Hi there,

This article answers the following questions about H. pylori:

• What is H. pylori and why should you care?
• How did you catch H. pylori and is it contagious?
• What symptoms does H. pylori cause?
• What symptoms does H. pylori cause?
• Can H. pylori cause serious problems?
• How effective are medical treatments for H. pylori?
• Which foods should you avoid when you have H. pylori?
• Which foods, herbs and supplements kill H. pylori?
• How can you check that H. pylori has gone?

I realize it can be a bit funky finding solid and trustworthy advice on the Internet – I had the same problem in 2007 when I had my own issues with H. pylori.

Just so you know who you’re dealing with, here’s a bit about me:

• Authored or co-authored five books/e-books on digestive health (three of them on H. pylori, specifically)
• Consulted more than 2,500 clients in 23 countries since 2007
• Masters degree in Sports Science
• Holistic Lifestyle Coach (CHEK Institute)
• Kalish Method Functional Medicine graduate
• Functional Medicine University graduate
• Study philosophy, psychology and human behavior as well as nutrition and physiology

My advice comes with a lot of clinical experience – I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t and I hope this blog post helps you.

It also comes from my experience of having H. pylori myself (twice) and seeing my fiancé, her brother and several other people close to me have this nasty bug!

When I had H. pylori, I struggled with heartburn and reflux, dizziness, anxiety, low energy, dandruff, poor sleep and low sex drive.

I only learned I had H. pylori by running a test with a private lab because my doctor just told me I was ‘stressed.’

I was able to eradicate the H. pylori using herbs, and have spent the last 8 years researching about this pesky bug, and helping others recover from its clutches.

This blog post summarises the most important info I’ve learned in a ‘nutshell’. I hope you find it helpful.

What is H. pylori and why should you care?

H. pylori is a bacterium. It has a corkscrew shape that enables it to bury into your stomach and intestinal lining, where it triggers your immune system to respond.

As your immune system responds and begins to fight H. pylori, you develop inflammation in your stomach (gastritis) that can develop into ulcers.

There are different types of H. pylori (called genetic subtypes or strains). They include the Cag-A, Vac-A and Dup-A strains.

Some strains, including the three above, are associated with more severe symptoms.

Whether you have symptoms or not seems to depend on which H. pylori strain you have and whether your immune system chooses to mount a response to it.

It may be that some people harbor H. pylori for a lifetime without developing symptoms.

How did you catch H. pylori and is it contagious?

H. pylori can be contracted in different ways, including food and water, person-to-person via kissing, sex or sharing utensils and possibly from pets.

In my opinion, care should be taken to check family members if they also have symptoms.

If someone else in the household has H. pylori you may get rid of it only to be re-infected.

What symptoms does H. pylori cause?

I’ve always classed H. pylori symptoms into two groups, one that your doctor will tell you about and one he or she probably won’t.

When working with clients, I’ve seen all manner of weird and wonderful symptoms clear up when H. pylori was eradicated and it has become clear to me that H. pylori is much more than just a tummy bug.

Group I Symptoms (doctors know about these):

• Heartburn
• Acid reflux
• Gnawing sensation in tummy/chest*
• Bloating
• Lump in throat*
• Difficulty swallowing*
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Loss of appetite
• Rapid weight loss if infection is severe
• Feeling of having a heart attack if infection is severe

Group II Symptoms (doctor’s may not know about these):

These symptoms are either noted in the literature or have been observed to clear up when H. pylori was knocked out:

• Irritable bowel syndrome
• Diarrhoea
• Constipation
• Low energy
• Depression/anxiety
• Concentration and focus
• Dry skin
• Dandruff
• Hives
• Rosacea
• Headaches and migraines
• Arthritis

Because western medicine compartmentalizes the body, many docs don’t know about the connection between the digestive problems and the rest of the body.

Truth is, there is an enormous amount of information in the medical and scientific literature showing how digestive health influences far of glands, organs and tissues.

