Questions

[Thulasi1]

Sorry for this basic and dumb questions

1)If pernicious anemia is triggered due to H pylori infection in the beginning , will the attacking of parietal cell by our own body stops once the h pylori is treated with antibiotics?

2) I seem to have a small white patch from one year and ignored it. Now I see it seems to be vitiligo which in most of the cases coexist with pernicious anemia or other autoimmune diseases. And now after starting with b12 injections does vitiligo stop spreading?

[pvanderaa]

I always think of PA as the genetic cause for the B12D. This would include antibodies to either IF or the parietal cells.

H. Pylori as an infection wouldn’t fall into the PA category but causes B12D by other means. I had the H. Pylori infection which caused an ulcer. I had the 2x antibiotics and pepto bismol for the cure for the infection and stomach surgery for the ulcer. Only 17 years later did I developed a B12D so I’ve never made any direct connection between H. Pylori and B12D. My infection was treated and I still got the deficiency.

I’d be interested in your sources for the first statement you assert.

I’m not medically trained. I can’t speak to vitiligo either.

[Gambit62 Administrator]

Thulasi1 - I suspect you are confusing B12 deficiency and PA.

PA is an auto-immune disorder that results in a B12 deficiency.

There are other things, such as h pylori infection that will cause B12 deficiency. It can be treated with antibiotics so once it is resolved the B12 absorption problem will be gone.

There is no known cure for PA so if you have it your absorption problem never goes away.

What exactly causes PA isn't known - it does appear to have a genetic component but it is latent genes and what activates them isn't understood.

[Curlygal]

I was diagnosed B12 deficient a year after h-pylori treatment. I wish we could do polls on here because I have heard that quite a few people (anecdotally) seem to get a diagnosis after being treated. My stomach has never been the same since! But perhaps I have other stomach issues that may cause B12 deficiency. I don't have PA (negative on both tests).

[Thulasi1 in reply to Curlygal]

Hi curlygal,

Maybe you were b12 deficient from long time and symptoms only appeared year after h pylori treatment. Also h pylori is sometimes 100 % eradication with antibiotics. There are some Tests like urea breath test after 6 weeks of treatment to confirm 100 % working of treatment. If it comes out positive then doctor may change the combination of antibiotics. Did you already had breath test after initial treatment?

[Curlygal in reply to Thulasi1]

Thulasi1 I had a negative stool test, actually some time later (over a year) but quite honestly I wouldn't want to do the triple treatment again because it was pure torture! So I'm glad it's still negative.

However I wonder about the wisdom of eradicating h-pylori, in the sense that it doesn't improve symptoms for most people (I understand the link with stomach cancer however). I've even wildly speculated that the treatment itself causes stomach issues (I don't have hard evidence to back this up though!)