pylori can easily penetrate the protective gastric mucosa, avoiding the acidic pH of the stomach and moving to a less acidic environment where it produces a significant amount urease, an enzyme that converts urea in the stomach into carbon dioxide, and ammonia which serves as the basis for the C13/C14 urea breath test: ammonia is then converted to ammonium, which leads to the neutralization of stomach acid (Kusters, van Vliet, Kuipers 2006). The bacteria also induce an inflammatory response, which weakens the stomach lining and allows damage from stomach acids, ulcer formation, and gastric cancer. So, if left untreated, H. pylori infections have a 10 to 15% lifetime risk of developing into peptic ulcers. and a 1 to 2% lifetime risk of developing gastric cancer (Kusters, van Vliet, Kuipers 2006). In developed countries, for perhaps the first time in human experience, large numbers of people now go their lives free of H pylori colonization. . This is a crucial observation of considerable importance for understanding the evolution of gastrointestinal diseases (Falush, et al..