I can’t explain the mechanisms in detail in this article, but consider this:

• H. pylori definitely causes a reduction in stomach acid levels for some people.
• Stomach acid is needed for proper digestion.
• Low stomach acid due to H. pylori can lead to key nutritional deficiencies.
• Iron and vitamin B12 are 100% known to result from H. pylori infections.
• Symptoms of B12 and iron deficiency include fatigue, depression, anxiety, pale complexion, headaches, poor sleep, shortness of breath, weakness, cravings, sore tongue, mouth ulcers, balance problems, etc.

This is one mechanism by which H. pylori can lead to symptoms elsewhere in your body, and don’t be surprised if you feel improvements when H. pylori has gone.

Can H. pylori cause serious problems?

The World Health Organisation lists H. pylori as a class I carcinogen. It is to stomach cancer what cigarette smoking is to lung cancer. It’s bizarre, therefore, that some people contact us saying their doctor has told them H pylori is harmless!

Don’t be alarmed: Only about 1% of people with H. pylori develop cancer and these are the people who don’t know about the association.

Because you have awareness of the problem, you will be able to eradicate the bacteria quickly.

In the medical literature, H. pylori is also associated with other important diseases:

• Insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes
• High blood pressure
• Cardiovascular disease (heart disease)
• Stroke
• Alzheimer’s disease
• Parkinson’s

Mechanisms are the same as described above: H. pylori can cause nutrient deficiencies and always causes inflammation.

Nutrient deficiencies weaken the whole body and may trigger disease processes, and inflammation can spread from the gut into other parts of the body.

If you are interested in learning more, please read my second book (available on PDF), titled H. pylori: From Heartburn to Heart Attacks.

It’s a dramatic title for sure, but it’s really just there to draw attention to aspects of H. pylori that doctors won’t tell you about.

I don’t believe H. pylori alone causes the diseases listed above. I believe it is a contributing factor.

Genetics, diet, stress, toxins and other factors all play important roles.

How effective are medical treatments for H. pylori?

Conventional H. pylori treatment is delivered in the form of “Triple Therapy”, which involves taking two different antibiotics and an acid-blocking medication (proton pump inhibitor or PPI) at the same time.

The latest medical data indicates that the standard H pylori treatments are about 70% effective worldwide.

This means that if 10 people take triple therapy antibiotics, 7 will be cured and 3 will not. A 70% success rate is actually not considered high enough by medical standards.

Some studies indicate that the success rate of standard treatments in some areas is as low as 50%, leading to medical authorities calling for newer and more innovative treatments.

When triple therapy doesn’t work, doctors prescribe “second line” or “rescue” therapy. Bismuth based quadruple therapy and sequential therapy are two examples.

Conventional treatments can cause some nasty side effects, and they may trigger additional problems such as Candida overgrowth.

I personally do not believe antibiotics are needed for the treatment of H. pylori, but I cannot deny that some people do well with them.

Which foods should you avoid when you have H. pylori?

In at least half the cases I’ve worked with, people’s symptoms improved more when they changed their eating habits than when they eliminated H. pylori.

It’s human nature to want to blame something outside of us for our symptoms, but our food choices make a huge difference.

Choosing to avoid the following foods will, in many cases, calm the stomach, reduce or eliminate symptoms, and make it easier to eliminate H. pylori:

• Gluten
• All processed grain products
• All cow’s dairy
• All soy products
• All processed sugar
• Coffee
• Raw vegetables, except raw carrots
• Alcohol

These foods can irritate and inflame the stomach and intestine in much the same way as H. pylori does.

By removing them from the equation, the digestive system has a much better chance of healing whether H. pylori is there or not.

Remember, this information comes from working with a lot of clients – it’s what I’ve seen with my own eyes and heard with my own ears from client reports. I’m not guessing or pulling these ideas out of the air J

Which foods, herbs and supplements kill H. pylori?

It’s human nature to want a quick fix, and we sometimes mistakenly think there’s a magic bullet cure for all ills. Alas, this isn’t the case.

One thing I have learned over the last 8 years working with H. pylori and all its symptoms is that there isn’t a single protocol that works for everyone.

I’ve had to keep adapting my approach to eliminating H. pylori in my clients and I take nothing for granted.

Here are the foods, herbs and supplements that I have seen knock out H. pylori in most people.

