How I cured my gastritis

Where did you read that Omega 3 is bad for the prostaglandins as I have been scoffing salmon every day based on information I saw that you should increase the intake of Omega 3 Oils.

e.g. this is from the livestrong website.

Step 3

Increase your intake of healthy fats that increase the production of anti-inflammatory prostaglandins and reduce the formation of pro-inflammatory ones. Beneficial foods include those rich in omega-3 fatty acids, like fatty fish salmon, tuna and mackerel. Eat walnuts, flaxseed, whole soy foods and hempseed. You can also find many products fortified with these beneficial fatty acids that normally do not contain them such as eggs. Cook with olive and canola oil.

I read too somewhere that omega 3 supplements can cause irritation of the stomach, maybe on webmd?

I noticed that all fats cause problems.

As a rule I try to avoid taking supplements, especially since for most of them there is no proof they do anything (see article on vitamins in the NYT). I just try to eat healthy.

Matt, Sauerkraut and cabbage are not recommended for IBS, see the fodmap diet.

Vicky, eggplant and eggs are not acidic, eggs are a little bit on the fatty side but not so bad. You might be able to tolerate lean white fish, which is very soft, and carrot-celery-fennel fresh juice too, as well as many cooked vegetables (many people find overcooked cauliflower or butternut squash soup very soothing).

Also I never had problems with probiotics In powder like align or other brands. But fermented anything are too acidic usually.

About enzymes I read on some forums that some people got gastritis because of them. I have never tried as a result.

i think its pretty well accepted that omega 3 decreases the production of inflammatory prostagladins. That's for instnace why they help for menstrual cramps in women as well as how they exert at least some of their beneficial antinflammtory effect. And to finish the rst of the argument, it's also well known that having prostiglandins helps the lining of the stomach - on epiece of evidence is the med they sometimes use if someon has to be on naproxin or other NSAID for a long time - i forget it's name. if you look up that med, one can see its a prostaglandin agonist.

by the way, that does make me wonder- does anyone suggest or have tried using a prostaglandin agonist for healing ulcers or gastritis?

note that its still possible that omega 3 is beneficial in some other way - inhibiting prostglandins is not the only thing it does.

ireplied to matt on the details of how omega 3 in particular might cause a problem.

I agree on vitamins- but alas, i do not have a healthy diet to say the least, so undoubtedly i have deficienies.

i guess the thing with eggs is that they acidify the body afterwards- they are not acidic going down - presumably they are basic. Egglpalnt not sure of - they can be pretty caustic sometimes, even if you get them on our hands.

You could be right about mild white flaky fish if i can find one that i can chew and i cook it properly. possible also on the squash soup (but not zucchini, even when cooked for an hour). and can't do the fennel carrot or cauliflier for a vareity of reasons.

yeah, i wouldn't be talking advice from the livestrong website. But is that on a section on gastritis and ulcers or for something else.? omega 3 does do all that, but sometimes increasing pro inflammatory prostglandins is not a good thing. There is no one thinng that is good for everything.

The causticity of the eggplant you are referring to is not acidity but a toxin destroyed when you cook it. The ph level of the eggplant is between 5.5 and 6.5.

Hi Jose,

Thank you for sharing. It is interesting to hear about new supplements to cure gastritis.

Glycyrrhizin in licorice is know to cause high blood pressure. You would probably be fine with deglycyrrhizinated licorice in which they remove the glycyrrhizin. I have been using it in tabs for months now, really good and soothing.

I am so picky with food too, there is no better way to improve than becoming OCD about it. I try avoiding eating at the restaurant as most of the time they don't bring what I want the way I want it. Can you tell us more about what you eat and your list of forbidden food. Anything special to share?

I have been feeling good for two weeks now, no pain at all. I used to wonder if it would ever go away.

I have the same goal as you Jose, total cure for my digestive system. I don't care if I have to eat boiled potatoes and plain rice at every meal for the rest of my life. I actually love the potatoes now!

I was thinking recently that the way I eat now because of gastritis is probably much closer than what northern european people ate 100 years ago or before that. Maybe my body is better adapted to it by genetic selection. At the time meat used to be leaner, we did not have oranges, lemons, etc. We did not eat exotic spices much, maybe just black pepper. Tomatoes arrived from the new world only less than 500 years ago. People did not eat megavitamins like they do today. And more than anything, we did not have these million types of canned soda and food all more acidic than the other. Anyway it seems to me that the diet good for gastritis (beside butter, dairy, pork, garlic and onion) is much closer to older basic northern european food than the modern diet. Just a thought.

Why does pau d'arco do? I see very mixed reviews online. Some people say it even causes nausea and stomach upset.

