Helicobacter Forums

Hello Helico Expert,

I've commented in the past my story- what started as extra burps and hiccups turned into a massive stomach attack in May of acid reflux, burps caught in my throat, chest rumbling, epigastric pain and chest pressure. I got a GI map with my naturopath which showed low level h pylori technically in the "normal range" for PCR stool testing but many functional doctors say get rid of it anyways- so I started an intense 80 day protocol of mastic gum, l.reteuri, sach boularddi, olive leaf, oil of oregano, neem oil, cats claw, blackseed oil, marshmallow root, slippery elm, DGL chewables and more. I avoided PPIs and tums but I was suffering immensely daily. I got a blood test a couple weeks into that and it came back negative for h pylori at .21 on the IgG blood (.80 and above is seen as positive).

I had to wait 3 months and see 4 doctors before getting an endoscopy which showed chronic mild gastritis and a gastric erosion in my antrum- with no h pylori found. I've been on 40 mg pantoprazole daily for 4 weeks, as well as 1-2 daily pepcids and 1000 mg tums 3-5x/ a day too. I chew ginger chewables for nausea (just started this two days ago which does help). I still have horrendous daily symptoms, especially the chest pressure and weight burping reflux + chest rumbling noises so loud. I took sucralfate 4x daily for 2.5 weeks, but my dr. recommended not to do overdo that so now I just take it before bed... I'm debating upping my PPI dose to 2x/day and taking more sucralfate for a month to see if that speeds up the process. Is it possible that my tests have missed h pylori since we have no known root cause? I was stressed during covid's beginning and eating a lot of high fat, salt foods to try to recover from an eating disorder (under-fueling and YEARS ago I purged but haven't in the last 2 years). My theory is this happened to me from years of bodily stress from intense training, mucosal layer breakdown and increased acid due to anxiety. Do you have any advice on how to speed up the healing? I'm also thinking if I wean off the PPI in about a month to wait 3-4 weeks and ask for a breath test just to be sure it's not h pylori too? Are there any acid reducing options I can take that won't affect the breath test?

Thank you so much.

If you have not done an endoscopy, perhaps that is what you need to do. Get a histology report and see if you still have H. pylori.

Blood test is usually very accurate for negative result.
GI map and PCR are based on DNA testing, which sometimes (actually very common) can lead to false positive.

breath test require two conditions to get accurate result.
1. the bacteria load
2. an acidic stomach
if you are taking anything that can reduce the bacteria load or acid, breath test will fail.
So you need to stop any medications or natural remedy for at least 3 weeks before breath test.

Then again, if your stomach is already not producing acid, usually among the elderlies, but can sometimes happen in the middle age group, breath test wont be sensitive too. That's why an endoscopy is more appropriate for these groups of patients.

Sorry I think it says in my story there I did get an endoscopy and that showed negative too. But I heard it can miss the area of infection.

yes.. sorry, my bad. if you had already done endoscopy, then i assume there is no other abnormality to worry about.

it is possible to miss H. pylori because H. pylori only likes to live in the healthy tissue. Gastroenterologist likes to take biopsies from unhealthy tissue for pathologist to examine. That's how H. pylori can be missed sometimes.

But, an experienced pathologist and gastroenterologist will look for hint.
if your histology report shows active gastritis, then H. pylori may be present.
if it says non-active gastritis, then H. pylori is most probably gone and it's healing.