Helicobacter Forums

Ok so I'm a bit confused regarding the acid portion linked to h pylori.
Is it;

1. H pylori makes your stomach create more acid, which means acid volume goes up in the stomach

Or

2. It makes stomach acid more acidic, meaning volume stays the same but the pH of the acid itself gets more acidic?

So when they say acid build up does that mean more acid volume or more acidic pH in the stomach?

When they say low acid is it the acid pH itself turns more alkaline or the volume/quantity of acid in stomach is lower than normal?

Dr berg acid reflux/gerd videos on YouTube confused me.

Hello, I’ll try and answer this to the best of my knowledge.

Depending on the h.pylori strain it can either cause increased acid production leading to ulcer, gerd etc. Or it can cause decreased stomach production (hypochlohydria), which causes the stomach to slowly develop into gastritis, atrophy and eventually metaplasia which is the pre-cencerous stage if not eradicated.

I do not believe from my knowledge that h pylori changes the stomach PH. I know this because I know someone who has hypochlohydria caused by h pylori, and a stomach acid test showed a PH between 0.8-1.5, so it is definitely not the case. In regards to the volume of acid for hypochlohydria yes this is true. What h.pylori does is it switches of the parietal cells that secrete the acid, so eventually if someone does not catch it in time it can switch of all the parietal cells, once this stage has been reached then the h pylori has the ability to decrease the volume of acid as the parietal cells have all been switched off, then the next stage is for it to decrease the acid quantity as no parietal cells are active for acid levels to be adequate.

The problem is with the hypochlohydria strain of h pylori it is often very difficult to catch in time as symptoms are not much or alarming, such as bloating and often people ignore this as something else which is really unfortunate and sad. When someone is infected with the hypochlohydria strain then h pylori slowly starts to switch off the parietal cells, over time with stress and life progress the h pylori can grow more and more, this is why eradicating it early can resolve the acid production back to normal. In very rare cases the stomach can produce more acid than normal as the cells become super healthy which increases the parietal cells mass and numbers for hypochlohydria strain.


The only case of stomach acid PH being altered is only for AUTOIMMUNE GASTRITIS, this is a chronic stomach disease and very rare which attacks and kills the parietal cells of the stomach causing b-12 deficiency leading to pernicious anemia. In these people the stomach acid is altered to a PH of 6-7 causing ACHLOHYDRIA which is an absence of stomach acid.Patients are often treated with b-12 Injections.


Finally if the hypochlohydria strain is not caught in time then the recovery can take a very long time, I have read many of the forums on here regarding low stomach acid and it’s really sad. There is I believe only a few studies done on the recovery of parietal cells, however one study showed that in patients with hypochlohydria caused by h pylori the recovery took up to 2 years. Here is the study link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15153171/


All the best

Thank you.

My b12 and folate are normal so I prob don't have that one, very informative, is there a test that differentiate which type of pylori strain people have?

This is difficult to answer, this is not something done easily only for studies and research not on patients. There is culture done to determine antibiotic sensitivity testing for higher eradication rate.

very good answer.

unfortunately we cannot tell which strain you have.

I believe instead of the strain type, it is more to do with your inflammation. Everyone has different immune response to a pathogen. Just like the COVID. some gets mild to no symptoms. whereas, some can become critically ill.

So depending how your immune response fight H. pylori, sometimes the inflammation in the stomach is so great, it can lead to various gastric symptoms.

Hello, a question for Helico Expert,

Knowing that h.pylori causes Hypochlohydria, is it true that in very very very rare cases it can trigger autoimmune gastritis?

Thank you

Good question!
I dont think it has been proven. But that's what I believe it will. I would like to use that to explain how some patients, after eradication of HP, still have mild gastritis.

Hi Helico_expert

Have you seen cases where after success eradication the stomach becomes very sensitive and slight Indigestion can cause increased acidity? This seems to be happening to me where I would go for 2 to 3 weeks with little or no symptoms but then may be due to eating something I get increase acidity symptoms like the one I experienced before the treatment but with less intensity.

Can someone develop functional dyspepsia or IBS after h pylori has cleared? Have you come across such cases

Also would like to know from people who have been successful in eradication but still suffered from symptoms on and off and for how long

Yup. That can happen sometimes. While your stomach is adjusting itself, it can sometimes produce more acid. Most importantly is that you are free of H. pylori.

You can try control your acid with H2 blockers. Unfortunately the recovery is subjective. Some people take months, and some take years. Usually the younger you are, the faster the recovery.