VERIFIED CONTENTAuthor: Dominika Wilk
Helicobacter Pylori is the most common cause of gastritis, peptic ulcers, gastric cancer, and gastric mucosa lymphoma. Usually it is treated with antibiotics, but this does not always lead to complete eradication of the bacteria. It is then necessary to use an alternative method of treatment - based on the action of natural substances.
Helicobacter Pyloriis a spiral-shaped gram-negative bacterium that most often colonizes the stomach environment ( although it can also be found in the esophagus or duodenum), causing unfavorable changes in mucosa damage, erosions, ulcers, etc.
You can get infected with it in various ways: either by the oral-oral route, e.g. by kissing, oral-fecal contact with the faeces of an infected person, or gastric-oral, when you come into contact with the vomit of an infected person.
80% of people infected with it may have no symptoms, but 20% will suffer from excessive H. Pylori colonization and associated dyspeptic and systemic symptoms, such as nausea, stomach pain, indigestion, and anemia.
Helicobacter Pylori - where does the difficulty in eradication come from?
H. Pyloria's resistance to eradication is related to her perfectly developed survival mechanisms, which enable her, for example, to cheat the immune system. The factors favoring virulence include:
- The ability to decompose urea into toxic ammonia, thanks to which the acid content of the stomach is neutralized, and the bacteria have a chance to survive in an alkaline and beneficial environment.
- Adhesion to the stomach wall that allows colonization. The adhesion proteins of H. Pylori include, first of all: BabA, SabA, OlipA.
- Presence of cilia that allow the mucus to move around.
- Weakening of the immune system response due to the similarity of bacterial antigens to human antigens (molecular mimicry phenomenon).
- Phagocytosis resistance and human humoral response mechanisms. This is made possible by enzymes such as: superoxide dismutase, urease, catalase, etc.
- Production of cytotoxinvacuolating A (VacA), which facilitates damage to the gastric epithelium and adheres directly to the epithelial cells of the stomach. This, in turn, makes the infection a chronic condition.
Why does drug treatment for Helicobacter Pylori not always work?
The traditional treatment regimen of Helicobacter Pylori in people with confirmed infection is triple therapy, where antibiotics and chemotherapeutic agents are administered: e.g. amoxicillin and metronidazole and PPIs (proton pump inhibitors).
This therapy usually lasts 10 days. When it does not work, quadruple therapy with bismuth is used, with, for example, tetracycline, metronidazole, bismuth citrate, and PPIs. Treatment lasts from 10-14 days.
For most people, this type of treatment brings good results, but in 10-20% of patients it is not possible to obtain a permanent cure. This may be because bacteria are becoming more resistant to antibiotics. In this case, an alternative method of treatment is treatment with herbs and plant extracts with known antibacterial properties.
Natural substances used in the eradication of Helicobacter Pylori
Black cumin
Black cumin (Nigella Sativa) is a plant with proven he alth effects. The medicinal substances of this plant are both its seeds and black seed oil. They show both antibiotic, antiviral, antiparasitic, analgesic, choleretic and cholagogic properties.
In addition, they have antifungal and anti-cancer properties. In black cumin, the pharmacologically proven effects are mainly due to the quinone components, in particular thymoquinone. Black seed oil is most often used for treatment, but as it turns out, it is mainly the seeds that are able to support the treatment of Helicobacter Pylori.
For example, a 2007/2008 study in Saudi Arabia of 88 people with active Helicobcter Pylori infection showed that Nigella Sativa seeds can be an effective drug to help eradicate bacteria, as can antibiotic therapy. Patients admitted to this study had both dyspeptic symptoms and confirmed positive H. Pyloria infection.
They were divided into 4 groups. The first group was treated with traditional antibiotic therapy consisting of: clamromycin and amoxcillin. The second group received 1 g of black cumin daily, the third group - 2 g each day, and the fourth group - 3 g per day. Each of these groups also received 40 mg of omeprazole daily, and the entire treatment lasted 4 weeks.
As shown by the results of the study, a dose of 2 gNigella Sativa eradicated H. Pylori in 67%, but the 1 g and 3 g doses did not work as well, removing the bacteria in 48%. However, in the group of people taking antibiotics, as many as 82.6% of patients had a positive treatment result. The digestive system dyspeptic symptoms also decreased in each of the respondents, but they may be related to the ingested omperazole.
The conclusion is that black cumin can be an alternative in treating H. Pylori when the patient does not respond well to antibiotic treatment and pharmacology does not produce the desired results.
In connection with the above study, the question arises why both the lower (1 g) and the higher (3 g) dose of black cumin did not give as good results as 2 g of Nigella Sativa per day. Well, it may result from various factors.
One guess is that black cumin seeds also contain other ingredients that, at higher doses, can counteract the anti-H. Pylori activity.
