Who this is for
Burning upper abdominal pain, especially on an empty stomach. Early fullness, nausea, reflux that never quite responds. A family history of gastric cancer. Or you tested positive and want to understand what you are actually dealing with.
The thing this whole protocol turns on
Almost everything else on this site is a case for doing something other than a prescription. This is the exception. H. pylori is a World Health Organization class I carcinogen — the strongest identified risk factor for gastric cancer, and eradicating it measurably reduces that risk. It also causes most peptic ulcers. Treating a confirmed infection with herbs instead of eradication therapy is not a lifestyle choice; it is leaving a carcinogen in place. Everything below is for supporting eradication, improving tolerance of it, or holding the line if you have failed therapy twice — not for replacing it.
The current ACG guideline sets out which regimens actually work now that clarithromycin resistance has climbed, and confirming eradication afterwards is part of the guideline, not optional. (PMID 39626064)
- Confirm it, properly
- Eradicate it — with your doctor
- Support the therapy, and repair afterwards
The natural arsenal belongs in arm three. Used as arm two it is the one genuinely dangerous mistake on this whole site.
Why eradication fails, and it fails often
- Clarithromycin resistance. The reason old triple therapy now fails a large share of the time, and the reason current guidelines moved away from it. (PMID 39626064)
- Not finishing the course. These regimens are unpleasant. Stopping early is the most common avoidable cause of failure and it breeds resistance.
- Never confirming eradication. Symptom improvement is not proof. Retesting at least four weeks after therapy, off PPIs, is the only way to know.
- Reinfection or a household reservoir. Close contacts can be a reservoir; recurrence is worth investigating rather than assuming failure.
What your labs are telling you
| What to look at | Why it matters here |
|---|---|
| Urea breath test or stool antigen | The two non-invasive tests worth having. Both need you off PPIs for two weeks and off antibiotics for four, or they read falsely negative. |
| Serology (blood antibody) | The weakest option — it stays positive after successful treatment, so it cannot confirm eradication or distinguish current from past infection. |
| CBC + ferritin | H. pylori is a genuine and frequently missed cause of iron deficiency that will not respond to iron alone. |
| Vitamin B12 | Chronic atrophic gastritis from long-standing infection impairs B12 absorption. |
| CMP | Baseline before a two-week multi-drug regimen. |
Test before you treat
You cannot tell which phenotype you have, or whether you are actually malabsorbing, without numbers. This is the Gut Health & Absorption panel — 11 markers, loaded into the cart in one click with Cam’s code already applied.
Drawn at Quest. Results in days, not weeks. Paste them into the Bloodwork Vault when they land.
The one with real human eradication data
Sulforaphane-rich broccoli sprouts reduced H. pylori colonisation and attenuated gastritis in both mice and humans — an unusually clean piece of translational work for a food. An earlier preliminary trial of oral broccoli sprouts pointed the same way. This does not eradicate the organism on its own, and the papers do not claim it does.
A stabilized broccoli-seed precursor to sulforaphane, the most potent natural activator of Nrf2 — the master switch for the body's own antioxidant and detox enzymes.
The adjuncts with meta-analysis behind them
Lactoferrin supplementation alongside standard eradication therapy improved eradication rates and reduced adverse events in a meta-analysis — note alongside, not instead of. Saccharomyces boulardii is the best-supported probiotic for making the regimen tolerable, which matters because the most common reason therapy fails is that people stop taking it.
An iron-binding immune protein that supports gut and systemic immunity, regulates iron, and has antimicrobial/antiviral activity.
A beneficial probiotic YEAST (not a bacterium) that is uniquely resistant to antibiotics — making it ideal support during and after antibiotic courses.
Mastic gum — and the study that disagrees
This is the honest one. A randomised pilot found mastic gum had an effect on H. pylori; a separate in-vivo study found no effect on bacterial load at all. Two studies, opposite conclusions, neither large. Anyone selling you mastic gum as an H. pylori cure is quoting one and not the other.
Tree resin from the Greek island of Chios with a small but real evidence base in upper-GI symptoms.
Licorice with the blood-pressure-raising glycyrrhizin removed — soothes the stomach and supports the mucosal lining for reflux and ulcers.
A zinc-and-carnosine complex that adheres to and heals the stomach and gut lining — excellent for ulcers, gastritis and leaky gut.
Mucosal support and repair
Once the organism is gone, the stomach lining has usually been inflamed for years. This arm is about the repair phase and about making the two weeks of therapy survivable.
A plant alkaloid that activates AMPK — the same energy-sensing pathway as exercise and metformin — with powerful effects on glucose and lipid metabolism.
A potent antimicrobial essential oil (carvacrol/thymol) used short-term for gut-flora balance and immune defense.
A monoglyceride of lauric acid, popular in antiviral and antimicrobial protocols.
The resin bees use to seal the hive — antimicrobial by evolutionary necessity, and with a reasonable amount of human data for topical and oral use.
A traditional 'cure for everything but death' seed oil (thymoquinone) with real evidence for immune, metabolic and anti-inflammatory support.
Concentrated green-tea catechins (EGCG) in an absorption-enhanced phytosome — a potent antioxidant with metabolic interest.
The active polyphenol of turmeric, in Thorne's phytosome (Meriva) delivery that dramatically improves its otherwise poor absorption.
