Page 1 of 1

Digestive issues and Parasthesia

Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2018 8:13 am
by Mono-hpylori-tornado
So glad I found this forum, looking for some answers.

Username says it all, concurrent mono and h.pylori - started with digestive symptoms 3 months ago, pain in lower left quadrant 1 week, then moved to lower right for one week, then tingling into legs/arms. Doc did MRI on brain and abdomen w contrast, and xray. All negative, blood work came back positive Mono.

Doc figured the mono was causing all of the symptoms including the tingling, rest was prescribed.

1 week later while resting woke in the night with knotted stomach and deep empty hunger pains. Nausea the next day pretty bad then just and “empty” feeling since. This along with the tingling into the extremities and stomach aching on R side specifically under ribs and into lower quadrant persisted. Occasional shortness of breath as well in evenings, felt like my diaphragm was locked up. Again I associated all of this with th mono.

2 more weeks of rest and energy is back but all of those other symptoms persist, I start thinking there is something going on in the stomach as well. Went back to doc and described symptoms and they are thinking H.Pylori - blood test on wed, still waiting on results - my mom and sister have had H.pylori and now learning about it I am guessing this is the culprit.

Before my results come in I wanted to see if these symptoms - empty feeling, pain in lower right side, and tingling into extremities have been reported previously?

I have read both Mono and H.Pylori can have an effect on red blood cells, which could explain the neurological symptoms.

Also - about treatment, which antibiotic regimen appears to work the best? I am 33, fit, otherwise healthy, taking no medications. My mom and sister swear by the Matula Tea and Mastic Gum - but after reading here it really seems like antibiotics are the only solution for full eradication.

But another question, if I got this from my mom during childhood and have had it my whole life with no flare ups, do I really need to filly eradicate? It could be that simply the viral infection compromised my immune system enough to create a flare up, so once my system comes back it could control it again and possibly some of the more natural approaches would be better long term? I’m not interested in taking antibiotics if I do not need to, obviously.

Sorry so long, will keep things updated and appreciate any thoughts. Thanks

Re: Digestive issues and Parasthesia

Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2018 8:41 am
by Helico_expert
Thanks for sharing your story.

There is a group of doctors/scientists that are against killing H. pylori. I am not that group. I believe that if you dont eradicate H. pylori, then you are risking for stomach ulcers and cancer. Many people in the world carry H. pylori without problem. But, we know that all H. pylori causes inflammation in the stomach. I believe the longer the stomach is inflamed, the longer it needs to recover. When you are young and healthy, your immune system is strong, you can tolerate the stomach inflammation. But when you are above 50, your health began to deteriorate. That's when you start feeling the problem. and it could be too late to fix the stomach that has already been damaged for years or decades.

There is a lot of non scientific articles out there about natural product curing H. pylori. I dont believe them. We tried many and nothing works. The only scientific method is antibiotic treatment. it is the only method that works consistently among different individual.

If you have done all the tests, everything comes back normal, then there is nothing much to worry about. Most importantly is free of H. pylori. Then only you know your stomach is recovering.

Re: Digestive issues and Parasthesia

Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2018 9:01 am
by Mono-hpylori-tornado
I understand your logic. And you feel that any damage from the anti-biotic treatment is less of a risk than the long-term inflammation in the stomach.

Then question - do we know the short and long term effects of health from these types of antibiotic treatments? How the change to gut flora effects overall health, that is.

Because as a patient I am not only concerned with my stomach, but my entire system. And I need to weigh the risk reward between the effect from antibiotic treatment vs the effect of long-term inflammation from h.pylori.

And also - have you seen the symptoms of thinking into the hands and feet before?

Re: Digestive issues and Parasthesia

Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2018 10:03 am
by Helico_expert
you are right about the microbiome being disturbed by the antibiotics. For many, the microbiome will come back to normal within a week or two after stopping antibiotics. But for some unfortunate ones, the microbiome can become "unbalance" and develop IBS. And because IBS has no definite diagnosis. Therefore, there is usually no particular treatment. Some people went for fecal transplant. The outcome is 50:50. Some people became better and some has no change. For those that were better, because of their "unhealthy" diet, the good microbiome cannot be maintained, and went back to their "unbalanced" state.

Anyway, microbiome is one of the hottest topic at the moment. Lots of scientists are still trying to find out the best way to understand it, including us.

Other than the impact of antibiotics on microbiome, if the patient is not allergic to the antibiotics, I see little risk of long term harm from a short course of antibiotics in a single individual.

Re: Digestive issues and Parasthesia

Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2018 11:30 pm
by Mono-hpylori-tornado
Thanks for your responses, I appreciate your experience and expertise.

How do you feel about low dose antibiotic options?

Though the research was from the 90’s, this therapy seemed to be effective. Obviously the goal is eradication with minimal antibiotic dosage.

1 week with omeprazole 20 mg once in the morning and clarithromycin 250 mg and metronidazole 400 mg twice daily. 38/40 eradicated.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/7866820/

What is your current recommendation for first line treatment?

Re: Digestive issues and Parasthesia

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2018 8:15 am
by Helico_expert
I must say I have no experience with low dose antibiotic treatment. However, from my understanding of H. pylori, lower the antibiotic dose can lead to antibiotic resistance.

also, this paper was published in 1995, perhaps the current resistance pattern is already different.

Based on our experience, we have noticed that the PPI dose must be high in order to maximise the antibiotic efficacy. Double the standard dose of PPI has always lead to better cure rate.