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How I cured my gastritis

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ines6375
ines6375

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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  • mahesh1976
    mahesh1976 ines6375

    Posted

    Hey Ines !,

    You have been tremendous with your Thread !. Patiently responding to each one of us based on your experiences. Hats Off to ur efforts!  I am still trying to figure out my health issues and not sure whether wud be 100% OK soon or not. But One thing I know is cauz of ur thread I am 90% out of Depression. The hopes that the thread provides inspires lot of ppl following the same. The place where I cum frm, ppl rely completely on the Conventional Dctrs OR fall prey to Pranks. Such forums provides us lots of helpful information.  You are doing gr8 job and shud continue doing the same.

    Guys!

    You all seem to be much experienced & knowledgeable. I appreciate your contribution as well. I am pro probiotics too but possibly the researches are still in nassant stage and require more evidences.Despite, Iam on full probiotic diet & suppliments along with diet control.  As I understood, the basis for this forum is how we could overcome our frustating health conditions naturally without relying on abuses from conventional medicine. And most of the alternative approach we discuss here is based on our individual expereinces which obviously lack scientific evidences.  So what to take what not to is for the individuals to decide. But We need to be sensitive & not judgemental. There is nothing right OR wrong here.

     

    Thanks again ALL and keep up the gr8 work !

     

  • brendha70618
    brendha70618 ines6375

    Posted

    Hello inez! Good day! Thanks a lot for sharing your condition and remedies to cure us. I was reading this thread for several months. I was diagnosed with chronic gastritis last year. But its been i think 8 years that i have this sickness.

    Anyway.,, im running out of ideas for breaksfast recipes 😁... Can you please give me some ideas? I was so confused of reading lots of articles about gastritis. And ps dont have enough time almost to do my diet coz my work is too demanding,, so i uually cooked in my house on my offs only.

    I work as domestic helper, stay in. And my offs is only 6 hrs on thurs and whole day of sun. Thanks a lot ines! God bless you more! 😚😚😚

    • john03683
      john03683 brendha70618

      Posted

      Hi Brendha:  There was a minor dispute a few days ago and ines said he was going to unfollow this discussion.  You can find him on one of his other discussions. 
    • ines6375
      ines6375 brendha70618

      Posted

      Hi Brendha,

      I got your message on the other thread.

      I usually do oatmeal + walnuts + banana + sometimes maple syrup, but you can do bread + mashed banana topping + walnuts, smoothie with rice milk + banana + papaya, bread + eggs, bread + turkey or chicken slices, fruit salad with watermelon + melon + papaya and coconut water, chamomile tea, mix some ice + papaya + banana + maple syrup in the blender, homemade banana-hazelnut-oatmeal cookies, japanese breakfast: sushi rice with roasted seeweeds + salmon and homemade miso soup, homemade muesli with banana and rice milk, homemade rice pudding,...

    • ines6375
      ines6375

      Posted

      The homemade rice pudding is dairy free and all recipes must be adapted to be low fat low acid and avoid irritating things.

      Also they sell at the organic store some breakfast meals, which are cereals cut like couscous and with hot water it makes something that looks a baby meal. I like it with a little bit of vegan butter.

    • brendha70618
      brendha70618 ines6375

      Posted

      Hi Ines!

      I was paranoid yesterday and this mornin looking for you, thinking you already leave these forums. 😁😁😁

      Endless thank you! Ur an angel in disguise! Really appreciate your effort to help others! 😉

      God bless you more! 😘😘😘

    • brendha70618
      brendha70618 ines6375

      Posted

      Hi Inez!

      Again im here. Can i ask a favor? 😁

      Can you give me the recipe of you hazelnut and banana oatmeal cookies pls? 😊 and wat is are the ingredients also of homemade rice pudding and miso soup? Ejeje sory got lot of questions.. I have doubts on the ingredients coZ mayve i might put accidentally ingredients that can irritate my stomach.

      Again thank you ines! 😘

    • ines6375
      ines6375 brendha70618

      Posted

      For the hazelnut and banana oatmeal cookie, it depends if you eat gluten-free or not. I eat gluten-free because of IBS so it makes things more complicated, but if you don't eat gluten-free just find a low-fat cookie recipe with eggs, flour, very little butter (reduce the amount of fat to the minimum), you add bananas, hazelnuts and oatmeal to it. I used a gluten-free pancake mix as a base but my cookies were a bit soft. There is a recipe in the book "dropping acid".

      For the homemade rice pudding, you take cooked rice from the day before and heat it in whichever milk substitute you use (I use rice milk), than you can add maple syrup or sugar. It takes 5 minutes if your rice is cooked.

      For the miso soup, you make a dashi base, you can buy at the Japanese supermarket dashi packages (it is fish to make fish stock), then you add cubes of tofu, wakame seaweeds, carrots/celery in small cubes if you like, soy sauce, and just before serving miso (I like white miso). You can remove the miso and add mushrooms or clams as well.

