H Pylori

Some people infected with h pylori get reflux. This type of reflux may go away after eradicating the offending infection.

If you have a definitive diagnosis, you might want ask your doctor for a prescription for antibiotics. However, if you want to try a natural remedy before resorting to the harder stuff, there are a number that may help. For example, kombucha tea, apple cider vinegar, manuka honey, and d-limonene all seem to have some natural antibiotic potential against h pylori. Coconut oil, green tea, and suforaphane (found in cruciferous vegetables, especially brocolli sprouts) also seem to help. The problem with these remedies is that h pylori may return after you stop using them (total eradication seems to be difficult to accomplish). That said, I'm not sure I would use some of the more caustic remedies on a long term basis, especially with Barrett's esophagus. (I don't consider green tea, coconut oil, and broccoli sprouts to be caustic).

You might also try to starve off the h pylori by taking a probiotic supplement as the good bacteria may compete for food with h pylori. Also, as discussed in the last post, a low-carb, low-sugar diet will also help (they actually test for h pylori by giving sugar water before measuring for bacteria exhalations). Also, by chewing food very well, you can start the digestion process sooner and absorb more of your food, leaving less to the bacteria. Lastly, you could try not taking sips of water between bites of food (something I used to do). This practice lowers stomach acidity, which is good for h pylori and bad for digestion.

I don't have h pylori so I'm not going to write much about it in future posts. This post was just an information dump for some of what I picked up about h pylori along the way. Many people push kombucha tea, apple cider vinegar, manuka honey, and d-limonene as all-purpose reflux remedies, however, so it is important to recognize that they may have a more limited utility.

One final note, if you do have h pylori in addition to Barrett's esophagus, you should definitely keep up on your endoscopic surveillance because the h pylori puts you at risk for stomach cancer as well.

My reflux does not originate with low stomach acid or H pylori. Rather, it comes from having a weakened diaphram/hiatal hernia. Thus, not everything mentioned on this blog will have applicability to h pylori reflux (though many things will).

The next few posts will be about ways to tighten the lower esophageal sphincter ("LES") and theories for why EAC has increased 500% in the last few decades. As discussed in the last post, a low carb diet is one weapon to combate LES relaxations. There are others.