Helicobacter pylori. This resistant to stomach acids bacterium is particularly difficult to remove. By secreting the enzyme urease it converts biochemically the urea contained in your stomach to the simpler compounds ammonia and carbon dioxide. The alkaline ammonia creates a protective gas environment around the bacteria and thus protects it from the acidic environment of the stomach into which it would otherwise has no chance to live. The bacteria settles this way permanently into the stomach wall. If you do not pay serious attention attention very soon it will turn out that you have ulcer disease. This is a disease in which the integrity of the gastric wall is damaged and on the other hand being a prerequisite for the development of gastric cancer.
The standard treatment for now is very inefficient and includes the acceptance of two types of antibiotics on a prescribed schedule, a bismuth preparation, proton pump inhibitors and despite all this heavy chemistry the results do not last more than six months as from the laboratory tests made thereafter the confirmation for presence of the Helicobacter pylori bacteria will probably be positive.
Testing for Helicobacter pylori bacteria presence is carried out by marking using a radioactive isotope of the carbon atom in the molecule of urea which you have to swallow. Then with the use of a breathing apparatus shall be detected subsequently whether the exhaled by you carbon dioxide contains the marked carbon atoms.
What can you do to protect yourself from Helicobacter pylori? For prevention accept daily vitamin C. As you understood from the text above practically one cannot overdo with vitamin C but for the purposes of prevention against the bacteria you can take two tablets of vitamin C of 100 mg each daily. Do this at least 1 month after the end of the two-month course of treatment with antibiotics for which I mentioned above. Several studies have shown that the bacterium returns much less frequently after prophylaxis with vitamin C.