Helicobacter Forums

Hello, This forum has been helpful in sharing insights about journey to recover from H Pylori.
I had H Pylori infection back in August-Sep 2022. Here is my timeline when I first got detected with H Pylori using UBT. Here the result shows either positive or negative. No other details are provided.

Then I went with Triple therapy with PPI. My antibiotic treatment ended on 09-Sep-2022.

The symptoms were heaviness, bloating and increase in burping and anxiety.

After treatment too the symptoms continued, I was re-tested with UBT on 11-Oct-2002 and it turned out negative. I was happy with the results. Slowly symptoms also faded away.

But again in Mid-December onwards, I had similar symptoms of more burping and bloating/heaviness in stomach then usual. Some days were good and some are bad with these symptoms. So my doctor prescribed Tecta 40 mg and told there is no need to re-test as reinfection won't come that quickly.
But off late, I feel these symptoms constantly as the day progresses. Doctor is saying it is after effect and recovery takes time. This is more of acid reflux trouble only.
So for 12 weeks I have taken PPI Tecta 40 mg once in morning and last week only I switched to rabeprazole 20 mg for another 8 weeks based on my doctor's recommendation.
I have asked him for re-test for H Pylori but he is not recommending that. He did send me for Abdominal Ultrasound to check for any other issues but everything came in as normal.

Not sure what could be the cause of symptoms still persisting. I am a fit 38 year old Male and not having any other medication/sickness. But H Pylori has impacted me a lot it seems.

Is there anything else which I could do or go for some other tests? Please advise.

Perhaps you can see a different doctor for the breath test?
what is the raw data of the last breath test?
for example, if the cut off is 50 dpm and you got 1 dpm. I think the chance for a false negative is low.
However, if your breath test is 49 dpm, then I think the negative is suspicious.

I will try to talk to a different doctor here. But problem is here they don't show any dpm count in the test results. It is only indicating positive or negative.
I tried to insist more on H Pylori retest but my doctor is suggesting we can have upper endoscopy if I want. But I am little worried to go through that procedure

endoscopy is not scary. you most probably wont remember anything during the procedure.
if the symptoms have been troubling you for a long time, you should have it done at least once before 50 years old.

Nevertheless, if you are going to do the endoscopy, make sure you get your doctor to get CLOtest and histology tests

Hello @Helico_expert
I went for Helicobacter pylori serology testing in 1st week of June. It came in as Negative with test results for Helicobacter pylori Ab IgG. Seems like I am one of those people who continue to get frequent bouts of bloating/belching even after treatment. On some days I feel acid reflux and some days it is just bloating.
What I have observed is it mostly is at peak after lunch and goes down in evening once I have green tea. I will try to make smaller meals and see if that helps.
Doctor has suggested to cut down on carbs and increase intake of fruits & vegetables.

ya.. continue PPI if required. Hopefully, your gastritis will gradually recover.

Hi Helico_Expert,

For the past few weeks I have been pretty unwell with similar symptoms to H. pylori I had back in 2020. Even though my Endoscopy and UBT tests came back negative in March last year, I recently did another UBT and it's negative. It could just be the food or stress that is giving me severe burning pain and a burning sensation from the upper to the lower stomach. I do feel a lot of gas at times in my stomach with burning pain and inflammation in my stomach.

I have gone back to a very bland diet with boiled vegetables and gluten-free bread, cut on carbs and increased the intake of fruits and yoghurt in the hope of reversing my symptoms.

My histology report in March 2022 noted that sections show duodenal mucosa with very focal surface gastric metaplasia and very mild active inflammation in the lamina propria, consistent with mild peptic duodenitis. Do you think this could be the culprit? Do you believe focal gastric metaplasia and mild peptic duodenitis would increase with time even in the absence of H. Pylori, unless otherwise?

I have been to my local GP and he thinks it's IBS and put me on IBEROGAST.

Appreciate your insights and advice.

Many thanks,
Imran

Thanks for sharing your stories.

Some patient's stomachs can become more "sensitive" after H. pylori eradication. It could be triggered by a certain diet or emotion. As long as you are free of H. pylori, you know that the damage will not get worse. All you need to do is to think positively and wait for its recovery.

While most scientists think that intestinal metaplasia is non-recoverable. I think it depends on the severity of the metaplasia. As long as you still have acid secretion, because the intestinal cells cannot produce mucus to protect themselves, they will eventually be killed by your own acid and replaced by healthy gastric cells.

Many thanks, Helico_Expert.

In terms of metaplasia, how serious is it? Can it lead to a serious problem at later stage? Can diet or probiotics help in relieving the effects of metaplasia?

A naive question, You do mention that we catch H.Pylori from childhood, How is this possible that it triggers when we are grown up? Or is it something that most of the population has and it triggers when our immune system or mental health is compromised?

Many thanks,
Imran

intestinal metaplasia is when the gastric cells are replaced by intestinal cells.
nobody knows why and how. But my theory is that as you grow up, your self-repair efficiency declines. The damage can no longer be repaired by cell duplication. So, intestinal stem cells are attracted to the stomach to assist the repair.
It's not serious to have intestinal cells until the parietal cells are replaced by intestinal cells. As the number of parietal cells decreases, the acid secretion is decreased. the lower the acid secretion, the higher the cancer risk.

When you are young, our body is rapidly growing and the self-repair efficiency is at the max. In addition, the immune system is also learning what is good and bad. So the damage is at minimum.

But as you grow up, the immune system gets stronger and hence the inflammation gets stronger.

The inflammation is subjective. We dont know what kind of inflammation can lead to ulceration or intestinal metaplasia, atrophy, or cancer. However, we suspect that long-term chronic inflammation can lead to cancer. Just like HPV can lead to chronic inflammation in the cervix and lead to cervical cancer; the Hepatitis virus can lead to chronic inflammation in the liver and lead to liver cancer.