Triumph Over Gastritis
by author David Diamond

This is the story of our 12 year-old daughter Sharon’s battle with Heliobacter pylori (H. pylori), the bacteria that cause stomach ulcers.

Sharon has always had a delicate digestive system. From infancy we noticed that she was sensitive to milk products and often avoided them. Whenever she was ill, her first symptom was vomiting, but nothing prepared us for what happened in April 2000.

It was spring break. Sharon was shopping with cousins from Florida when she suddenly felt weak. Complaining about her stomach, she nearly fainted in the mall. The pain bothered her all week and when school resumed, she wasn’t well enough to return. For the remainder of the term, Sharon’s severe stomach aches kept her at home clutching a hot water bottle.

Sharon’s pediatrician could find no reason for the stomach aches and recommended we see a pediatric gastroenterologist. It’s difficult to find one in Montreal: there are few of them and they’re overbooked. We went to emergency at the Montreal Children’s Hospital, where a number of tests turned up nothing. Our pediatrician then recommended an adult gastroenterologist.

A Light Goes On

I told our new specialist I wanted every test under the sun because Sharon had already missed months of school. He went over a long list of tests. At some point I suggested we do an H. pylori test because Sharon’s "burning sensation" made me think of an ulcer. Apparently this test hadn’t occurred to him. (Is it not a common infection in children?)

It turned out that H. pylori was the only positive result in all the tests. The doctor seemed quite discouraged–he was very skeptical that it had caused our daughter’s symptoms. Nonetheless he wrote out a prescription for treatment, one of several for H. pylori which mostly involve two antibiotics and an antacid. We used the antibiotics Biaxin (clarithromycin) and Flagyl (metronidazole) and the antacid Losec. The treatment is only for a single week, but it’s very difficult to tolerate.

All of these medications come with a long list of possible side-effects. Flagyl is very unpleasant tasting and can cause headaches. Sharon could barely swallow it without throwing up. Even worse, after the very first dose, she felt like she had "lightning" in her head.

Like me, Sharon had always suffered from occasional migraine headaches. Now they were chronic. She stayed in bed the whole week of treatment and was totally miserable. Her headaches continued even after.

A few weeks later, she was re-tested and found to be still infected. Finally a pediatric gastroenterologist looked at her case and prescribed a second round of antibiotic and antacid therapy. This time it was Novamoxin (amoxicillin), Biaxin (again) and Prevacid. These were much easier to tolerate but didn’t work either. Sharon was still infected by the H. pylori bacteria.

Now we were desperate. Although Sharon’s stomach was a lot better, we were afraid that it would get worse again. An even bigger fear for us was that long-term H. pylori infection is associated with a dramatically increased risk of stomach cancer. And Sharon’s headaches were an ongoing problem. Now mid-summer, we were afraid Sharon would start off the school year the way she had ended the previous one–at home, sick.

A Knight in Shining Armour

We had reached a dead end with the doctors. After two rounds of therapy, they had nothing else to offer. When we didn’t think there was anywhere to turn, we found a naturopath.

Gilles Parent practises naturopathy in Montreal and Sherbrooke, Quebec with a special interest in nutrition. I explained Sharon’s problem over the phone and without requesting a consultation, he recommended we try a plant medicine called Mastica along with vitamin C.

My wife and I have been using vitamins for years but neither of us had ever heard of Mastica. We discovered it’s from the resin of the tree Pistacia lentiscus, found throughout the Mediterranean. The resin is scraped off the trees, dried, ground into powder, and encapsulated. Dr Parent suggested Sharon take one 500 mg capsule three times a day with 1,500 mg of vitamin C for four weeks. There were no side-effects and at the end of the third week, Sharon was re-tested for H. pylori with a negative result–finally, she was cured! Sharon still suffers from chronic migraines the antibiotics started but is working with Dr Parent on this problem.

According to Gilles Parent, about 80 percent of his patients with gastrointestinal complaints have H. pylori infections! Not all are cured as quickly as Sharon–the antibiotic therapy may have sped things up. But if Mastica alone had proven insufficient, there are other natural remedies that could also have been used. Only some health food stores stock this helpful product.

If you or someone you know is suffering gastrointestinal symptoms, make sure to get tested for H. pylori. The best test is a simple, although somewhat expensive, breath test. Some health insurance policies cover it. If the test is positive, try a natural cure before looking to antibiotics.

The discovery of the bacterium Heliobacter pylori (H. pylori) is one of the most significant medical discoveries of the 20th century. It had been widely believed that gastric ulcers and chronic gastritis were caused by stress or diet. Then, in the early 1980s, Australian doctors Barry Marshall and Robin Warren found a strong correlation in people with gastritis with the presence of the bacterium. Initially they were dismissed as crackpots by the medical establishment but were eventually proven right.

H. pylori causes almost all peptic ulcers, accounting for 80 percent of stomach ulcers and more than 90 percent of duodenal ulcers. H. pylori infection is common in North America: about 20 percent of people under 40 and half of people over 60 are infected with it. Most do not develop ulcers. Why this is so is unknown but it may depend on characteristics of the infected person, the type of H. pylori and other factors yet to be discovered. Researchers are not certain how people become infected but suspect it may be through food or water. It’s been found in some infected people’s saliva, so the bacteria may also spread through mouth-to-mouth contact such as kissing.

H. pylori weakens the protective mucous coating of the stomach and duodenum, which allows acid to get through to the sensitive lining beneath. Both the acid and the bacteria irritate the lining and cause a sore, or ulcer. H. pylori is able to survive in stomach acid because it secretes enzymes that neutralize the acid. This mechanism allows the bacterium to make its way to the protective mucous lining, where its shape helps it burrow.

Some people experience only very mild symptoms or none at all.

David Diamond is a reader of alive living in Montreal, Quebec.

From: http://www.alive.com/593a2a2.php?text_page=2

[other herbs to use are olive leaf extract and grapefruitseed extract, both of which are effective & could be used in ccombination ~ RM ]