H. Pylori is one of the most commonly diagnosed types of gut infection, and also one of the most virulent types out there. It’s diagnosed at a rate of a few thousand cases in the United States per year, with a trend of “flare-ups” in hotspot areas when the infection is on the loose and spreading from one person to another.
If you have contracted H. Pylori, it’s likely that you will experience a range of symptoms including diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, rapid dehydration and stomach pain. It’s also likely that these symptoms can appear to go away for months at a time before they reappear again just like a new infection: H. Pylori is one of the few types of infections that can stay dormant in the human body for a long time.
If you suspect you have picked up H. Pylori, seek medical attention for immediate treatment. If you don’t, you’re risking your health and the health of others around you at the same time.
Here are 14 potential causes of H. Pylori that you should look out for.
1. Contaminated Water
H. Pylori can survive for years in the human body, periodically returning every few months as what feels like the worst bout of stomach flu that you’ve ever had. This is what makes it very easy and common to mistake for either stomach flu or food poisoning, and very few people imagine that the “food poisoning” they had several months apart could possibly be related to the same condition.
The human body isn’t the only place where H. Pylori can survive. It can also live for a considerable amount of time in other substances, including water, and if you have had contact with any infected water it’s likely that you’re going to get sick.
Anyone else who was also exposed to the same water around the same time could also get sick from the same exposure and would start manifesting symptoms at more or less the same time as the other.
