Helicobacter Forums

Hi and thanks for creating this community.

In the last 3 months, I (27yo male) have suffered from what I would describe "mild" gastric problems (bloating, some nausea too, indigestion after particularly heavy meals, reflux - but I also have a small hiatal hernia). It's hard to pinpoint exactly what happened when, especially since I have been (in a pretty stupid fashion) on and off PPIs in the last 2 months, firstly because I thought I just had acid reflux and was given OTC stuff.
One of the more annoying symptoms is a very localized pain on the upper right of my belly button (about 1cm away from the navel) - this seems to come and go and lasts for a few days. I have also noticed that drinking kefir seems to ease my symptoms.

I have had a gastric endoscopy (no ulcer found) and biopsies taken, still waiting for the results. I had general blood tests and a stool test, but I don't think they were for H.pylori, as my doctor only suggested it's an ulcer or H.pylori infection when I was getting test results. My question is fairly general, but what can cause a flare up of H.pylori? Is going off PPIs particularly problematic? What about general acidity of the stomach? Stress? Can eating fat food trigger symtoms as well?

During the past week, I've had a lot of anxiety and noticed a total loss of appetite. I've also made the mistake of going cold turkey on PPIs at the same time - could this be related?

A recent event that happened is that in early 2018, I took a lot of ibuprofen (think: preventively, all the time) because of a bad tooth infection, for 4 months. They put me on antibiotics (clindamycin) which destroyed my intestines: vomited and felt super bad for a few days, and couldn't really eat normally for about 2 weeks. Can there be a link with an pylori infection establishing or getting worse at this time?

Thanks for pointing me to any relevant ressources or answering a few of my many questions!

mental stress plays an important role in gastric symptoms. H. pylori is like a catalyst that make it worse. Because H. pylori causes physical damage to the gastric cells, therefore, H. pylori can lead to inflammation, ulcers, and cancer.

I think you should solve problem one at a time. Let's find out if you have H. pylori. If you do, then, we will help figure out the best strategy to remove it.

in the end, they told me I have gastritis / duodenitis from the biopsies, but the GP didn't say whether I have HP, and now I feel stupid for not asking and I don't think I should go there again...
considering I was already on PPI for over a month when the biopsies were taken, is there a chance that HP didn't show up on biopsies? If I were to ask for the breathing test, is that usually performed by a GP? I assume he would have suggested it if he had a doubt, hence why I feel trapped with these results...
thanks for your help.

breath test is a very common and simple test. A GP should be able to provide. but you'll need to stop PPI for at least a month before the breath test.