimes have weeks of being pain free. Also I have a lot of appetite and no nausea.

[Helico_expert]

interesting to hear something not antibiotics that work. I am not sure what the "helicobacter pylori 30C" contains, especially what the active ingredient.

Nevertheless, bismuth used to work very well before antibiotics were discovered. But bismuth did not totally remove H. pylori and ulcers always come back. I suspect this homeopathic remedy also does the same thing. It reduces the bacteria load to very low. so low that it cannot be detected. However, after a few months, the bacteria slowly come back. This is just my speculation. Maybe you can update us a few months later?

stool test is quite accurate. another test which you can consider is urea breath test.

[murfi80]

The active ingredient is nowhere present on the label or on their website - http://plantextrakt.ro/homeopatie.php# (unfortunately in romanian only)

My doctor said something well...medieval...that this is an extract from mucosa infected with h pilory in very low concentration Who am I to say otherwise? I asked for alternative treatment, and I sure got it although I can't explain myself how would that work.

However that's better than what they recommended me after the initial endoscopy. I told them I had done an antibiotic treatment 5 months before, and still, they recommended Amoxi/Clarithromicin/Nexium as the second line, which I knew it's a poorly documented decision for second line treatment, so I did not do it.

Oh and the index next to the name it's CH30 not 30C.
Urea breath test is not available in my country afaik.

I will sure keep this updated.

[Helico_expert]

interesting page. I use google translator, went to "guide therapeutic", then "diseases of the digestive appliance", then "duodenal and peptic ulcer".

there it showed two recommendation:
Alder buds extract and Fig tree buds extract

unfortunately i cannot find the ingredient of CH30. Nevertheless, keep us posted about your treatment.

[sl88er]

Question is how realiable is stool test when compare with Igg Test... I have found from literature it os only 60-70 % for positive cases... In my case stool test failed two times... I only lost time with that... maybe some assumption if Igg HP is positiv and there was no antibiotics in last few years allow to make some conclusion of exsisting infection... or some exsisting of active gastritis with elevated igg against HP... There was few works which show if only test which was positiv was Igg and other like clo, breath test were negativ there was improvment in majority of patient after eradication treamtment...

[Helico_expert]

hmm.. Just in case you are confused by IgG and stool test.

Stool test is usually quite accurate and the sensitivity is about 90-95%. However, if you have PPI or any acid suppression regimen, then H. pylori load will be suppressed and lead to false negative in stool test.

IgG on the other hand, is usually referred to blood test. So if you were infected by H. pylori, your blood will carry the specific IgG for a few years even when it is eradicated.

[murfi80]

Status update:
All going pretty fine now.
I quit smoking in June, that was a major cause of acid and pain, besides being useless.
I have not taken any medication except some tea cocktails in industrial quantities ( chamomille, licorice root, salvia, mint ) which have helped alot, especially Licorice and Chamomille.
I know there should be some problems drinking Licorice root but I don't feel any.

Bloating after meals slowly subsided.
I'm still sensitive to some foods especially pork fat, and I have some pain after drinking Coke, but that's it.

I have not done any more tests for the HP or something else, so I don't know if I still have it, but at least it does not bother me anymore.
I will however find some time to do the test again just to be sure.

[Helico_expert]

sounds like you are improving. hopefully your treatment was a successful one.

[murfi80]

Just retested today (endoscopy with biopsy), I'm still HP negative, but some symptoms have returned.
I still have active erythematous exudative gastritis, the doctor did not seem to be concerned at all. I was prescriebed Pantoprazole, and Ibutin for IBS.
It seems it's not over yet, but getting closer.