Peptic ulcers can be easily and quickly treated without antibiotics

Chew On This

Licorice-flavored chewing gum might not seem like something you’d jump at the chance to try. But if you happen to have a peptic ulcer, an extract of mastic gum (no chewing required) could be a very welcome source of relief.

Bold claim

Recently, HSI Panelist Allan Spreen, M.D., came across an article that’s a bit long in the tooth, found in the New England Journal of Medicine. He sent it to me with this note: “Interesting that this article is over a decade old (and published in the most prestigious medical journal in the world), and this therapy is totally ignored for a toxic cocktail of antibiotics for H. pylori.”

As I’ve mentioned in several e-Alerts, H. pylori is the bacterium that causes the majority of gastric ulcers. Most conventional doctors respond to an H. pylori infection the only way they know how: with a bombardment of antibiotics. But as Dr. Spreen and NEJM note, there’s an alternative treatment that won’t overwhelm gut flora necessary for proper digestion.

The NEJM article starts right off with a bold claim: “Even low doses of mastic gum – 1g per day for two weeks – can cure peptic ulcers very rapidly.”

In the April 2004 issue of the HSI Members Alert, we told you about Leo Galland, M.D., who also spotted that 1998 NEJM article and began prescribing mastic gum capsules for his patients who tested positive for H. pylori. Six years later he reported: “About 75 percent of my patients have a clear test after treatment with mastic.”

He added that patients often feel symptom relief before the end of his recommended four-week treatment period.

Pitfalls: zero

I asked Dr. Spreen if there were any side effect pitfalls associated with mastic gum.

Dr. Spreen: “You can forget pitfalls – mastic gum really is nothing but a gummy resin from the mastic tree.

“When I used mastic gum, DGL (deglycyrrhizinated licorice) and acidophilus, ulcers (or ulcer symptoms) were eradicated almost 100% of the time within a week, two at the most. Matter of fact, the only problem I had with the regimen was with patients who couldn’t stand licorice (you have to suck or chew the DGL – it’s sweet but it definitely tastes like licorice); otherwise it was a non-toxic, no-problem piece of cake.

“It saved patients the undesirable long-term problem of triple antibiotic therapy that they were told was necessary to kill such a ‘difficult’ bug: two strong antibiotics mixed with a proton pump inhibitor. That combination shuts off any chance of digesting protein, and kills off all the gut flora!”

Meanwhile, if you DO happen upon mastic chewing gum and you find the taste appealing, by all means, chew away. Research shows that mastic-based gum may help prevent tooth decay by reducing the bacterial colonies that enjoy settling down between teeth and gums.

You can read about other natural treatments for H. pylori infection and peptic ulcers in the e-Alert “Lucky You” (11/17/08).

Source:
“Mastic Gum Kills Helicobacter pylori” New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 339, No. 26, 12/24/98, content.nejm.org