Helicobacter pylori is one of the most common yet hard to treat bacterial infections in all of existence. There are a variety of things to consider when it comes to treating H pylori.

The first are the H pylori symptoms themselves. These signs are hard to recognize as there are often no symptoms at all. If you do have symptoms, they are usually mild and general and include things like stomach ache and nausea. Given how common these are, it is hard to say for sure exactly whether or not it is H pylori based on symptoms alone.

Since you cannot predict H pylori this way, the next step is to get an H pylori test. These are now fairly easy to get and widespread, so this should not be a problem.

The only thing you have to worry about with testing for H pylori is that it comes back often. Treatment sometimes just makes the disease go dormant and does not successfully kill off all the bacteria. As a result, you should have another test about 12 weeks after treatment in order to see if you were reinfected. The recurrence rate for H pylori is really high, so this is an important step.

Before we jump into reoccurring infections though, we should consider the basics of exactly how the treatment process works. Typically H pylori is treated via Triple Therapy, which is three types of synergistic medication used to combat the bacterium.

Since the bacteria is so resistant to treatment, you have to use these three medicines. One lowers stomach acid (H pylori thrives in acidic environments), one lowers H pylori’s resistance to antibiotics and prevents it from going dormant, and one actually is the antibiotic for H pylori which can only attack the weakened H pylori.

If H pylori is just exposed to an antibiotic, it has the ability to completely shut down metabolism and do nothing, which prevents the antibiotic from killing it. It can stay dormant for years until all traces of antibiotics have been wiped out and then it can resume normal function. One of the medicines used to treat H pylori prevents this dormancy from occurring.

As a result, effectively dealing with H pylori symptoms is a lot more challenging than you might expect. However, it is not as if no one is ever cured – stick to the treatment process and get tested regularly and you should be better in no time.