Most articles about treating H. pylori naturally fall into one of two camps. One promises a list of foods that will “eliminate” the infection, which no evidence supports. The other waves off the whole category as wishful thinking, which ignores a genuinely interesting body of trials.
The truth sits between them and is more useful than either. Some natural agents have real randomized human data behind them — including one that has cleared the infection outright in a controlled trial. None of them beats proper treatment. Several make proper treatment work better or hurt less.
One disclosure before we start: Evexia’s owner also owns Greco Gum, a mastic gum brand, and mastic is one of the agents with the strongest evidence here. I’ve graded it on the same scale as everything else and quoted the trial numbers directly so you can judge them yourself.
What H. pylori is, and why it’s worth treating
Helicobacter pylori is a spiral bacterium that colonises the stomach lining, often for decades, often without symptoms. When it does cause trouble it causes indigestion, gastritis, and peptic ulcers. It’s also classified as a Group 1 carcinogen: long-term infection raises the risk of stomach cancer, and eradicating it lowers that risk.
That’s the reason this article isn’t a list of foods to eat instead of treatment. It isn’t a squeamishness about medicine — it’s that the downside of leaving a confirmed infection in place is real and cumulative, while the downside of a two-week course is mostly two unpleasant weeks.
The treatment that actually eradicates it
Worth knowing what you’re comparing against. The 2024 American College of Gastroenterology guideline recommends bismuth quadruple therapy for 14 days as first-line when nobody knows which antibiotics your particular infection is susceptible to: a proton pump inhibitor, bismuth, a nitroimidazole, and tetracycline.[1]
The notable change in that guideline is what it removed. Clarithromycin triple therapy — for years the standard — is no longer recommended as first-line, because resistance has climbed far enough to undermine it. That matters for this article’s audience, because a lot of people who “failed natural treatment” actually failed an outdated antibiotic regimen, and the fix is a different regimen rather than a different supplement.
Two practical points the guidelines are firm about and patients often miss: take the full course, because partial courses drive resistance; and confirm eradication with a test at least four weeks after finishing, off PPIs, since acid suppression produces false negatives.
Why people look for something else
Worth saying plainly, because the usual response to this question is a lecture. People search for natural alternatives for reasons that are mostly rational:
- The side effects are genuinely rough. Metallic taste, nausea, diarrhoea, two weeks of feeling worse than the infection made them feel.
- They’ve already failed a course, sometimes two, and nobody explained that resistance — not personal failure — is usually why.
- They were prescribed clarithromycin triple therapy in a region where resistance made it a coin flip.
- Nobody confirmed eradication, so they don’t know whether treatment worked at all.
Every one of those has a better answer than abandoning treatment: susceptibility testing, a different regimen, adjuncts that improve tolerability. That’s what the rest of this is about.
What the natural agents actually do
Graded on the same five-point scale we use across the site, by the quality of the human evidence.
| Agent | Grade | What the evidence shows | Where it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Probiotics | Moderate | Meta-analysis: higher eradication rates and significantly fewer side effects when added to standard therapy | Alongside treatment. The clearest win here |
| Mastic gum | Moderate | Randomized trial: cleared H. pylori in 31–38% alone. 2026 trial: 67% → 85% added to quadruple therapy, plus better symptom relief | Alongside treatment; the only agent with direct eradication data |
| Broccoli sprouts (sulforaphane) | Weak | Reduced colonization and inflammation markers over 8 weeks — but values returned to baseline two months after stopping | Suppression while you eat them, not eradication |
| Green tea, garlic, cranberry, honey, black seed | Weak / no evidence | Mostly lab studies or small, low-quality human trials. Popular, largely untested | Fine as food. Not treatment |
| Foods that 'eliminate' H. pylori | No evidence | No diet has been shown to eradicate the infection | Ignore this framing entirely |
Probiotics are the least glamorous and most reliable item on that list. A meta-analysis of randomized trials found that adding probiotics to standard eradication therapy improved eradication rates (RR 1.12) and cut the overall incidence of side effects substantially (RR 0.74), with significant reductions in diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting, constipation and taste disturbance.[7] One caveat worth stating: the side-effect benefit was confirmed only in non-blinded trials, which invites some optimism bias. Even discounted for that, this is the easiest thing on the list to justify.
Broccoli sprouts are a good lesson in reading trials properly. Forty-eight infected people ate 70g of sulforaphane-rich broccoli sprouts daily for eight weeks, against alfalfa sprouts as placebo. Markers of H. pylori colonisation and gastric inflammation both fell in the broccoli group and not the placebo group — a real result. But the values returned to baseline two months after they stopped eating them.[8] That’s suppression, not eradication, and it’s the honest headline that gets left out of every listicle citing this study.
