How I cured my gastritis
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When I got diagnosed with mild gastritis (but no H. Pylori) and esophagitis, I looked all over the internet to find what to do. I did not find many accounts of people who have cured themselves successfully and how they did it. So I thought I would write my story once I am cured. Here it is. If you have cured yourself from gastritis too, please share your experience below as well.
Many people ask how long it takes to be cured. At first I started on dexilant for a month but I did not see any improvement. After a month I kept taking dexilant and I started the low acid diet in parallel. I got much better in 2-3 days. After two months on dexilant and one month on the diet, I felt completely good. Then I stopped the dexilant cold turkey and got a lot of pain and acidity back in my stomach. Now I regret I did not take the dexilant a little longer as my stomach was obviously not healed and not strong enough to go through the rebound effect of stopping dexilant. I regret also that I did not stop dexilant slowly taking it every other day for a week, then every three days for a week, .... I felt anxious about taking a medication that has so many side effects taken long term and I wanted to stop immediately, which was not reasonable.
Anyway there I was back at the beginning with stomach pain and acidity day and night. I felt pain related to the esophagitis as well which really scared me. I hesitated to take dexilant again but I decided to try to cure myself the natural way. Below I describe what I did. I got cured in approximately two months, getting slowly better week by week. After two months of natural cures I had no stomach pain anymore and no excess acid, I was able to sleep again, felt like a new healthy (and lighter -- I lost a few pounds) person. However after those two months, I felt that I needed to follow the diet another month for my stomach to get strong and be able to handle a less strict diet.
THE CURE
Books
Most of what I did is summarized in two books which I found very useful:
The first book is "Dropping acid: the reflux diet cookbook & cure" by Jamie Koufman. This is the book I based my diet on. The only disagreements I have with the author regard dairy products that I stopped taking as they make the stomach produce more acid (very clear for me), and the use of ginger, manukka honey and aloe vera which I find too irritating and/or acidic (and I don't feel that they help). Also she does not talk about salt which is known to be irritating for the stomach lining in excess, I felt an improvement when I lowered my intake in salt. I will explain the diet more in details below.
The other book is "Ulcer free! Nature's safe & effective remedy for ulcers" by G. Halpern. I know you may have gastritis and no ulcers but the two conditions are related and what cures one usually cures the other too. I used some of the natural supplements recommended in this book. In particular slippery elm (this one is actually not mentioned in the book) and DGL licorice for stomach pain (coat the interior of the stomach lining), Zinc-Carnosine (reduce inflammation and protects stomach lining - I felt a great improvement after starting to take it especially with acid production at night), and cabbage juice (finished my recovery with this one, after two days I had no stomach pain anymore at night). I describe the supplements more below.
What did not work for me
Mastic gum hurts my stomach. It is supposedly helpful against H. Pylori which I knew I did not have (I had been tested).
Prelief removes the acid in food and stomach very efficiently but causes constipation.
Tums works well for 45 minutes but then there is a rebound effect with the stomach producing more acid.
Manukka honey hurts my stomach (Too acidic, Ph level 4, but maybe also because of the tea tree essential oil in it). It is supposedly helpful against H. Pylori.
Aloe Vera is too acidic (around Ph level 4), and I don't feel it is doing anything positive.
Ginger is irritating and I don't feel it is doing anything positive.
Probiotics helps with digestion but not really for the stomach.
Zantac works very well at removing the acidity but makes me feel dizzy and incredibly tired.
PPI worked very well at removing the acidity and pain in my stomach while I was taking it while doing the diet, but I had a bad rebound effect when I stopped (one must stop slowly by taking it every other day for a while). Also having too low acid in the stomach because of PPI might cause problems in the long term (problems with Calcium and B12 absorption, bacterial infection more likely).
39 likes, 3077 replies
daria92686 ines6375
Posted
I have a question.
Is it normal to feel nauseous when the gastritis is flaring up? Other than horrible pain I frequently experienced nausea to the point of heaving but have never thrown up. It would get worse at night . The doctors prescribed me esomerprazole about 2 months ago but I'm starting to feel a bit nauseous again. Would anyone have any advice as to what I should doit help myself heal because I really want to stop taking these medications. My gastritis was caused by NSAID use and a lot of stress, and I have been tested negative for Hpylori.
mariast daria92686
Posted
Yes, I am nauseous with gastritis. How are you nowadays?
