Seven years of burning. What finally made H. pylori round two easier, as a 48-year-old Black woman
Two rounds of pills. One thing I did different the second time. I'm not a doctor. This is just what I did.
Full transparency: Nobody pays me for this, and I don't earn a cent if you buy. Rejoin helped me put this post together and is sharing it so more women see it. This is my story, and I stand behind every word.
MarchNow
In this post
- Seven years of stomach trouble. Five months of it burning after everything I ate.
- H. pylori. Fourteen days of antibiotics. The retest: positive, again.
- Before round two, I found a study on broccoli sprouts and H. pylori.
- I added broccoli sprout capsules alongside my treatment, and I asked my doctor first.
- Day 3, a whole breakfast. Day 10, I slept through the night. My retest came back negative.
This was me in March
Listen. I want you to look at those two pictures of me up top. That first one was March.
For five months, sis, my stomach burned after everything I ate.
Toast. Rice. Some days, water. Water!
I'd wake up at three in the morning with it burning, and just sit on the edge of the bed like, Lord, please. Just let it pass.
I lost twelve pounds. And not the good way, okay? I was scared to eat. Me! I love to eat.
And here's what I didn't say in my video. This didn't start in March. My stomach has been giving me trouble for seven years. March is just when it stopped being trouble and started running my life.
What I did first, because it's what they tell you
Tums in every purseOmeprazoleNo coffee, no hot sauce, no nothingRound one of antibiotics
Positive. Again.
Then the breath test came back positive for H. pylori.
So I did the fourteen days. Pills with every meal. And everything, I mean everything, tasted like metal.
Then you wait a whole month for the retest.
Positive. Again.
My doctor said round two, and I said okay. But I'm not gonna lie to y'all. I sat in my car after that appointment and I cried.
"I did not know how I was getting through two more weeks of that burning."
The thread that changed round two
Now, I don't take credit for what happened next.
I found this thread from a woman who'd been through H. pylori three times. Three! And she'd linked a study.
Researchers had people with this exact bacteria eat broccoli sprouts every day for eight weeks. They came back with less H. pylori on their tests, and less inflammation in the stomach.
The compound in the sprouts is called sulfor... sulfor-a-phane. I had to practise that one.
The way she explained it, it switches on your stomach's own defence system. The part that's meant to protect the lining. And when that lining's been burning for months? It's running on empty.
So why not just eat broccoli?
That was my first question too. Here it is side by side.
Seventy grams of fresh sprouts a day, every day, for eight weeks? That's a whole salad bowl, girl. I'm not doing that.
And the sprouts only make sulforaphane when an enzyme called myrosinase is there to switch it on. So she linked the one she used: broccoli sprouts from Rejoin, with the myrosinase already in it, in a capsule made to hold up against stomach acid.
What's actually in it
- ✓The switch is in thereMyrosinase, the enzyme that turns the sprouts into sulforaphane, is right in the capsule.
- ✓32 mg a dayTwo capsules with breakfast. That's the whole routine.
- ✓A capsule made for stomach acidIt's an acid-resistant capsule. When stomach acid is the whole problem, that matters.
- ✓Nothing spicy addedSome sprout supplements have black pepper in them, and people say it upset their stomachs. This one doesn't.
And honestly? I thought, here we go. One more thing I'm wasting my money on. But I was starting round two anyway. What did I have to lose?
What the research says, in plain words
I'm not a scientist. So here's what these studies found, the way I'd explain it to my girls.
48 people with H. pylori, 8 weeks
They ate broccoli sprouts every day. They had less H. pylori on their breath and stool tests, and calmer stomach-inflammation markers. The group that ate alfalfa sprouts instead? No change.
Read the study →9 people, 1 week
They ate broccoli sprouts for a week. Seven of the nine tested negative on the stool test afterwards. It's tiny, with no comparison group. But it stuck with me.
Read the study →Every strain they tested
Sulforaphane killed every H. pylori strain in the study, even ones that resist antibiotics. That was in a lab and in mice, not in people.
Read the study →What it does say
- Sprouts lowered H. pylori on tests while people took them
- Stomach-inflammation markers came down
- It works through the lining's own defence system
What it doesn't say
- Skip your antibiotics
- It makes antibiotics work better. One study checked, and it didn't
- It lasts after you stop. It didn't
Now hear me
I am not telling anybody to skip their antibiotics.
I did mine. I asked my doctor first. This was just for me, alongside it.
My round two, day by day
I still felt it.
I ate a whole breakfast. And I didn't brace for it.
I slept through the night. First time since March.
Negative. I finished my antibiotics and took these alongside them the whole way. Round two felt nothing like round one.
My stomach doesn't wake me up anymore. I went out to dinner with my girls last week, and I ordered off the menu. Not the side salad. The menu.
To the sister sitting in her car
I'm sharing this, sisters, 'cause I know I'm not the only one sitting in a car dreading round two.
Seven years is a long time to be scared of your own plate. If you're there right now, I see you. Do your treatment. Talk to your doctor. And if you want to try what I added, it's right here.
I hope you feel something shift. And if this isn't it for you, I hope you still find your version of it. You deserve to eat dinner with your people again.
Rejoin Daily Defense
Broccoli sprout sulforaphane with myrosinase
- Buy 2, Get 1 Free. Three bottles, enough to get through a full round and past it
- Two capsules with breakfast, 32 mg a day
- Free US shipping
- 90-day money-back guarantee. That's three months to know
Good to know: in the 2009 study, things went back to where they started a couple of months after people stopped. Plan to keep going.
Y'all asked me
Did Rejoin pay you?
No. There's no affiliate link, and I don't make anything if you buy. Rejoin helped me put this post together and is sharing it. I just want the next woman sitting in her car to know.
Why not just eat broccoli sprouts?
The study used about seventy grams of fresh sprouts a day, for eight weeks. That's a big bowl every single day. And the sprouts need that enzyme to make sulforaphane. I wanted the version I'd actually take.
How do you take it?
Two capsules with breakfast, with actual food. That's 32 mg a day.
What if it doesn't work for me?
There's a 90-day money-back guarantee. That's three months. Plenty of time to know.
48, a Black woman of faith, and done being scared to eat. I write about health, food and the things I wish somebody had told me sooner.