The mastic story, told properly
Mastic — the hardened resin of the Chios mastic tree — has more direct human evidence against H. pylori than anything else in this category. The research runs over nearly three decades and it’s worth following in order, because the failures are what made the successes make sense.
1998: it killed the bacterium in the lab. A short letter in the New England Journal of Medicine reported that mastic killed H. pylori in vitro.[6] That single letter launched mastic’s entire reputation.
2003: crude resin did nothing in people. Nine infected patients took crude mastic four times daily for two weeks. Urea breath test scores barely moved.[5] Read that result at its actual weight: nine people, no control group, unblinded, and crude unrefined resin. It’s weak evidence and it refutes nothing on its own. What it did do was raise a useful question — why would something that kills the bacterium in a dish do nothing in a stomach?
2007: the answer, and it’s about refinement. Researchers found that crude mastic contains an insoluble polymer that blunts its antibacterial activity. Strip that polymer out and purified mastic works — against H. pylori in vitro and in infected mice.[4] The 2003 null result wasn’t evidence that mastic doesn’t work. It was evidence that crude mastic doesn’t, which is a different and more actionable finding, and it’s why refinement is a real variable rather than a marketing line. We go into that in the buying guide.
2010: eradication in humans. The key trial. Fifty-two patients were randomized across four arms for two weeks.[2] The results:
| Arm | Treatment | Eradicated |
|---|---|---|
| A | Pure mastic, 350 mg three times daily | 4 / 13 (31%) |
| B | Pure mastic, 1.05 g three times daily | 5 / 13 (38%) |
| C | Pure mastic 350 mg + pantoprazole (a PPI) | 0 / 13 (0%) |
| D | Standard triple therapy (10 days) | 10 / 13 (77%) |
The investigators’ own conclusion was that mastic “possesses antibacterial activity against H. pylori in vivo and is able to eradicate it from patients.” That’s their sentence, not a supplement label’s. It’s the most direct statement of efficacy in the natural-agent literature for this infection.
Three honest notes alongside it. The per-arm improvements in mean breath-test values were trends rather than statistically significant results (p = 0.08 and p = 0.064); the trial is small; and triple therapy cleared twice as many people. Mastic works. It does not work as well as antibiotics.
And then there’s Group C, the genuinely strange one. Adding pantoprazole — an acid-reducing drug — to mastic produced zero eradications, worse than mastic on its own. One arm of thirteen people is far too little to build a rule on, and it may be noise. But it’s a plausible mechanistic signal too: if mastic’s activity depends on stomach conditions that acid suppression changes, timing would matter. If you’re taking both, it’s a reasonable thing to raise with your doctor.
2026: mastic alongside modern therapy. The most recent and most practically relevant trial. Sixty-four patients were randomized to standard bismuth quadruple therapy either with or without mastic gum.[3] Eradication was 85% with mastic against 67% without — an eighteen-point absolute difference. Two things must be said about that number together: it did not reach statistical significance (p = 0.19), and a trial with 32 people per arm is not large enough to detect a difference that size reliably. That’s an underpowered pilot, which is not the same as a negative result — but it isn’t proof either.
What was statistically significant in that trial: patients taking mastic had meaningfully greater relief from dyspepsia symptoms, with good tolerability and no increase in adverse events.
Put the whole arc together and the picture is consistent rather than conclusive: mastic acts on H. pylori in the lab, in mice, and in people; refinement matters; it clears the infection in a minority on its own; and added to modern therapy it points toward better eradication and clearly better symptoms. For the wider evidence on mastic beyond this infection, see mastic gum benefits. Greco has a deeper brand-side treatment of the same studies in mastic gum for H. pylori, and a practical dosing and protocol guide if you’ve decided to try it. Greco Gum shares our owner (Hubert Ventures LLC).
Can you clear it without antibiotics?
The direct answer to the question people actually type: sometimes, but you’re taking materially worse odds, and the stakes aren’t trivial.
The best evidence for going it alone is that 31–38% mastic result. That’s a real number and not nothing. It also means roughly two out of three people in those arms still had the infection afterward — and in the same trial, standard therapy cleared 77%.
If your reason for asking is side effects, a failed course, or resistance, the productive conversation is with a clinician about susceptibility testing and a different regimen, plus probiotics and possibly mastic for tolerability. That path uses the natural evidence for what it’s actually good for instead of asking it to do a job it hasn’t been shown to do.
And if you do try a natural approach, test afterward. Symptom relief is not eradication, and mastic’s best-supported effect in the 2026 trial was on symptoms specifically. Feeling better while still infected is the worst of both outcomes.
Eating through eradication therapy
Low-stakes and genuinely useful, whatever else you decide.
