The functional nutrition approach to treating Helicobacter Pylori or H. Pylori focuses on identifying and addressing the root causes of symptoms through diet and lifestyle changes. This whole body, root cause approach is individualized based on a comprehensive functional nutrition assessment, individual symptoms, health history, and labs aiming to restore balance to the digestive system.

What is Helicobacter Pylori or H. Pylori?

Helicobacter Pylori is a bacteria that can live harmlessly in the gut and won’t require treatment unless GI symptoms are present such as abdominal pain, abdominal distention, bloating, and unintentional weight loss. Approximately 50 percent of the world’s population has been estimated to be infected with H. Pylori¹ but most are asymptomatic meaning symptoms aren’t readily visible. It can cause painful infections leading to stomach ulcers, chronic gastritis, and stomach cancer².

What are common symptoms associated with Helicobacter Pylori?

• Abdominal pain
• Dyspepsia (indigestion)
• Nausea
• Chronic gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms

What are root causes of Helicobacter Pylori?

• Contaminated food or water
• Poor hygiene practices leading to transmission of H. Pylori
• Consider sources of exposure, especially romantic partners or family members. H. Pylori is easily transmitted via saliva through mouth to mouth transmission.
• Lack of a nutrient dense diet, high in ultra-processed foods and refined sugars/grains, leading to poor gut health which influences susceptibility to growth of H. Pylori

How can i help treat Helicobacter Pylori using functional lab testing?

You can assess if you are positive or negative for H. Pylori by ordering a GI-MAP stool test to assess for overall gut microbiome health. The GI-MAP detects various virulence factors associated with H. Pylori. When virulence factors are present, the treatment goal will be to fully eradicate the H. Pylori population. In addition to the standard treatment of H. Pylori., additional treatments would be used to target each of the virulence factors.

The virulence factor genes above for H. Pylori are genes code for proteins that will predispose one to more serious H. Pylori infections.

Generally, when virulence factors are present, the treatment goal will be to fully eradicate the H. Pylori population. Your functional practitioner can help put you on a supplement protocol to reduce H. Pylori.

My storefront is linked here to order functional labs, which is signed off by a nationally-licensed physician, to assess for gut imbalances, hormonal imbalances, or vitamin/mineral deficiencies. If you need help creating a personalized functional nutrition care plan based on the interpretation of any of the above functional labs, you can work with us here.

Functional lab testing would be a good idea if you really wanted to hone in on the specifics of gut microbiome imbalances, hormonal imbalances, vitamin/mineral deficiencies.

Are there any therapeutic diets used in healing Helicobacter Pylori from a root cause approach?

The 5R Treatment Protocol linked here is used as a clinical guideline to treat pathogens, imbalances in the gut microbiome, and to restore overall health to the gut. The 5R Treatment Protocol aims to remove harmful organisms and triggering foods, replace with digestive supporting supplements, reinoculate or repopulate the gut with beneficial bacteria or probiotics, repair the gut mucosal lining with gut barrier supporting foods or supplements as well as supporting the immune system housed in the gut, and rebalancing the entire gut microbiome for long term health and longevity with proper sleep, a nutritious gut supportive diet full of prebiotics, probiotics, fiber, polyphenols, and antioxidants for gut microbial diversity, exercise for gut motility, and stress management to maintain long-term gut health.

There are numerous studies on the beneficial impact of broccoli sprouts on reducing H. Pylori due to the nutritional component called sulforaphane and ir’s precursor glucoraphanin. Broccoli sprouts, in particular, are rich in isothiocyanate sulforaphane (SF) in the form of a precursor called glucoraphanin, which has shown potent bacteriostatic activity against H. Pylori.³

Are there any supplements, Probiotic strains, botanicals, or herbs that are helpful in healing Helicobacter Pylori?