Foods:

The following foods have all shown anti-H. pylori activity:

• Garlic
• Cranberry juice
• Coconut oil
• Broccoli sprouts
• Fermented foods containing probiotics (e.g. sauerkraut)
• Cabbage juice
• Turmeric
• Cinnamon
• Olive oil
• Berries that are rich in phenols (e.g. raspberries)
• Green tea
• Tomato
• Ginger
• Honey and propolis (e.g. Manuka honey)

This is not an exhaustive list, but it gives you some ideas.

While we know these foods have an anti-H. pylori effect, we don’t know how much we need to eat, how often, and for how long, in order to eradicate the infection. Thus, I don’t believe it’s wise to rely on food alone.

Herbs and Supplements:

The advantage of supplements over foods is that you get a concentrated dose of an active ingredient in a capsule or tea.

Note: I do not recommend you use these alongside antibiotics. It is best to use them after a course of regular H. pylori treatment.

Toxaprevent:

A 5-day protocol with this supplement* is effective against H. pylori and is excellent for reducing bloating, heartburn and reflux symptoms.

Matula Herbal Formula:

A 30-day protocol using Matula twice daily is usually very effective in removing H. pylori (this is the product I used successfully when I had H. pylori)

Gastromend HP:

This supplement is made by Designs For Health and contains mastic gum, licorice (DGL), zinc carnosine and MSM; these ingredients fight H. pylori, soothe and accelerate the healing of the stomach.

Allicillin:

This is a very potent garlic supplement, again made by Designs For Health. It has worked well when combined with Gastromend-HP. It should not be taken by people using blood thinning or anti-coagulant medication.

Parabotanic Select (or similar broad spectrum anti-microbial supplement):

Supplemets such as Parabotanic Select by Moss Nutrition contain broad-spectrum herbs to fight not only H. pylori but other organisms in the digestive tract.

Amazon C-F:

This product, by Raintree Nutrition has also been very helpful to our clients and can be used alongside the above.

Helico)X:

Helico)X is made by Panaxea. Some clinicians I’ve spoken to use this product for 10 days before adding in Matula Herbal Formula. I’ve used this product quite a few times and it has been quite effective.

Liposomal Curcumin or C3 Curcumin:

Curcumin comes from turmeric. It has anti-H. pylori activity and is also a natural-anti-inflammatory.

Sulforaphane:

Sulforaphane is harvested from cruciferous vegetables, especially broccoli sprouts. It has anti-H pylori activity and is an excellent antioxidant. It also helps detoxification.

Probiotics:

High quality probiotic products from fermented vegetables (kimchi, sauerkraut, etc.) may assist in the eradication of H. pylori. Dairy-based probiotics can also be helpful in people who do not have a sensitivity to cow’s milk.

With the exception of Toxaprevent and Matula Herbal Formula, I usually recommend people take the above supplements for 60-days.

* Toxaprevent is actually classed as a medical device because it is not absorbed into your body. It remains in the digestive system and in addition to fighting H. pylori, it pulls ammonia, histamine and toxins from your intestine.

IMPORTANT NOTE: I do NOT recommend you take these supplements at the same time as taking antibiotics.

How can you check that H. pylori has gone?

It is my experience that some doctors don’t want to re-test after treatment. Unfortunately this leads to a lot of confusion.

Symptoms can go away temporarily, but H. pylori may still be there, and your symptoms may return later (sometimes more severe than the original ones).

If your doctor does not want to re-test after treating you, it is possible to get a stool antigen test, or stool DNA test, sent to your home.

These tests are available in virtually all countries and are very convenient to do.

You provide a stool sample and send it to a private lab for analysis. Your stool sample is analyzed for H. pylori and the result is sent to you, usually as a PDF document.

After a given H. pylori treatment, whether pharmaceutical or herbal, it is important to wait 28 days before re-testing (these are medical guidelines from the Maastricht Consensus of 2012).

Thank you!

I hope this post has been helpful.

If you’d like some additional assistance, please feel free to drop us a line at:

h.pylori@hompesmethod.com.

There’s also a lot more info on H. pylori here.

Best,

Dave.