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).
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max38736 ines6375
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Appx 4 months ago I took an antibiotic (which, as it turns out, was unneeded to help with bronchitis) called : Levaquin. The side effect of it was killing off the positive good bacteria in my GI tract. I had a severe reaction. But since I was in great shape, and alrady exercised regularly, and ate very good (as I was a 9% body fat 39 yer old male), I had a very good immune system, however the damaging side effects of levaquin has caused chlostridium, (a deadly illness) as well as tendon damage, and other yet unknown nerve damages. So that is how how I got my gastritis given to me. Of course, I saw 2 doctors and was misdiagnosed leading up to the decision for a levaquin (after a z-pac azithromiacin) didn't seem to help my upper respiratory infection...
Anyway, I had stomach pain continuing after 4 months ago, and got an ulcer diagnosis, then I got an edoscope (2 months laters ,as that is how long the waiting time is) and was told I have no ulcer, no bleeding, and no mucous in my stomach, but did have gastritis. Now prior to note all this, when I got the ulcer diagnosis from a decent family physician- i did start prilosec, and over the coutner proton pump inhibitior... it seemed to not really do near as much as contolling my diet. I had read about cabbage juices' curative power, I got a juicer, and within days felt great.. and kept juicing, but did get carried away adn really put the hurt to myself with a garllic/tomato juice drink... and really, the whole story of dealing with this stomach pain has just been a mix of eating right, and just suffering thru it...
I also found (2 months ago) that zinc carnosine dots from TwinLabs realy worked. I also think cabbage juice still works, (and I take it too, but its not as immediate) I tried DGL, and it really didn't do much. I thnk the whole key is dietary disciplien. I admit I got sick of eating so good, and would spoil myself time to time and then pay hell. So after 3.5 months of hell I think its clear... Eat just enough, just the appropriate foods, and deal with that.
The books I am basing my diet on are' the JJ virgin diet... and Dr. Joel Furhman's Eat to live.
The tip about slippery elm has been good. The real good thing to note, is that I don't find myself reaching out too much for overkill solutions... and being sick and in pain is a part of life. I got here by thinking I deserve to feel better, and what I did to myself was take medicine way too strong - Levaquin... I hope this is a lesson for someone. I also have some stress/anger issues about how I got this referral to take levaquin. (and anybody in my shoes would too). I also cna say that when the gastritis acts up, rest and pwerful meditative practices to sleep in pain help.. I do get night sweats when it acts up to.. but it seems to cycle, then dissapear, and the pain gets less and less. I'm banking that with better nutrition I can accomplish a full recovery.. but I do have most of my energy back, can exercise pretty vigorously 2-3 times per week, and work, and have my libido, and generally have my life relatively back as much as one can have one.
diana57836 ines6375
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ines6375 diana57836
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jcholsap ines6375
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In summary, the combination therapy of Pepzin, DGL Licroice, and CranActin healed my gastritis.
My symptoms were severe, but are now all gone:
* Tarry, very dark stools,
* Tasting blood, usually in the morning,
* Stabbing abdominal pains such that I couldn't sleep through the night,
* Lethargy (caused by blood loss and sleep deprivation),
* Bloating and excessive gas, and
* Onset of pain immeadiately after eating.
Treatment Plan:
Take the combination therapy mentioned above for eight weeks. On an empty stomach, drink plenty of fluids with each dosing. Go on diet specific for gastritis. (I'm on an anti-inflamatory diet.)
Notes about Pepzin:
After researching the trials, I doubled my Pepzin dosage to 70 mg twice a day, double what is suggested on the bottle.
Notes about DGL Licorice:
It's imperative to use DGL licorice. Don't use any other licorice.
Notes about CranActin:
Just be aware that you may need to urinate more frequently.
Helpful:
Orgeano Oil - Out of desparation, I tired oregano oil. It took about 15 minutes to work and, in general, it significantly alleviated abdominal pain, especially after eating.
Slippery Elm - Maybe this helped. But in general it seemed innocuous.
Was Not Helpful, But Promising:
Picrorhiza kurroa, aka Kutki, seems like it should help with healing the stomach lining. I was using Kutki in my first week of the above mentioned treatment. But overall my condition was NOT improving. After eliminating Kutki, I started seeing marked improvements.
Here's my hypothesis. Kutki is an extremely bitter herb! I believe it was flushing the PepZin/DGL Licorice/CranActin treatment out of my stomach. I may try it again after I've finished my treatment.
The clinicle trial on mice suggests that 20 mg per kg of body mass per day is the ideal dosing, for seven days, with the greatest effects occurring in the first three days. Take with water on an empty stomach.
Hope this helps.
deb59301 jcholsap
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ines6375 jcholsap
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mermaid62 ines6375
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skidaroo74 ines6375
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All the recipes taste delicious but the ones with yoghurt and citrus peel have left me in agony!!
So if anyone else decides to get the book: "Dropping acid: the reflux diet cookbook & cure" by Jamie Koufman, omit the citrus peel and yoghurt until you are feeling strong enough to experiment and then test your self with small quantities before eating or in between meals... Most of the recipes with these ingredients will taste fine without them!!
deb59301 skidaroo74
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ines6375 skidaroo74
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It is a nice book to get some inspiration but it is good to keep a sharp eye and adapt the recipes to avoid irritating ingredients.
SStomach ines6375
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Dropping Acid: The Reflux diet and Cure, would work for me.
ines6375 SStomach
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Also she allows dairy, which from what I read and experienced, dairy delays recovery. So I suggests you avoid it. I disagree with the author regarding aloe vera and manukka honey too, I find them irritating.
Beside that it is a good book and a good base for a diet to recover from gastritis. The most useful part of it is the list of ph levels for foods. Stay critic though when you look at the recipes, if you see something that might not be good for you, just skip it. Most recipes recover from one less ingredient.
ines6375 SStomach
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SStomach ines6375
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ines6375 SStomach
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I describe the ways I tweaked her diet to cure myself at the beginning of this thread.
I hope you get better soon.
deb59301 ines6375
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ines6375 deb59301
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No I did not get tested for B12 defficiency. I was worried about it so I tried all possible forms of B12: in tabs from different brands, sublingual. But unfortunately they all hurt my stomach. So I made the choice to not take supplements to recover more quickly and then eat very healthy to get all the vitamins I need. B12 is found in animal products, and I eat meat and fish regularly. I have not tried chlorella and spirulina.
From what I understand defficiency in B12 might occur if you take anti-acid medication for a very long time as the body needs acid to process it. If you take the anti-acid medication for a few months to recover you should be fine, except if you are vegetarian, then I would be more concerned.