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
arvind1004 ines6375
Posted
I would like to say something on this. Like 20-25 days ago I started feeling stomach ache. I thought it was normal and would get okay with in 2-3 days. But it started getting worse. My head started paining like hell and used to vomit after i had my meal. So I went to a doctor but it didn't work out. Then I went to another doctor he gave me some medicines for 10 days. And told me what to eat and what I shouldn't. After that my stomach pain was completely gone. But there is still gas problem in my stomach. And when I press my stomach it hurts. Otherwise It doesn't. Now the diet which I am following is boiled pulses in the morning. Rice and boiled pulses in the afternoon and again boiled pulses at night. And lots of water. But I'm always worried about this gastritis. I don't know when will it completely heal up. I'm already a underweight and because of eating less food my weight will go down. Also I couldn't work properly because I feel less energetic.
michael86733 arvind1004
Posted
First, you need an accurate diagnosis of your stomach ache. Go to a GI doc for endoscopy to confirm before taking any medication and worrying about your condition. If indeed it is acid reflux or gastritis, the doctor will prescribe PPI. My experience it helps reduce stomach acid. Take it for 2-4 weeks to calm down the irritation to your stomach lining while you have plain and healthy diet. Don't restrict your nutrition just because of stomach irritation (only to avoid high sugar, spicy, fatty food, carbonated and alcoholic drink, strong coffee and tea). You need nutrition to heal your stomach and to combat inflammation. Most importantly, reduce your stress. Relax and enjoy your daily life. Make sure to sleep well and maintain a positive attitude that you will get better. My experience is it will but taking time. It is a on and off process. But over time (a few months), you will be completely healed. Do exercise to maintain your positive energy. When we are stressful, the sympathetic nervous system in your stomach will sensitive it, making it more irritable and painful. In fact, your stomach is fine. My GI doc found my stomach has some minor redness in the lower part of my stomach through endoscopy. He was very surprised that I felt so much stomach irritation and pain. Some of his patients have even worse structural damage, but they did not have much painful sensation. This is my experience in recovering from gastritis. It is mostly caused by stress for most people. Stress also induces stomach acid. Make sure that you eat healthy and well. Losing weight (in particular if you are already underweight) will harm your health and slow down recovery.Don't let stomach irritation to hinder your life. You will recover but just relax and be patient.
jennann ines6375
Posted
I've posted in this discussion several times before and I wanted to post one more time to say I am 100% completely better. I suffered terribly for about four years. In June I had a baby and ever since then I have been able to eat anything with no problems whatsoever. I suspect it might have been the IV antibiotics they gave me after delivery.
arvind1004 jennann
Posted
mariast jennann
Posted
Do you remember what antibiotics you took?
jennann mariast
Posted
I wish I could tell you but I don't know. Whatever they give by IV to people with a penicillin allergy.
mariast jennann
Posted
Did they also give you IV PPIs? Are you still well?
jennann mariast
Posted
Only antibiotics. I am so grateful every day to still be completely cured .
mariast jennann
Posted
Yes, I can imagine how happy you feel. If I ever get well, I will cry. I think I will try Septra for my gastritis. I actually wonder why the gastroenterologists don't send our stomach biopsies for culture. That would be interesting.
coby43138 ines6375
Posted
How effective is cannabis oil in treating gastritis and cancer cases i read.
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kanakaraju00040 ines6375
Posted
Hi experts,
I am 36 years old male .suffering with ulcers (H.pylori) .effected 1st time when iwas 20 years old.it duagnosed 2 years back under little control now.
Due to which i have been sufferi ng with regular gastrics .i have been using omez tablets for past 7 years on a freequency of once in 2 days.now situation is worst omez not at all working.my ulcer problem is under control.but i am looking for permanent solution .kindly help.
I m non smoker ,non alchoholic for past 7 years i quit .
I follow normal deit for past 6 months..
Sockpim kanakaraju00040
Posted
Hi kanakaraju00040,
My first question would be to ask you what your idea of a normal diet is...
lisa5424 ines6375
Posted
Hello
How did you do the cabbage juice. Ive read that you can't do raw cabbage????
machiskyblade ines6375
Posted
I stumble upon your post and it has been very informative. I have the same case as you except for IBS. Was diagnosed with mild gastritis and been on Dexilant for 2.months. I had no pain throughout but feeling nauseous almost everyday without vomitting, bloating were my symptoms. I am now in the process of weaning it off but may I ask if you also have daily nausea? I am worried that it might be something else. Also, does slippery elm make you poop green? I hope you someone can answer me
gwen45436 machiskyblade
Posted
Hi, thought I would jump in to help. I have gastritis and hernia/reflux. Nausea is always there without vomiting. Horrible as it puts you off eating. Green poop, I also have. I don't take slippery elm as it hurts. From reading up it is food moving too quickly through the body. Docs rarely are worried it seems and does not pose a red flag. I have had it for over 2 years now.
G.
machiskyblade gwen45436
Posted
thank you for replying! So you mean you're living with the daily nausea for 2 years now? How do you manage with it? I am afraid of losing weight because of this. I am normally 85 to 90 lbs and I don't want to go lower than that so I just force myself to eat even when feeling nauseous. It usually feels like that at night.
gwen45436 machiskyblade
Posted
Yes it is daily. I lost over 14lbs in weight. I have started having fermented food like Kefir and Saurkraut and am finding a big improvement. Looks like I have too much bad bacteria and not enough good so these fermented foods stock you up on good ones. Seems to be working for me.
machiskyblade gwen45436
Posted
Glad to hear that it's working for you! I am taking probiotics. Will look into consuming fermented foods too. But isn't saurkraut too sour for gastritis?
gwen45436 machiskyblade
Posted
Hi, I replied earlier but it has disappeared. I thought that about saurkraut too, but it is water, cabbage and a little salt. I do know cabbage water is good for gastric issues.
machiskyblade gwen45436
Posted
You also mentioned that slippery elm hurts you. I started taking it for a week. I didn't have much discomfort before but now i am feeling it. Don't know if it's pepzin or slippery elm. Those are the only things i tried.
mariast machiskyblade
Posted
Hi! I have both stomach pain and daily nausea for over a year now. Slippery elm hurts me. Did you get better?