- Start probiotics with the course, not after it. The eradication and side-effect benefits in the trials came from taking them alongside treatment.[7]
- Fermented foods — yoghurt, kefir — are an easy way to keep some of that going.
- Broccoli sprouts are worth eating on the sulforaphane data, provided you understand you’re suppressing rather than treating.[8]
- Go gentle on the stomach during the course: smaller meals, less alcohol, less caffeine if it aggravates things. This is comfort, not treatment.
- Don’t stack supplements hoping something sticks. If a clinician is trying to work out whether a regimen worked, five simultaneous variables make that harder.
If reflux-type symptoms are part of your picture, our graded guide to natural remedies for acid reflux covers that ground properly.
References
Evexia cites primary research and authoritative sources. Claims are traceable; where evidence is limited or mixed, we say so.
- Chey et al. — ACG Clinical Guideline: Treatment of Helicobacter pylori Infection (Am J Gastroenterol, 2024) · journals.lww.com
- Dabos et al. — The effect of mastic gum on Helicobacter pylori: a randomized pilot study, 52 patients across four arms (Phytomedicine, 2010) · pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Tulsian et al. — Mastic gum as an adjunct to standard bismuth quadruple therapy: a randomized single-blind pilot study (Indian J Gastroenterol, 2026) · pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Paraschos et al. — In vitro and in vivo activities of Chios mastic gum extracts and constituents against Helicobacter pylori (Antimicrob Agents Chemother, 2007) · pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Bebb et al. — Mastic gum has no effect on Helicobacter pylori load in vivo (J Antimicrob Chemother, 2003) · pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Huwez et al. — Mastic gum kills Helicobacter pylori (New England Journal of Medicine letter, 1998) · pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Dang et al. — The effect of probiotics supplementation on H. pylori eradication rates and side effects during eradication therapy: a meta-analysis (PLoS One, 2014) · pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Yanaka et al. — Dietary sulforaphane-rich broccoli sprouts reduce colonization and attenuate gastritis in H. pylori-infected mice and humans (Cancer Prev Res, 2009) · pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Frequently asked questions
Can you get rid of H. pylori naturally without antibiotics?
Sometimes, but the odds are much worse. In the best randomized test of mastic gum on its own, it eradicated H. pylori in 4 of 13 people at the lower dose and 5 of 13 at the higher dose — roughly a third. Standard triple therapy cleared 10 of 13 in the same study. So natural agents can work, but they're a long way behind proper treatment, and untreated H. pylori causes ulcers and raises stomach cancer risk. The sensible use is alongside treatment, not instead of it.
Does mastic gum kill H. pylori?
Yes, and that's the researchers' own conclusion rather than a marketing claim. The 2010 randomized trial found mastic "possesses antibacterial activity against H. pylori in vivo and is able to eradicate it from patients." The honest caveats are that the per-arm differences were trends rather than statistically significant, the trial was small, and refined mastic performs differently from crude resin.
What's the best natural treatment for H. pylori?
Probiotics have the strongest evidence as an adjunct, improving eradication rates and reducing the side effects of treatment. Mastic gum has the most direct evidence of acting on the bacterium itself. Broccoli sprouts suppress it while you're eating them but it rebounds when you stop. Most other popular suggestions — garlic, green tea, cranberry, honey — are lab findings or small studies, not established treatments.
How long does it take mastic gum to work on H. pylori?
The trials used 14 days. The 2010 study dosed pure mastic three times daily for two weeks, and the 2026 adjunct trial ran alongside a standard two-week course. Whatever you try, confirm the result with a breath or stool test at least four weeks after finishing, and off any acid-suppressing drug, or you risk a false negative.
Should I take mastic gum with a PPI?
Possibly not at the same time. This is the strangest result in the literature: in the 2010 trial, the arm that took mastic together with pantoprazole, an acid-reducing drug, had zero eradications, while mastic alone cleared about a third. That's one small arm and shouldn't be over-read, but if you're taking both it's worth asking your doctor about separating them.
Do I still need antibiotics if I take natural remedies?
If you have a confirmed infection, yes — that's the treatment with the evidence behind it. The 2024 American College of Gastroenterology guideline recommends bismuth quadruple therapy for 14 days as first-line. Natural agents are useful alongside that, for tolerability and possibly for eradication rates. They are not a substitute, and H. pylori left untreated is a genuine risk.
How do I know if H. pylori is gone?
Testing, not symptoms. Feeling better doesn't mean it cleared. Use a urea breath test or stool antigen test at least four weeks after finishing treatment, and after being off PPIs for a couple of weeks, since acid suppression causes false negatives. Ask for confirmation testing if it isn't offered.
