Re: H. Pylori treatment, long

[Guest guest]

There is a tea that some parents have claimed helped

get rid of it. However, you might like to read this

before you proceed (long):

Helicobacter pylori May Prevent Asthma

Ulcer-Causing Bacteria May Prevent Asthma

04.23.07, 12:00 AM ET

http://www.forbes. com/forbeslife/ health/feeds/

hscout/2007/ 04/23/hscout6039 40.html

MONDAY, April 23 (HealthDay News) -- The bacteria

responsible for many

peptic ulcers, Helicobacter pylori, may not always act

in a damaging way.

Instead, new research suggests that the germs may

actually protect against

asthma and allergies.

Using data from almost 8,000 adults, researchers from

New York University

School of Medicine found that people infected with a

particular strain of

H. pylori had a 21 percent decreased risk of having

asthma and a 23

percent decreased risk of allergies compared to people

without the bug.

What's more, the researchers found that when the

infection with H. pylori

occurred before the age of 15, the odds of having

asthma were reduced by

37 percent, and the odds of allergies were reduced by

45 percent.

" Helicobacter pylori has been found to be strongly

associated with ulcer

disease and stomach cancer, and there's a widespread

belief that this

organism is a pathogen, " said the study's co-author,

Dr. Blaser,

chairman of the department of medicine and a professor

of microbiology at

NYU.

But, about 10 years ago, Blaser said, he and other

researchers looked at

H. pylori's association with another common digestive

disorder,

gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), and found that

there was an

inverse relationship between having H. pylori and

having GERD. That

finding " raised the idea that helicobacter might be

protective. It's bad

for the stomach, but good for the esophagus. "

As many as one in five people under age 40 is infected

with H. pylori,

according to the National Institute for Diabetes and

Digestive and Kidney

Disorders. Yet, not everyone who's infected develops

an ulcer.

Because H. pylori appeared to be protective against

GERD, and previous

research had linked GERD and asthma, Blaser and his

colleagues wondered if

H. pylori might protect against asthma as well.

To evaluate this theory, Blaser and his colleague, Yu

Chen, culled data

from the Third National Health and Nutrition

Examination Survey about

asthma and allergy history for 7,663 adults. The

researchers also assessed

whether the study volunteers had evidence of strains

of H. pylori called

CAG positive or CAG negative in their blood.

" What we found was that if people ever had a history

of asthma, there was

an inverse association with CAG positive helicobacter,

" said Blaser. And,

he added, when the researchers broke the data down by

age, they found an

even more " striking result. "

" We have evidence that helicobacter used to be

ubiquitous in the

environment, and it used to be acquired in childhood, "

said Blaser. " Now,

we have a generation of children growing up with

helicobacter in their

stomachs to help regulate immunity and maybe protect

against asthma and

allergy. This could be an unintended consequence of

all the antibiotics

used in children.

" It's possible helicobacter is protecting against

asthma to some degree,

and, as it disappears, we're losing that layer of

protection, which may

explain why asthma, especially childhood asthma, is

rising, " he said.

Results of the study are published in the April 23

issue of the Archives

of Internal Medicine.

Not everyone is convinced that helicobacter is at the

root of asthma,

however.

" This study doesn't sway me in any way in how I treat

my asthma patients, "

said Dr. Jane Krasnick, chief of allergy and

immunology at St. Macomb

Hospital in Warren, Mich.

Krasnick said the study has some limitations, such as

the asthma was

self-reported, not confirmed by lung function tests or

doctors.

Additionally, she said, there was no mention of the

severity of asthma or

details on the types of medications the study

volunteers were taking. Such

factors could affect the study findings, she pointed

out.

Still, Krasnick said, " Medicine can be like a big

jigsaw puzzle, and this

may be a piece of that puzzle. Maybe right now, you

noticed this piece has

fallen under a chair, and you wonder if it's

important, so you go back to

get that piece and keep it in a drawer in case you

need it later. "

Blaser said additional research needs to be done to

confirm the association and then to figure out what to

do with this knowledge. Right now, he said, many

physicians think all H. pylori infections need to be

treated, even those not causing ulcer symptoms.

But, he said, " Helicobacter is part of the natural

human body. It's quite ancient in humans and has been

living in the human stomach for a very long time. "

--- Elsass wrote:

> Does anyone on this list have a success story on

> treating h. pylori

> naturally? We just got back the GI Effects test from

> Metametrix for my

> son, & while it shows the candida to be gone (yea!),

> he has h. pylori,

> & cryptosporidim.

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Thank you for taking the time to post on this, Dr. JM. I think the part that

has me most concerned is that H. pylori is listed as a class 1 carcinogen

and is associated with stomach cancer as well as ulcers…

I will look into the tea further.

Blessings,

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