Addiing statins to HP treatments
Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2018 1:40 am
My story is the following. I have HP and MALT lymphoma. This came as a huge surprise to me several months ago when I was diagnosed after the follow up based on a blood test taken as a "joke" because my only symptom is a bit of extra burping (no smell). The good thing is, as a result of the first round of treatments, my three ulcers have healed. But I have just found out that I did not quite pass the first treatment and am facing a second round of antibiotics etc in order to make a second attempt at eradicating the HP (and, hopefully, the MALT as well).
I knew that there was a risk I might not make it the first time around. From research in the Internet I have found out that older American women (like me) tend to have HP resistant to clarithromycin due to frequent use of this antibiotic in their young years in the US (this was one of the two antibiotics I took - the classic). If you have a high load of HP, it tends to take two runs to get rid of it (I think that mine was pretty high). If you have a CagA+ HP variety, it is harder to get rid of them (they are more virulent - with 3 active ulcers at one time, I can safely assume that my HP variety is CagA +). Then they talk about "an propensity by certain people" to get a serious HP infection. I could not figure out what that was supposed to mean.
Then the other night I figured out what that "propensity" probably is - elevated LDL cholesterol levels (which I have - not so high, but they are above "acceptable"). Further reading indicated that HP is particularly resistant if you have higher LDL levels (triglycerides and HDL don't count). It seems that the HP "consume" the extra LDL and it makes them stronger. Which got me thinking about using statins in order to reduce my LDL levels, in order to reduce their access to "energy". Since then I have found a fair amount of fairly recent research in which the researchers note that people on statins really do better in eradication treatments than people without. I have also found one study from Israel (Randomised clinical trial: simvastatin as adjuvant therapy improves significantly the Helicobacter pylori eradication rate-a placebo-controlled study Nseir W and al, 2012) which has a prescription in it too. But I have not been able to find anything else. What I wanted to know was: are you experimenting with using statins in order to improve eradication rates in people with higher LDL levels? If you are, what has your experience been? What are you working with? If you know about other people who are working on this, what has been their experience? With all of the chatter in the different research circles on this subject, there must be doctors who are working with it. What do you know? (Just wondering.) Looking forward to hearing what you think about this.
I knew that there was a risk I might not make it the first time around. From research in the Internet I have found out that older American women (like me) tend to have HP resistant to clarithromycin due to frequent use of this antibiotic in their young years in the US (this was one of the two antibiotics I took - the classic). If you have a high load of HP, it tends to take two runs to get rid of it (I think that mine was pretty high). If you have a CagA+ HP variety, it is harder to get rid of them (they are more virulent - with 3 active ulcers at one time, I can safely assume that my HP variety is CagA +). Then they talk about "an propensity by certain people" to get a serious HP infection. I could not figure out what that was supposed to mean.
Then the other night I figured out what that "propensity" probably is - elevated LDL cholesterol levels (which I have - not so high, but they are above "acceptable"). Further reading indicated that HP is particularly resistant if you have higher LDL levels (triglycerides and HDL don't count). It seems that the HP "consume" the extra LDL and it makes them stronger. Which got me thinking about using statins in order to reduce my LDL levels, in order to reduce their access to "energy". Since then I have found a fair amount of fairly recent research in which the researchers note that people on statins really do better in eradication treatments than people without. I have also found one study from Israel (Randomised clinical trial: simvastatin as adjuvant therapy improves significantly the Helicobacter pylori eradication rate-a placebo-controlled study Nseir W and al, 2012) which has a prescription in it too. But I have not been able to find anything else. What I wanted to know was: are you experimenting with using statins in order to improve eradication rates in people with higher LDL levels? If you are, what has your experience been? What are you working with? If you know about other people who are working on this, what has been their experience? With all of the chatter in the different research circles on this subject, there must be doctors who are working with it. What do you know? (Just wondering.) Looking forward to hearing what you think about this.