Does Helicobacter pylori protect against asthma and allergy?
Regular readers of updates know that I am strongly against the blanket destruction of H. pylori every time a patient has some type of gastric problem. I firmly believe that the presence, or rather, the pathological behavior of H. pylori is a result of the environment it is in, rather then the bacteria itself.
This article suggests that the presence of H. pylori goes about as far back in time as we could envision, being present at least in our Paleolithic ancestors. Knowing this, does it sound like this might be a bacteria that is independently responsible for many gastric related disorders and needs to be eradicated on sight? Forget the fact that the course of antibiotics to destroy the H. pylori will also wipe out other protective bacteria in our alimentary tract!!