  • sam74145
    sam74145 ines6375

    Posted

    Hi Ines,

    Thanks to your blog. It has been most helpful. I have been diagnosed with mild gastritis. I tried PPI for a WEEK!! thinking that was enough to fix the problem not knowing that it may take months (never told this read it here.. I hate drugs) I've had this issue for 8 months and will try and follow what you have done here. I went to China 2 months ago where I had no Caffine and ate rice and vegetables with alot of fruit and that seemed to help. (Some bad days) but was not too bad for 3 weeks. I had oats everyday for breakfast. As soon as I got back and was hard at work peeps would leave me coffee at my desk and POW it was back. I went to my Doc and he gave me a PPI. Initally the PPI's (20mg) seemed to do nothing. My issue was at night i would get growling and discomfort so I added Gaviscon (This is an Australian Anti-Acid) and this sorted out the the nights sleep.

    I found that the more alkai fruits seem to help me ie stonefruits and watermelon and bananna. I mix normal water with coconut water to be cheap. I also try and drink alot of water throughout the day. I do have a non-caffine herbal tea Lemongrass/Ginger seems to be okay for me. I was a bit confused with the general advice don't eat after 8pm as I do like yogurt a couple of hours before bed but I am going to try and stick to the advice.

    Breakfast now days which is always good for my tummy is quick oats with a spoon of honey with almond milk (I take Zinc and B12 and a Slippery elm as well). Lunch is sandwich with a salad (slippery elm) and dinner (PPI) I used to cut out all the carbs but as I have gastritis I have now started to eat rice once again. This could have been the major factor why I was getting better in China.

    The zinc supplement (Pepzin GI) is tough to get here. I have used ebay been charged 45 bucks a bottle (made in USA) but hey atm I am willing to pay anything to fix this. Slippery Elm is good. I have not looked for the dgl as yet. I'll keep this updated too on my progress. Anybody have a cheaper trusted source of Pepzin GI in Australia LMK.

     

    • ines6375
      ines6375 sam74145

      Posted

      Hi Sam,

      Your herbal tea might be irritating, I find ginger irritating, chamomille is safer. Also in China did you eat yoghourt? I am pretty sure yoghourt is bad for gastritis.

      Get better soon!

  • acakes
    acakes ines6375

    Posted

    Can we actually heal from Gastritis? I'm hearing different attitudes on this. How long before bloating and inflammation calmes down? How do you know when you can eat normally again? I have been eating right for a month and still foods are irritating me. And I'm eating healthy. No caffeine and all that stuff.
    • ahmad97104
      ahmad97104 acakes

      Posted

      I've also been eating healthy for a month and spicy/fatty foods still irritate me as well. Gastritis IS curable but takes a long, long time to heal. Ines took about 4 months with a strict diet and a PPI to almost fully heal. I myself am going to go with a strict diet for the next 3 months. Gastritis not caused by H.pylori tend to heal slowly as the mucosal linning was gradually taking damage due to our diet, so it's pretty obvious that it will take time to heal too. It's ok if you eat slightly fatty/spicy foods once a month in the beggining but taking them in large amounts or continuosly will cause a lot of problems (I had a really bad rebound because of it and it lasted for more than a week). Slowly incorporation such foods over a passage of time is recommended. But if you're careful, your gastritis may take months or even a year, to fully heal.
    • ahmad97104
      ahmad97104

      Posted

      Uhhh I meant if you're not careful, then it would last for maybe a year or more.

      My bad.

       

    • acakes
      acakes ahmad97104

      Posted

      I'm "thinking" mine is from stress since I really don't eat bad to begin with and was going through something stressful. I'm not sure if I should continue the endless merry go-round of testing when all it is is stress! I took PPI's for 2 weeks but I was still bloated. The GI's that I went to said if you haven't noticed a difference then taking them longer won't do anything. I just started Flagyl, a 5 day antibiotic, given to me by the GI doctor just in case it's something I caught from going to Caymen's, even thought all tests show negative. Just started Acid Blockers again, though I think they cause me alot of anxiety. If I cant tolerate them, I will take them for like 3 months.
    • acakes
      acakes ahmad97104

      Posted

      Can Gastritis cause lower abdominal bloating too? I have that and not sure why.
    • ahmad97104
      ahmad97104 acakes

      Posted

      Well think of it as this...You only have to go through this ordeal for 3-4 months if you're careful and then you can indulge in more foods again. However, if you continue with your irritating diet then your condition may last a whole lifetime. I think 3 months of strict diet is definitely worth it. Heck, I'll gladly do it for a year if that means I can go back to normal for the rest of my life. haha

      Don't think of it as a bad thing. You'll be eating healthy for a few months and who knows..you might get used to it and prefer it more. In short-term it's very frustating but you'll benefit more in the long term. Like, your risk of having diabetes, cardiac diseases, blood pressure problems and being obese (which leads to many other problems) becomes much lower. It's not really that bad!