Water-soluble antioxidant and essential cofactor for collagen synthesis, immune cells and neurotransmitter production.
The most abundant amino acid in the body and a primary fuel for gut and immune cells.
What to stop wasting money on
- Treating confirmed H. pylori with herbs alone. This is the one place on this site where the natural route is the wrong answer. It is a class I carcinogen. Eradicate it.
- Testing while on a PPI. Acid suppression suppresses the organism enough to produce a false negative. Two weeks off PPIs before breath or stool testing, or the result is worthless.
- Using serology to confirm eradication. Antibodies persist for months to years after the organism is gone. It cannot tell you the treatment worked.
- Skipping the confirmation test. Feeling better is not eradication. Retest at least four weeks after finishing, off PPIs.
- Repeating the same failed regimen. If clarithromycin-based therapy failed once, repeating it mostly selects for more resistance. That is a conversation about a different regimen.
The 8-week protocol is inside Skool
Everything above is yours free — what it is, why it recurs, what to test, and every compound by name. What is inside is what to actually do with them.
- Every dose, for all 15 compounds in the protocol
- The 8-week schedule, phase by phase — when each arm starts and stops
- 13 sequencing rules — what must not overlap, and why
- The decision tree for “it is not working”, at 4 points
- How to read the retest, and what counts as actually fixed
Retest, and what “working” looks like
At 4+ weeks after the last antibiotic, off PPIs for 2 weeks, re-run the panel above.
Working:
- Urea breath test or stool antigen negative
- Burning epigastric pain settled
- Ferritin finally holding without constant supplementation
- B12 rising
Not working: A positive confirmation test. That is a resistance problem and needs a different regimen, not more of the same one.
Where to go next
The H. pylori goal pathways map the same territory by mechanism rather than by condition, and the gut blueprint is the broader stack this protocol sits inside.
Not getting anywhere on your own?
This page is a template, and a template cannot see your history, your labs or the three things you already tried. Tell Cam where you are now and he will build the version of this that fits you.
Questions people actually ask
Can you treat H. pylori naturally without antibiotics?
You should not try to, if the infection is confirmed. H. pylori is classified as a group I carcinogen and is the strongest known risk factor for gastric cancer, and eradication reduces that risk. Some natural agents have real supporting data — sulforaphane from broccoli sprouts reduced colonisation in humans, and lactoferrin improved eradication rates in a meta-analysis — but both were studied as support for standard therapy, not as a replacement for it.
Do broccoli sprouts kill H. pylori?
They reduce it. Dietary sulforaphane-rich broccoli sprouts lowered colonisation and reduced gastritis markers in infected humans as well as in mice. What the research shows is suppression and reduced inflammation, not eradication, and the effect faded after supplementation stopped. It is a genuine adjunct with human data behind it, which makes it unusual in this category.
Does mastic gum work for H. pylori?
The evidence contradicts itself. A randomised pilot study found an effect; a separate in-vivo study found no effect on bacterial load at all. Both were small. Anyone presenting mastic gum as an established H. pylori treatment is citing one study and not the other. It has better evidence for general upper-GI symptom relief than for eradication.
Why does H. pylori treatment fail?
Mostly antibiotic resistance — clarithromycin resistance in particular has risen enough that older triple therapy now fails a substantial share of the time, which is why current guidelines moved away from it. The other big cause is not completing the course, because the regimens are genuinely unpleasant. Failing to confirm eradication afterwards means people also believe they have been cured when they have not.
When should you retest after H. pylori treatment?
At least four weeks after finishing antibiotics, and after at least two weeks off any proton pump inhibitor, using a urea breath test or stool antigen test. Blood antibody testing cannot be used to confirm eradication because antibodies persist long after the organism has gone.
Sources
Every reference below was resolved against the NCBI PubMed API on 23 August 2026 — title, journal and year read back from NCBI rather than from memory.
- PMID 39626064 — Chey WD. ACG Clinical Guideline: Treatment of Helicobacter pylori Infection. Am J Gastroenterol, 2024.
- PMID 19349290 — Yanaka A. Dietary sulforaphane-rich broccoli sprouts reduce colonization and attenuate gastritis in Helicobacter pylori-infected mice and humans. Cancer Prev Res, 2009.
- PMID 15387326 — Galan MV. Oral broccoli sprouts for the treatment of Helicobacter pylori infection: a preliminary report. Dig Dis Sci, 2004.
- PMID 19298339 — Zou J. Meta-analysis: the effect of supplementation with lactoferrin on eradication rates and adverse events during Helicobacter pylori eradication therapy. Helicobacter, 2009.
- PMID 37111484 — Imoto I. Antimicrobial effects of lactoferrin against Helicobacter pylori infection. Pathogens, 2023.
- PMID 19879118 — Dabos KJ. The effect of mastic gum on Helicobacter pylori: a randomized pilot study. Phytomedicine, 2010.
- PMID 12888582 — Bebb JR. Mastic gum has no effect on Helicobacter pylori load in vivo. J Antimicrob Chemother, 2003.
- PMID 16777920 — Mahmood A. Zinc carnosine, a health food supplement that stabilises small bowel integrity and stimulates gut repair processes. Gut, 2007.