Believe it or not, half the world has H. pylori. And if you’ve got it, you’ll want to get rid of it. A huge new study suggests that certain vitamins can help.
If you’re one of the many people infected with H. pylori, you want to get rid of it because it is a leading risk factor for ulcers, gastritis, gastric cancer and mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue–associated lymphoma.
H. pylori can also damage the protective barrier of the stomach, affecting absorption and causing vitamin deficiencies.
This large meta-analysis included 48 high quality studies of the relationship between vitamins and H. pylori. It found three important things.
The first is that, perhaps because of the malabsorption it causes, people with H. pylori have lower levels of vitamins B12, folic acid, C and D.
The second is that people who are successful at eradicating H. pylori have higher levels of vitamin D than those whose treatment is unsuccessful.
And the third is that adding antioxidants to standard therapy increases the chance of eradicating the H. pylori. The antioxidants they considered were vitamins C and E.
This meta-analysis suggests that people with H. pylori may want to consider supplementing B12, folic acid, vitamin C and vitamin D to address deficiencies, and that the last two may also help eradicate the infection.
Front Nutr. 2021; 8: 781333.
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