      I would suggest ditching the restaurant for at least two months. There's absolutely nothing over their that is not irritating for gastritis. The last thing you want is to burden your stomach with more greasy, fatty and acidic foods. it's true that in the initial stages of gastritis one just can't enjoy life anymore. I remember sitting all day in one corner and just thinking about whether or not I would ever heal again. This lasted for almost a month. You should talk with your doctor about the anti-depressents. I took them too but only 4 times. Don't get used to it.

      Click here to view image

      But know that it IS curable and you'll be back to normal. It just needs time and a lot of patience.

    • acakes
      acakes ahmad97104

      Posted

      You have been very helpful. I am sitting here hearing about people that have it for years and never could heal. I have been in a strict diet since September. During the holiday I ate normal food, but not too crazy. It ended up getting worse but I think it was a supplement I was taking. I took and food sensitivit test and removed all the foods. But maybe there's other things I eat that cause me not to heal. I tried Nexium in the past it it didn't help. The doc said if the Nexium didn't help in 2 weeks then it would 't help at all. The PPI's give me unbearable anxiety and tight chest. H2 blockers do but not as much. Does Dexilant have less side effects maybe? Or should I keep trying other brands? I'm starting it again for longer.

      I was down to eating only Paleo but I'm adding grains and potatos back in.

      Yes I feel like you did. Wondering if I will ever heal. And it's lonely. And I obsess and can't let it go and focus on anyone else.

    • acakes
      acakes ahmad97104

      Posted

      How long can it take dor the all day huge upper abdominal tummy to go down?
    • acakes
      acakes ahmad97104

      Posted

      The PPI's made me have bad anxiety! It iwas unbearable. H2 blockers do the same thing but it's more bearable. I've been waking up and my stomach is flatter, until I eat anything. It's wierd because my stomach is bloated very very down low and doesn't go down flatter in the mornings. It's super down low. I will do some more testing too. I hope H2 blockers are sufficient.
    • ahmad97104
      ahmad97104 acakes

      Posted

      I know what you're talking about. My stomach used to rumble too and it would wake me up. If I remember correctly, it stopped after 8 days or something. That's because of the gas travelling in your instentines.  By low you mean the area round and below the belly button, right? That's where bloating usually shows up a lot.
    • acakes
      acakes ahmad97104

      Posted

      Between belly button all the way down to the public bone. It's more bloated lower down and it doesn't feel like air. I am taking only 75mg Rintondin (Zantac) because that's all I can tolerate, otherwise I get anxiety bad.
    • ahmad97104
      ahmad97104 acakes

      Posted

      I would suggest waiting for 2-3 days to see if your bloating continues. Otherwise, it's really not that big of a problem.  Like I said, it's very normal with this condition. Even medications can cause bloating as well. It's a noted side effect of Nexium. Maybe Rintondin has a part to play in it. And from the look of things you're STILL very, very stressed, acakes.There's no need to worry that much. Once you've been diagnosed using an endoscopy, it's confirmed you have gastritis and nothing else. I understand you're worried that you might have some other problem, but it's really just your anxiety that's disturbing you.
    • ines6375
      ines6375 acakes

      Posted

      I consider myself healed. I tried different types of treatments for 9 months more or less, after that I felt good but I stayed on a strict diet for 5 more months. Now I eat healthy at home, still avoiding irritating foods but I ate spicy food at the restaurant a few times recently and had no problems, no pain, nothing. So I consider myself healed.
    • emma666
      emma666 ines6375

      Posted

      Hi Ines. I wonder if you can help me. I have just ordered the Dropping Acid book which I am sure you mentioned you have got. I cant find it in all these pages. Whilst I am waiting for it to come, they said in the reviews that you need to follow an induction diet for two weeks which included eating chicken, fish and vegetables. Would you be able to let me know if you can eat anything else on this induction diet i.e. banana, eggs, potatoes, rice etc. I am eager to start diet but until book comes, not sure what to have. Thank you so much, Emma.
    • ines6375
      ines6375 emma666

      Posted

      Hi Emma,

      I hope you received the book by now. Anyway the diet I recommend is the one at the beginning of this thread.

    • lyne1961
      lyne1961 ines6375

      Posted

      Hello ines6375,

      can you tell me exactly what you ate. I am all confuse about what I should eat.  I want to eat a strict diet to finally heal my gastritis but I am not sure what I can and can not eat. So please tell me in detales what you ate and if it is best to eat every 3 to 4 hours

      Thank you very much

    • nadine32482
      nadine32482 ahmad97104

      Posted

      Hi Anmad you cannot go back on fatty and spicy foods when you start having this stomach problem we have to exempt those foods out of our diets because once you start back eating those foods it re-activated the stomach irritation it doesn't heal it gets better its damaged tissue good luck
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