Probiotic yogurt helps in treating H. pylori

Yogurt might help in treating Helicobacter pylori, the main cause of most stomach ulcers. Researchers from the National Cheng Kung University Hospital in Tainan found that eating yogurt containing the beneficial bacteria Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium (AB-yogurt) before trying a second round of combo antibiotic therapy can improve its efficacy in eradicating residual H. pylori. The pretreatment can decrease the bacterial loads of H. pylori. Therefore, the pretreatment will be helpful to improve the clinical treatment during the application of the second-line therapy. The researchers randomly assigned 138 patients, in whom the ulcer bug persisted after triple-antibiotic therapy, to quadruple-antibiotic therapy with or without four preceding weeks of taking AB-yogurt daily. It was found that H. pylori decreased significantly more in the yogurt pretreatment group compared with the quadruple therapy-only group. Ultimately, the eradication rate of H. pylori was 91 percent in the yogurt-plus-quadruple therapy group compared with 77 percent in the other. The findings suggest that providing support for the ingestion of AB-yogurt for 4 weeks before the start of quadruple therapy helps in obtaining improved rescue efficacy after failed triple therapy.