Treatment with antimicrobial herbs used to eradicate or suppress H. Pylori such as:

• Oil of oregano
• Berberine

Treatment with gut healing supplements to rebuild gastric mucosa lining for treatment of H. Pylori such as:

• Deglycyrrhizinated licorice (DGL)
• L-glutamine
• Zinc carnosine

Treatment with high dose probiotics to rebuild the beneficial gut microbiome community for treatment of H. Pylori such as:

• High dose probiotic supplements containing Lactobacillus spp., Bifidobacterium spp., or Saccharomyces boulardii

Make sure to order from a high quality and third party tested brand instead of purchasing from Amazon where practically anyone can sell anything without any rigorous testing. To make it easier for you, you may order from my supplement dispensary below through Fullscript’s catalog where each brand and product meets strict top quality standards. You can learn more about third party testing here.

My supplement dispensary is linked here (with a 30% off discount!) and you do not need to be a client to place an order.

Adding various or specific probiotic strains to ferment in yogurt allows them to multiply and digest easier as well survive intestinal transit ensuring optimal nutrition. I have the recipe linked here!

What are some diet and lifestyle tips that can help me during the process of healing Helicobacter Pylori?

Look at sleep, diet, exercise, and stress management.

Exercise:

• Any aerobic type of exercise to help increase gut motility and gut microbiome diversity, and increase beneficial gut bacterial growth. We’re not looking at the amount of calories burned (which is a rough estimate anyways) or the average pace per mile. We are looking for a light aerobic form of exercise to increase gut motility to help your body work with you to heal H. Pylori.

Additional benefits include:

• improving cardiovascular (heart) health to pump rich oxygenated blood all throughout the body, allowing your muscles to soak up all the extra glucose floating around in your blood as an energy source leading to lower and balanced blood sugar levels as well as insulin *say goodbye to being at risk for prediabetes or diabetes!*
• improving nervous system health by slowly reducing cortisol (think of lowering cortisol levels in the case of chronic stress as the slow dripping of a faucet leak. You can’t lower significant amounts of cortisol in a day. It takes time.)
• lowering activation of the amygdala which is responsible for emotional responses like fear or anxiety.

Nutritional intake/Diet:

• Reduce or remove caffeine intake to have less irritation on the gut mucosal lining (during treatment of H. Pylori if you are taking supplements to rebuild the gastric mucosa lining consuming caffeine works in the opposite direction) Once you have healed H. Pylori and have a healthy gut microbiome diversity within the next 90 days, you can go back to consuming caffeine.

Lifestyle:

• Eat with your right hand
• Use a bidet
• Improve oral hygiene as it can reside in the mouth

How can I heal Helicobacter Pylori with the help of a functional nutrition dietitian?

Each person is unique and this is recognized in a personalized functional nutrition assessment and intervention plan that engages and empowers the patient in this process to restore optimal function, manage symptoms and promote overall health and well-being.

Functional nutrition addresses the whole person, not just an isolated set of symptoms. We look at it from a root-cause perspective and create a focus on prevention through nutrition, therapeutic diets, targeted supplementation, exercise, interpretation of conventional and/or functional lab testing, botanicals, detoxification protocols, and stress management tools.

Overall from a whole body, root cause approach, to treat helicobacter pylori using nutrition therapy we would look at using a therapeutical diet to manage GI symptoms, targeted supplements, herbs, and then work to rebalance the gut using the 5R Treatment Protocol linked here.

By addressing these underlying causes — through personalized approaches like evidence-based nutrition, simple lifestyle changes, and targeted supplements — functional nutrition aims to bring the body back into balance and resolve helicobacter pylori at its root.

References:

1. Brown LM. Helicobacter pylori: epidemiology and routes of transmission. Epidemiol Rev. 2000;22(2):283-97. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.epirev.a018040. PMID: 11218379. ↩︎
2. Malfertheiner, P., Camargo, M.C., El-Omar, E. et al. Helicobacter pylori infection. Nat Rev Dis Primers 9, 19 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41572-023-00431-8 ↩︎
3. Fahey JW, Haristoy X, Dolan PM, Kensler TW, Scholtus I, Stephenson KK, et al. Sulforaphane inhibits extracellular, intracellular, and antibiotic-resistant strains of helicobacter pylori and prevents benzo[a]pyrene-induced stomach tumors. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A (2002) 99:7610–5. doi: 10.1073/pnas.112203099, PMID: 12032331 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar] ↩︎