H Pylori - the Bain of my life

[LouKeene]

Hey everyone,

I've been struggling with gastritis and digestive issues for almost 2 years. I was first diagnosed as having a h pylori infection (via a stool test) at the beginning of 2012 having suffered with symptoms since October 2011! Instead of doing antibiotics I decided to try matula herbal formula because it offers a money back guarantee if it doesn't work and doesn't have the potential side effects of triple therapy. The tea tasted nice and my symptoms completely resolved for 6 months. But then they started coming back and I felt like I had a h pylori infection again. I found myself back at the doctors being retested (another stool test). Sure enough, the result came back positive and because my boyfriend had also had a h pylori infection in 2011 (but he'd treated it with antibiotics), I blamed him for re infecting me and we bought another box of tea to drink to treat both of us. I should add that I reused the tea bags to get more use out of them and boiled them the second time which made a stronger tea. We both felt better drinking the tea and once the recommended waiting time had passed, I did the stool sample to get retested. The result came back negative and I was obviously pleased however I was still struggling with terrible acid reflux at the time. A few weeks later the doctor suggested doing another stool test to check that it actually had gone. It came back positive and the dr said that he couldn't be sure why I'd had a negative test before and what the tea was doing to the bacteria. My boyfriend also got retested then and his test came back negative!! So the antibiotics must have worked for him.

I started a week of the standard dose of triple therapy straight away (amoxicillin, Clarithromycin and lanzoprazole) and by day 6 of the treatment my acid reflux cough finally went away and I actually felt pretty good on the treatment. I was pooping more frequently and had the odd stomach pain but I actually started to feel better. That last 2 days of finishing the course and then the reflux started again and my annoying cough.

I was told that I needed to wait 4 weeks after the antibiotics and 2 weeks after stopping the PPI before getting retested (stool test again) and I waited and dropped my sample in on Wednesday and I'll find out the results this week. My symptoms are still horrendous and so I don't feel that it's gone!

I presume that the next step will be a 2 week course of treatment?! Does anyone know if there's a combination that's more effective than others that I should ask for?

Thanks very much.

PS : don't waste your money on using matula tea to treat h pylori.

[Helico_expert]

Thanks for sharing your story. Just want to say, there is no proven effective herbal medicine so far for H. pylori treatment. Antibiotics are still the best cure.

As for your treatment, the standard therapy has 80% cure rate. Some of the symptoms can be psychological. So, try to think positive and stay positive.

If really, the stool test came back positive, there are many more options. You can show the following publication with your GP and see if he can get hold of any of them.

original treatment article
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1 ... 9/abstract

treatment plan
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10 ... 4ca1d1eb37

[LouKeene]

Hi Helico expert. Thanks for your reply. I've just discovered that my stool test came back negative! Although part of me is still doubting that it's actually gone! The 40mg of omeprazole has finally gotten rid of my reflux cough and I can barely taste my stomach acid in my throat anymore. Fingers crossed things finally get better now!

How accurate are the stool tests after treatment?

[Helico_expert]

stool test has been reported very accurate (>90%). However, i think it still has a human factor involve. If you are tested from a developed country or well established laboratory, I would assume the accuracy will be as high.

anyway, it's great to hear that the PPI is working for you now. Hopefully you dont have to take it long term.

[john wilson]

H. Pylori is a bacterium capable of causing a number of digestive problems which includes ulcers and if without proper treatment and medication it can also cause stomach cancer. Generally it spread because of the consumption of contaminated food and water.
Treatment can take 7 to 14 days medication in which the most common is a proton pump inhibitors which decreases the rate of acid production in the stomach which allows the damaged tissue to heal. You can also take some of these MEDs like omeprazole or Protonix