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
mermaid62 ines6375
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I am having a bad flare at the moment and it's been the best thing out of many I am trying right now. I have tried the cabbage water in the past, and it does work, but as I am hypothyroid this didn't seem such a good idea and it doesn't taste great.
ines6375 mermaid62
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mermaid62 ines6375
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It does taste pretty insipid on its own (ie potato juice) but the carrot gives it a pleasant taste
ines6375 mermaid62
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mermaid62 ines6375
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ines6375 mermaid62
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gopi86 ines6375
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sheny1979 ines6375
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ines6375 sheny1979
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Onion is definitely very bad for gastritis. You have to eat but be careful what you eat. Check my description at the beginning of this post. Try plain organic oatmeal with ripe banana for breakfast, steamed vegetables with rice or potatoes and plain lean fish or chicken breast for lunch and dinner, melon or watermelon and raw coconut water for snack. Once a day have a fresh juice with carrots, fennel, celery, romaine. You have to prepare everything yourself to make sure there is no additive, spice or onion. A little bit of salt is ok.
I was very depressed when I was in pain, it is normal. If you are strict with your diet and take your medication daily, you should improve tremendously in a few weeks, maybe just in a few days. The bad days will become more and more rare than disappear.
anniebird ines6375
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Hi ines6375,
Enjoyed reading your postings and have made a few notes of products to try or research. Great stuff, Thank you so much for sticking with this discussion.
I'm plagued with chronic gastritis with lesions, due to long term use of Ibuprofen.
I recently took myself off PPI's recently due to a magnesium deficiency. My blood serum level is .64 when the normal is 1.5 to 2.2 and now I have PPI rebound (I assume), but refuse to give in. Wrote a long reply, but lost it by clicking a wrong button!
I want to draw attention to PPI's causing Magnesium deficiency among others, plus the rebound factor. Specialist suggests normal acid neutralising antacids are the best way to proceed after PPI's. I thought your readers may gain from reading these two professional articles.
Proton Pump Inhibitors cause vitamin and mineral deficiencies. See this article: https://patient.info/doctor/magnesium-disorders
Interesting information on PPI rebound: http://www.intelihealth.com/article/cautions-about-reflux-relief?hd=Highlight
ines6375 anniebird
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Thank you for posting.
I had some rebound too but it lasted a few weeks, less than a month. How long has yours been?
anniebird ines6375
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Oops, sorry. I thought my first post was unacceptable, and mentioned this in my second post. My bad!
I've only had the rebound for maybe 3 weeks, and I've noticed in the last 3 days I am improving, although it comes and goes. You get a period of time without discomfort, so you try the naughty stuff and it comes back!
I've noticed eating lots of boiled/steamed vegetables like Spinach, courgettes and potatoes definitely helps.
anniebird ines6375
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For those of you who don't know what's causing your indigestion, be aware that Gallbladder Disease can cause problems in the stomach.
From the age of 23 I suffered indigestion from almost everything I ate, even a cuppa Tea and a plain biscuit would do it. It wasn't until my 30's that I discovered a quick-fix... Sucking a Lemon. I had undiscovered gallstones and my bile duct was mal-functioning. Eventually, I developed extreme pain, which made the doctors realise dyspepsia pills and PPI's weren't going to fix it, (they made it worse) and I was sent for an ultra-sound. But I was 55 before I had the Gall-Bladder operation, which fixed all my digestive issues.
My symptoms were dull pain, huge bloating, burping, exhaustion and a general feeling of being unwell. It came on 1 - 2 hours after I ate and felt like my food wasn't digesting. The discomfort built up slowly until it became almost unbearable. Red Wine and Port helped, but Lemon was the star for me.
Obviously this was a low acid problem. I hope this helps someone reading this discussion, as none of the doctors I saw could figure out what was wrong all those years. The best way to know that it may be a low acid problem is if the normal solutions for acid stomach aggravate your stomach more.
I have Chronic Gastritis now and sometime soon, I'll try to recall and re-post the information I found helpful.
ahmad97104 anniebird
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I hope you get well soon. My mom also had her gallstones removed last year. It's a really painful recovery but I'm glad you made it. I just have one question....Your symptoms definitely matches mine but the doctor said it was due to gastritis and GERD. I've had ultra-sound twice and they said that I'm completely fine. I guess that means that I don't have any gallstones, right?
adam79529 ines6375
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ines6375 adam79529
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mariast adam79529
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Hi, Adam. I know it has been 5 years since your comment, but if you see my message, I would like to know how you are doing. I also took omeprazole and have nausea ever since and I don't know what to do, because DGL capsules don't work very well for me. What kind of supplements helped you?
ines6375 mariast
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Hi,
I am doing well thank you, still being careful with my diet but it is not as strict as before, I eat berries and tomatoes once in a while but I still can't tolerate onions, garlic, citrus and spices. Sometimes I feel a very mild discomfort in my stomach (usually at night) and DGL licorice or harmless harvest coconut water usually takes care of it.
mariast ines6375
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I am happy to hear that! There is still hope out there. I currently use sucralfate and domperidone, because I don't tolerate ppis very much. Could you, pls, tell me which brand of DGL you use? Did you also have nausea 24/7 like me? I can't tolerate any kind of food right now, it just sits in my stomach. I have mild chronic inactive gastritis, mild esophagitis and bile reflux.
mariast ines6375
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I woke up today with horrible stomach pain and heartburn. I believe that my situation was triggered at first by NSAIDs, and now, a year later, it got worse by a ginger supplement recommended to me by a doctor. Ginger contains salicylates. I am on square one, I will have to take nexium that makes me horribly anxious and even causes me panic attacks. I find that other ppis cause me nausea and sick feeling. Were you ever tested for enteroviruses, ines? I have high antibodies against coxsakie group B. I wonder if that can also have any relation to this longtime illness of both of us?