I use Now's Pau D'Arco 500 mg of inner bark. 4 pills a day. 2 at breakfast and 2 at dinner. It was prescribed to me by my homeopathic doctor. It supports intestinal health. It may cause nauseas and vomits if you exceed the amounts prescribed. You should be ok if you take only 2 capsules a day. My advice is to take Pau D'Arco only if your naturopath or homeopath doctor prescribes it to you.

Is that the same as slippery elm bark?

 

Matt, Pau d'Arco is a different tree than slippery elm with different properties. It was sold in the health store where I used to work as a tonic.

oh right, seems that there are a few barks that help this sort of thing.  I heard that quinine was also good, have you heard that one?

Hello Ines I live in a country with famous tradicional cooking, with a lot of seasoning, that's why, I guess, many people suffer from heartburn. We love salted codfish. We're pretty much the only country that has 1000 recipes with salted cod. By tradition, we use a lot of salt, pepper, nutmeg, garlic and onions pretty much on everything. All of that I can't eat. My mother who is a great cook doesn't know what to prepare for me, because she says I like everything bland. Basically I avoid all acidic fruit, all kinds of berries (even goji berries) chocolate, sugar, white bread, cakes, vinegar, sauces, dairy products (even lactose free ones), red meat, fried food, eggs...and the list keeps growing. What I eat? Tofu, grilled chicken and turkey, grilled fish, brown rice, legumes, soups, brown bread, oats, soy drink, rice drink, oat drink, etc.  

Hi Matt, no I have not heard that quinine was good for gastritis. Actually I saw that a few people reported having had gastritis as a side effect of taking quinine. One must be careful with everything advertised online.

Hi Jose,

I know the good food from Portugal, delicious! It must be hard to resist.

I am following the same diet as you it seems except that I eat some white bread and avoid brown bread, the brown bread from the farmer's market has really hard fibers, I find it irritating. I am thinking of stopping the white bread though. It does not seem to irritate my stomach but it seems to give me a little bit of excess acid in the hours after I eat it for some reason. I feel much better with rice or potatoes. Ho and I eat eggs too. I did not at the beginning but now they seem to be ok.

I thought you can desalt the cod though if you leave it in water for long enough.

I have never tried oat drink, I will. I have tried almond milk but it gives me mild pain. Soy milk seems to be better.

Do you have herbs in Portugal? Since I started eating herbs again (mostly  sage, thyme, parsley, rosemary) I find my food much more enjoyable. They don't seem to cause any bad reaction.

I see you eat tofu, my favorite way to cook it now is to buy extra firm, crumble it and cook it long enough to make it dry. Then I use it like you would use ground meat. Much more tasty this way. I love silken tofu with bananas in the blender too, so sweet.

Hi Ines.

Its good to read that you are feeling better and have been symptom free for a couple of weeks, keep up the good work!

I have been into my local health shop today and spoken to a lady who works there who is very knowledgeable on the stomach/gut. She has recommended me try the following products and I wondered before I do so, if you have read any good/bad things about any of them or if you thought they might irritate my gut lining. I do have a lot of problems digesting my foods, in particular, fat. She has recommended I take

lecithin granules which help break up fat. The ingredients are just soya lecithin.

The second is to soak pumpkin seeds and eat them. She says because I have had problems for so long, I might have a few parasites in my gut and apparently pumpkin is good for removing them.

The last is himalayan pink salt. You have to soak it in a big glass bowl of water for 24 hours then drink one teaspoon a day in a glass of water. It apparently has 84 minerals in it and is very good for a lot of things including detoxifying the body, skin and helping the alkaline/acid balance.

Obviously Im nervous about trying anything else. I tried the sauerkraut but it was too acidic like you said and it has made my gut burn.

Any help you can give would be much appreciated, thanks, Emma.

Hi Emma,

You are right to be careful and do your research before taking anything.

There are scientific studies that show that a high salt diet can cause gastritis. Also in the John Hopkins journal on digestive disorders they say that a survey of 43000 people found that smoking and excessive use of table salt can increase the risk of GERD by 70 percent. So I would definitely not recommend taking one teaspoon of himalayan pink salt per day. But what you could do is replace the salt you are using for cooking with pink himalayan sea salt, but use it sparingly, the smallest amount necessary to make your food taste good.

What I think of trying something new, I think of the effect it would have on my skin, in my mouth or on a wound. If it is irritating to the skin, taste sour/spicy or would hurt on a wound, it is probably not good for the stomach lining.

I don't know if soy lecithin or pumpkin seeds would be particularly hurtful or if they would help. Soy lecithin is another word for fat from soy, and pumpkin seeds are very high in fat as well. The problem with fat is that it delays digestion and cause more irritation of the stomach lining, so it is good to eat low fat when trying to recover for gastritis. You probably know the amount of fat you can tolerate, so my suggestion would be to be mindful of the quantity of fat you are ingesting if/when you take those two supplements and keep it reasonable.

