Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group H. Pylori?

Someone called my dad and told him to call me IMMEDIATELY and get me tested for H. Pylori, saying it can cause not only ulcers and gastritis (which I have) but also arthritis, and she believes my AS may be CURED by taking anti- H.P. meds.

Anybody heard of this?

Tnx,
Bridget

I never heard of it but I found this: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001276/

Hi Bridget

I looked into the H. Pylori connection last year. This old thread has most of the info on it - https://www.kickas.org/ubbthreads/ubbthre...true#Post385549 . The last post in the thread has a link to a study which showed increased H Pylori prevalence in spondy's.

This post has some info about the possible Klebsiella connection - https://www.kickas.org/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=399577#Post399594

Another possible mechanism could involve reduced stomach acidity --> reduced bile secretion --> reduced endotoxin neutralisation in the gut as bile secretion is triggered by stomach acidity and bile neutralises bacterial endotoxin in the gut.

I got quite excited about it at the time but then got tested for it and it turns out I didn't have it! If you do have it then it is plausible that getting rid of it could result in health improvements. Good luck with it.

since i have gastritis and it was the first major thing i had, h. pylori was one of the first things i was tested for. a few months after i developed the gastritis, NIH came out with a statement that most ulcers were caused by either h. pylori or nsaids. so it was all very new back then. but since then the doctors who discovered the connection have won a nobel prize for their discoveries so now it is well accepted.

i did not / do not have it.

back then, 1993, the only way it could really be tested for was by a biopsy of stomach tissue.

but because false negatives were common, my husband (with really bad GERD) and i went on the triple antibiotic cocktail for two weeks: flagyl, peto (bismuth sulfate), some other antibiotic, and an acid inhibitor (prilosec). the flagyl was nasty! but i stuck with it, though had to cut my dose in half cause the flagyl was causing nerve damage at the normal dose.

but when it was all over, still had the gastritis. then found out that gastritis / ulcers / stomach cancer runs in my family (a great grandfather died from stomach cancer, an aunt died from a bleeding ulcer, grandmother had ulcers, mother had ulcers); i think i've "only" had gastritis because 1) i've been on prilosec every day since 1993 (i know of the potential health risks thanks to molly here, but for me, i can't live without it) and 2) a little gastritis (as seen by upper endoscopies) translates into severe pain so i can nip it in the bud early with mylanta for a few weeks til it settles.

and my husband still has really bad GERD as that runs in his family.

and yes, i think i've heard something about h. pylori and arthritis.

anyway, now days its very easy to test for. no more stomach biopsies are necessary. it can be detected through blood work or a breath test, very easy now. i'd have to read up to see which test gives the fewest false negatives and false positives.

http://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/helicobacter-pylori-tests

i'd say it certainly wouldn't hurt to get tested for h. pylori. and if you are found to be positive, supposedly its a fairly short course of an antibiotic cocktail, though that may have changed a bit over the years as well, as its been almost 20 years since we've been through it.

OH WOW IM GLAD I COME ACROSS THIS... l had HPylori a few years back and if l remember right it wasnt long at all afterwards when my problems started going down hill! Havnt time to read this full thread yet but lm going to.... undiagnosed but going through the motions until the time is right ( live in Uk sigh ) thank you whoever posted this xxx

Had an ulcer from that one. I was treated and negative now. Ulcer went away. No impact on AS though

I'm HP positive - as the last test made in feb shows.

The problem is that you can be HP positive even after a couple of years after you've had it as far as i know.

hi,

how were you tested? if by antibodies, then yes, will show positive whether you have it, or had it. however, looks like some of the other tests can determine had vs have. if you really want to know if its gone after treatment, maybe another of those tests?

This is kinda interesting. Shug was plagued with gastritis, oesophagitis, acid reflux for years, so bad he ended up in hospital several times, unfortunately for him it was foreign hospitals and nothing was ever done. He lived like this for years until we were in Germany and he had another gastroscopy and was found to have H.Pylori, he was treated but the problems still remained, he also had a hiatus hernia so ended up with a nissens fundoplication. It was upon wakening from his anaesthetic that the first thing Shug complained about was low back pain...and the rest is history!

my current rhuemy thinks that the GI stuff comes first, leads to leaky gut or something like that, and then the arthritis, and the fact that i had the gastritis and IBS for 5-6 years before the arthritis stuff fits that theory for me.