Hope3578 ines6375
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Just been reading all your advice and it’s very well received thank you. I am battling with my tummy at the moment due to it being irritated by NSAIDS ( naproxen) I was prescribed it for a shoulder pain. Took two single doses the day after and within 24 hours was bowled over in pain because it had irritated my stomach lining. Now I guess I’m different in the respect that I never really had to many problems with my stomach before. Never really suffered with acid reflux. But occasionally got bloated and constipated from time to time. But could pretty much eat and drink everything I wanted. Now its only been two weeks since my stomach lining was affected but I am now unable to take medication because omeprazole gave me diarrhoea that’s all that helped my stomach. ( although I have been prescribed peptac peppermint now which helps with heartburn and indigestion) I basically get a really bad pain in my centre back which radiates throughout the shoulders and up neck. Slight discomfort in stomach to under breasts. However I have been following a gastritis diet the past 24 hours and I have been fine. Plus I started taking the peptac yesterday. I’m due to have blood tests tomorrow and have absolutely no idea what they need to check for. But hopefully I caught this in time to not cause to much damage. If I am not experiencing any discomfort and am managing to prevent this pain by just diet alone. Would you say I probably don’t need the heartburn medication? Should I only take it if it flares up? At the moment I’m supposed to take it after each meal and before bed. But I don’t know if I actually need to. Don’t want to take medication if I can manage it myself. I’ve lost a lot of weight in a very small amount of time so this has really helped to give me ideas on food s I can eat to give me energy. Hope you are doing well now as I can see it’s been a few years since you posted this. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
tracey13845 ines6375
Posted
Hi I hope someone can help me. I had an endoscopy in March which showed that I had H pylori so I was given the PPI treatment which I didn't react well to ended up in hospital and they eventually changed the meds but I had a concoction of meds that also made me very poorly. (I am a doctor's nightmare as I'm so sensitive so many antibiotics and pain killers) so my own doc said stop taking everything and I did a stool sample and it was clear. Just carried on with the ranitidine. I've suffered for years with this condition and docs just said take ranitidine as I can't take the other common meds . I decided to become a vegetarian last may and my symptoms were much better and I even was able to stop the ranitidine. Well 2 weeks ago I got a really nasty virus and it's kicked it all off again. I went to the doc this week and we went through the report of the endoscopy and he said you had gastritis too which I didn't realise. I'm over the virus now the doc told me to up the ranitidine to 300mg twice a day till the pain settles. I'm sick of the pain in the top of my stomach kind of indigestion and feeling like I'm swallowing a golf ball all the time my stomach is often bloated which gets me down and I'm feeling really low. I have quite a bit of stress at work but I only work part time. Some stress in my home life due to 4 kids and 1 recovering from an eating disorder which. Has been so stressful. Anyway can anyone offer any suggestions on what I should do. I'm trying to eat the best way I can and avoiding the trigger foods. Sorry for long message.
Hope3578 tracey13845
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liz1992 ines6375
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eva50028 ines6375
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Chucky777 eva50028
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If you're suffering from bile reflux gastritis then the fix is increasing stomach acid production. Bile reflux gastritis is also known as alkaline gastritis. Your stomach is too alkaline. Everyone knows bile is needed to digest fat and adsorb fat soluble vitamins. However, it also is needed to neutralize stomach acid. Once food enters the duodenal through the pyloric valve, bile is waiting to break down fat and neutralize the acid remaining on the food. Stomach acid isn't mean't to be in the duodenal/small intestines. Without the bile neutralizing the stomach acid, the acid would irritate the duodenal causing ulcers and inflammation.
So, with bile reflux gastritis, all the bile in your stomach is neutralizing the acid and therefore prohibiting proper digesting. Now when you eat, you're not getting optimal digestion, so the food ends up fermenting in your stomach causing indigestion, heartburn, and nausea. So you need to add acid into your stomach before all meals/snacks.
Things you can do are to drink apple cider vinegar with a little bit of water 15 minutes before each meal. And take HCL Betaine with Pepsin with every meal. Take a bite of your food, swallow, then pop in a couple HCL capsules. This will ensure proper digestion of food and should eliminate your symptoms.
A few other tips, stay away from PPI's since that will make bile reflux gastritis worse, and even a alkaline diet can make things worse, too. Consider getting a prescription for a powder called cholestyramine. It will get rid of the bile in your duodenal and small intestine faster, cutting back on the amount of bile that reflux's into the stomach. Small amounts of bile in the stomach doesn't cause problems, it's only when it's in excess amounts. You just need to cut down on some so the bile doesn't affect with digestion. Carafate is a good one too. Will form a protective layer over the inflamed parts of the stomach, allowing them to heal. If all fails, then surgery may be your last option. A duodenal switch without a portion of the stomach being removed is usually the go-to surgery for bile reflux. It redirects the bile to empty much further down into the small intestine making it almost impossible to reflux back into the stomach.
Good luck.
mariast eva50028
Posted
Hi, Eva. Did you find a cure?
eva50028 ines6375
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I am afraid. Again please answer back soon . I have inflammation of gastritis and esophagitis and now I have pain. I was taking aloe vera I don't know if it was working so I stopped. I I'm going to the doctor today I know he's going to give me PPI pills I don't know where to begin.
ines6375 eva50028
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ep86454 eva50028
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eva50028 ines6375
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eva50028 ines6375
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I bought the book "ulcer free"and made a little bit of carrot juice with cabbage took it 3 times. Made my pain slightly go away. I did eat meatloaf that had red bell pepper dice little garlic and onions. Today I couldn't breathe and I took a Benadryl. Afraid it drink cabbage juice.
eva50028 ines6375
Posted
Hi Ines. I have inflammation of gastritis and inflammation esophagitis. When I eat it hurts and I have pain on my right side. I stopped taking aloe vera my doctor gave me Nexium, stuff that too. Yesterday I did drink a little bit of cabbage juice was okay took slightly the pain away. I ate meatloaf that have red bell pepper spinach garlic and onion and today I couldn't breathe so I took a Benadryl. My stomach is very sensitive don't know what to do please reply to me