At this point, I have the feeling that the only thing that really helps recovery is time, patience and avoidance of anything irritating (including reduction of irritating stomach acid with the help of medication).

I am taking now daily a freshly made juice made of 1/4 of one cabbage, 4 carrots and 4 branches of celery. This quantity of cabbage doesn't cause much of the side effects of the cabbage and I hope it does something good. It does feel good. Cabbage juice is well known to help with stomach problems. Carrot juice is know to help with the repair of tissues. Celery is tonic without being irritating.

Hi Ines.

Thanks for your thoughts. Going to try putting some lecithin in my smoothie today and see how it goes. I know my liver is not functioning very well so am hoping it might kickstart it. Going to start on a small amount and see how it goes.

I do agree with you that diet seems to be the most imporant thing and if you dont do that, no medication will work. I dont seem to be bothered with too much acid, if anything I might not have enough.

The health shop lady said that grated carrot was very good for you but I cant have carrot at the moment, I have got an intolerance to it and it immediately gives me sinusitis which is a shame. Your juice sounds good, it is great that you are able to tolerate the cabbage as it does seem to help a lot of stomach problems.

 

Steamed artichoke regularly might help for your liver.

or cooked in the microwave a few minutes under a plastic wrap. I know it does not sound very healthy but the result is amazing. The artichoke is homegeneously cooked very quickly.

Thanks for that Ines. Have heard of artichoke but never tried it. Is it quite a bland vegetable, are you able to tolerate it? Wd it be best steamed or put into my green smoothie?

Hi Emma,

I would try steamed first, it is easier to digest that way.

In Belgium they sell a juice a artichoke and black radish to take every morning for the liver, it tastes disgusting. I would not recommend it for you though because of your stomach (especially because of the black radish). Some people take cardon oil as well, the cardon is from the family of the artichoke, but I would not recommend it for you either because of the fat.

Supposedly all bitter vegetables are good for the liver.

I tolerate artichoke very well! And in the microwave it is really the best way to do it.

Thanks for that. Just been having a look on how to prepare and cook them, definitely sounds worth a try. Could you just tell me is it something I should do every day or just occasionally?

First try it and see how you feel. Then if it feels good you can do some sort of a cure, have one per day at the beginning of your main meal for two weeks. Then every now and then after that.

I like to eat it just plain, I eat the interior of the leaves first (the soft part), then I remove the hair of the middle and eat the heart.

To prepare in the microwave you just put it in a bowl with a little bit of water and cover with plastic film, then microwave for a few minutes. I forgot how long, maybe 5 minutes?

I am looking of what Dr J. Valnet says about it in his book. He says that is important to use organic artichokes to avoid pesticides. Also he says that the most active ingredients for the liver are in the leaves. So it is good to eat the interior of the leaves but also, if you cook it in a pot with some water in the bottom (steam), to use the cooking water as a base for a soup.

or you could use the cooking water to put in your smoothie.

Great, thankyou. Will let you know how I get on.

hi Ines. Hope you still feeling good. Have tried all the things the health lady recommended and all reacted badly. Salt irritated it, couldnt digest pumpkin seeds or lecithin. Have taken the artichoke but bit too soon to see a difference. I seem to be having a lot of trouble digesting anything at the moment and have considered taking digestive enzymes. I just wondered if you knew anything about them and whether you think these might irritate my gut lining.

Thanks for any help you are able to give, Emma.

Hi Emma,

Thank you for sharing, it is good for everybody to know what to try and what not to try.

I have never tried digestive enzyme. I read somewhere that some people got irritated by some enzymes, some even said that some enzymes gave them gastritis. But I really don't know much about it. What I do when I consider a new product is that I read all the reviews on amazon dot com, in particular the one star reviews of people complaining.

Papaya contains naturally some enzymes that help to digest meat. Other raw fruits and raw vegetables contain naturally all sorts of enzymes so your green smoothie might be helping.

Hi Ines. Thanks for that. Going to order one product that I found on Amazon and just had a look at all the reviews. It has a lot of very good ones for people with similar problems to me. Just one lady said it did cause a bit of burning but if she takes a probiotic at the same time, it doesnt burn so am going to try them.

One day i'm going to find something that works! Thanks for your help again, will let you know how I get on, take care, Emma.

Hi Ines,

Just wondering, when you said "juice", do you cook the ingeredients first? Or they are just plain raw? And is it real juice or sometimes do you also take smoothie?

Thanks Ines!

 

Hi Vicky,

I make juice from raw vegetables. I use the breville compact juicer. It is cheap, works well, easy to clean and does not take too much space. I always make carrot-fennel-celery juice sometimes with spinach, parsley or lettuce added. I made watermelon juice as well but it was too sweet, it would be a good base for a sorbet though.

I make smoothies sometimes too but not too often. I made once banana-silken tofu, it was delicious. Another time I made banana-papaya-ice, it was good too.