Ron Hutton and I were pretty much in the middle on that and I have learned a lot more since. Rather than try to find and post a report that I now know to be incomplete and even dangerous, I will summarize it here.

For those who do not know, Helicobacter pylori is a bacterium that lives in the human stomach and causes ulcers for certain and is increasingly linked to serious health problems of many sorts. It is the most common human infection in the world. It cannot live outside the human stomach and is thought to be the *only* organism capable of surviving that gastric hell. Most of us encounter HP as children and many carry it their whole lives without knowing it.

It is highly adaptable and mutates within hours. As a result it is increasingly resistant to antibiotics. It is a type of bacteria called "gram negative". That large family of bugs has a unique defense system. They have a substance in the walls of their cells called endotoxin or lipopolysaccharide (LPS). LPS is a dangerous toxin. But so long as it is locked into the cell wall it is harmless. However, if it dies it releases a tiny drop of LPS into the surrounding environment. In other words, it uses a "poison pill" defence system! Kill one with an antibiotic and your body quickly neutralizes the poison. Kill a billion at once and you poison yourself with dead bacteria. To make it even more interesting, some species of HP respond to the first sign of attack by increasing the poison in their cell-wall by a factor of *200* !!!

In addition to the clever defense noted above, there are another group of offensive toxins produced by HP. These vary from region to region and from mild to deadly. Human sensitivity varies widely as well.

Still a third poisonous product is ammonia which is created as a byproduct of their neutralization of stomach acid. Normally handled by the liver, when that fails and the BBB is compromised, then ammonia can make it to the brain and wreak havoc. Similarly, leaky endothelia at both the intestinal and brain ends allow the other two toxins to access the circulatory and central nervous systems (CNS).

Several things can result here. Widespread inflammation throughout the body. Direct damage to the brain. Activation of microglia resulting in dead neurons in the substantia nigra. Interference with neurotransmitters. Malabsorption of nutrients.

And problems with absorbing Parkinson's medications. Studies have shown that ridding oneself of an HP infection can have dramatic improvement in the effectiveness of Parkinson's meds.

But the same studies discovered something more worrisome. Some of the patients were getting worse instead of better. Much worse.

Remember that sensitivities vary. That some HP are more deadly than others. That some are more resistant to antibiotics and that some can really ramp up the toxins when threatened. And when antibiotics work and kill off the colony there is a mass of dead bacteria in a sea of poison to be disposed of.

Add in the fact that so many PwP have very slow GI tracts and you begin to see the problem. It is true that most benefited in the studies but there were a few unlucky ones who ended up in wheelchairs.

That's not to say that PwP should ignore a possible HP infection. After all, if you are going to be in the "unlucky" category you don't want it to be as the result of antibiotics you received while in hospital for pnuemonia when no one was expecting it.

If you have PD and you have H pylori then get rid of it with the help of a knowledgeable doctor who will be prepared to deal with problems that may arise. And be sure your GI tract is at 100%.

There are a few herbal issues to be aware of. Medline has a paper or two showing that rhubarb root extract was very effective against HP without the resistence factors. Also there is reason to believe that green tea extract helps to counter the toxins. And turmeric has been found to kill HP as well.

I will close with elaboration on that last paragraph because it makes it clear how dangerous this can be if done improperly. I had tested positively for HP myself. I had gone so far as to get prescriptions for the antibiotics that would presumably solve the problem but was putting it off for one reason or another.

Then for another reason altogether I began to experiment with turmeric in its raw form because the tablets were not breaking down in my stomach properly, presumably because of low stomach acid. The turmeric as powder seemed to work well for the first day or two but then I began feeling a little worse each day. I didn't link it to the turmeric at first. No reason to that I knew of. After about two weeks it had gotten to the point that I could barely walk and I was reading heavily to try and figure it out. When it did all click together I realized I had inadvertantly killed a large part of the HP with the turmeric which had been bypassing them in the stomach as a tablet but which as a powder was hitting them between the eyes. My slow GI transit had ground to a halt and those dead bacteria were sitting in my gut laden with a deadly neurotoxin which my body was reabsorbing.

I was right. As I got the GI system cranking and stopped the turmeric while taking the green tea things quickly turned around and I recovered completely except for a problem with my right index finger that I didn't have before. It remains with me as a caution, as though my subconscious was raising it as a signal to pay attention.

So, bottom line advice is to get rid of it but with the aid of a watchful provider who has read the research and understands the risks. Good luck.