Another hypothesis is that the combination of Nigella Sativa and omeprazole can lead to a large inhibition of gastric acid, and thus the transfer of H. Pylori from, for example, the antrum of the stomach to other regions. In this case, the bacterium spreads more, which reduces the eradication rate.
Aloes
Aloe is a monocotyledonous succulent containing over 75 active ingredients with healing potential. The enzymes it contains, e.g. superoxide dismutase, have anti-inflammatory properties and have detoxifying properties. In turn, polyphenols act against free radicals and inhibit lipid peroxidation.
In the eradication of H. Pylori the anthraquinones (aloemodine, aloin, aloeic acid, emodine, anthranol, isobarbaloin) are of the greatest importance as they exhibit antibiotic properties. Their activity in fighting microbes, including H. Pylori, can be compared to that of tetracyclines (one of the class of antibiotics).
The studies by Cellini et al. Showed that over 50% of H. Pylori strains showed sensitivity to aloe extract at a concentration of 100 g / ml, and 90% of the strains responded to the dose of 400 mg / ml. Aloe also has properties in inhibiting the adhesion of H. Pylori to the stomach walls, which prevents their further colonization, thanks to the presence of polysaccharides.
Ginger
Ginger is a plant with a strong anti-inflammatory effect. For treatment, both fresh and dried rhizome extracts are used. The active ingredients that best fight H. Pylori are ginger phenolic compounds such as, for example, 6-gingerol, 8-gingerol, 10-gingerol, phenolic acids and their derivatives, and6-shogaol.
As shown by one of the studies using ginger extract containing a fraction containing gingerols and 6-shogoal, appropriate compounds isolated from ginger are effective in inhibiting the growth of H. Pylori - in this case they blocked the growth of 19 tested strains of the mentioned bacteria .
Other natural substances supporting the fight against H. Pylori
Some natural substances suspected of being able to fight H. Pylori do not have enough research in this direction. One of them is garlic. Although it exhibits a general bactericidal effect, in studies devoted to H. Pylori, either a weak extract of it was used (which showed little inhibition of bacterial growth) or a boiled decoction was served (and garlic loses its valuable properties when cooked).
Therefore, there are no reliable studies that would prove that it definitely contributes to the eradication of H. Pylori.
Another plant is licorice. It has a research-proven anti-adhesive effect on Pylori, blocks its colonization, but when it comes to combating it, there is too little research to be sure ( although there are some studies indicating that it aids eradication of bacteria).
Natural substances to prevent re-colonization of H. Pylori
Some people who successfully eradicate H. Pylori may re-colonize with this bacterium. To prevent this, it is worth reaching for natural agents and substances that will inhibit the adhesion of bacterial cells to the epithelium.
Polysaccharides are an important component of plants and herbs that will fulfill this task - because the development of H. Pylori is favored by the ability to combine with sugar structures located in the mucous layer covering the epithelium.
Polysaccharides contained in many plants have a similar structure to the mucins lining the stomach, therefore treatment with them has a chance to block adhesion to the gastric mucosa and thus prevent further development of infection.
Algae
Algae are plants with a high content of polysaccharides (they constitute 60% of their dry weight), therefore they have taken part in numerous studies aimed at assessing their role in inhibiting H. Pylori adhesion. One study by Loke et al. Showed that Spirulina in the amount of 35 µg can reduce the level of bacterial adhesion by 90%, while Chlorella achieves the same effect only at 80 µg.
This study was conducted in vitro with porcine gastric mucins. In turn, the research of Shibata et al. Proved that fucoidans obtained from brown algaeCladosiphon can reduce the adhesion of H. Pylori to gastric mucins by 60% (in a pH environment with a concentration between 2-4).
Blackcurrant
Blackcurrant is a fruit that contains many sugar compounds. They have the ability to block the adhesion of H. Pylorii. In particular, the arabinogalactone protein (AGP) isolated from currant seeds, which is a glycoprotein, is able to inhibit the adhesion of H. Pylori.
It was proved by Messing et al., Who in an in vitro test showed that a dose of 4 mg / ml AGP is able to reduce the adherence of bacteria to stomach cells by 40%.
Edible musk
Edible musk is another plant that may be helpful in inhibiting the growth of H. Pylori. It looks like paprika and has many valuable nutritional properties. In addition, it has many he alth properties, including soothes inflammation, helps in the treatment of diarrhea, lowers the level of glucose and lipids.
The most important in preventing colonization of H. Pylori are its mucilaginous substances - rhamnogalacturonans (polysaccharides consisting of rhamnose and galacturonic acid). However, their inhibitory power against the mentioned bacteria depends on the amount of polysaccharides contained in the extract obtained from edible musk.
As shown in their research by Thole et al. A 60% butternut squash solution was able to reduce bacterial adhesion by 68% (± 15%), and a 90% solution by 75% (± 11%).