Human nature is very weird. Thousands of years our ancestors gathered knowledge for the new generations to be able to use it not to stumble at the same stone. Instead we now often ignore many of the ancestors warnings, their wisdom and experience, preferring to learn on our own mistakes.
Although, mankind is not always wise, it is clever: if we succeeded in making problems, we also learned how to solve many of them.
This concerns our health as well. We do not pay much attention to the state of our organisms, till they begin to tall the bells for alarm. For example, gastric disorders could be avoided in many cases; still, our carelessness often leads us to doctors office. Gastritis, peptic ulcers and many other conditions may be often traced back to our unconcern.
Multiple viruses and bacteria worsen the situation, using every slightest opportunity to settle in our bodies and live happily, ruining our health at the same time. Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is one of the parasites, which tortures our stomach, making gastritis and peptic ulcers more difficult to treat. For this reason scientists developed the more complicated treatment options, which include the therapies to treat gastritis and ulcers alongside with pylori eradication.
Dual therapy was initially introduced to suppress the stomach acid and fight H. pylori at the same time. It requires the use of an antibiotic (usually amoxicillin, metronidazole, clarithromycin or ranitidine bismuth citrate are used against pylori) and a proton pump inhibitor (for reducing stomach acid). Sometimes a pump inhibitor is substituted by one more antibiotic.
The course of therapy lasts for 2 weeks. It is characterized by mild side effects and is said to be quite comfortable for those patients, who can hardly stand intensive therapies. The weak-point of such treatment is that its effectiveness varies from 65% to 80%, depending on the combination of drugs, which is quite a low rate.
Triple therapy is another option for those seeking the rescue from gastritis and peptic ulcers complicated by H. pylori. This method is used since 1998 and is much more effective, offering the eradication rates up to 95%. Treatment lasts for 2 weeks, but sometimes 1-week course is enough to get rid of the infection. The effectiveness of the given therapy is explained by the intensiveness of treatment: a patient has to take up to 18 pills a day, which is very difficult for many people and causes more side effects (about 30% of patients suffer from them).
Triple therapy involves the use of two antibiotics (a combination of amoxicillin or tetracycline with clarithomycin or metrnidazole) and one pump inhibitor (usually bismuth subsalicylate). In addition, this treatment option is less expensive than dual therapy.
It takes much strength, patience, and effort to get rid of the disease; the most soothing thing about it all, though, is the realizing that once H pylori is eliminated from the body, it usually does not come back. The ulcers heal over and are not likely to trouble a person again.
Ivanna
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