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
elaine20904 ines6375
Posted
Thank you for posting this. It was extremely helpful! Slippery elm in powder form taken in hot water has been most effective.
I had so much muscle pain in my legs it was hard to walk. After researching it, I figured that it must be a calcium/magnesium deficiency from the medication as I have been on two different one's long term, most recently dexilant. After one day my muscles already felt a lot better. I decided that even though my stomach was still bad, I needed to get off of dexilant. Also had an issue with a rash that wouldn't clear and chronic sinus issues. Those cleared up after stopping the meds.
It's only been a few days since I've been off the meds. More pain and can't eat much of anything, but I think each day has gotten just a little bit better. I expected the pain to peak when discontinuing the medication. I would like to have stayed on the meds, but I have been on them way too long, and reading possible long term side-effects scared me.
In addition to the slippery elm, I also take marshmallow, dgl, and digestive enzymes.
I've had my condition for years, but I believe these natural supplements are effective. As stated earlier, slippery elm has been wonderful!
Trismosin ines6375
Posted
Hi Ines,
Thank you so much for your very informative post and starting this whole disussion.
I've been dealing with gastritis for nearly 9 months now, so I wanted to share some things to see whether anyone has been experiencing similar things.
I am relatively pain-free now with minor bloating and pains here and there once in a while. But at the same time I am during a flare-up, so a tiny discomfort is present, specially after meals (mostly gone inbetween meals). Three weeks ago I could eat four or five hearty meals a day (within the diet of course) and now even liquid food causes bloating if I don't wait to drink it when I am super hungry. Somehow waiting for stomach to beg and then eating (very small bites) helps a alot during a flare-up.
Looking back, going through nearly 4 to 5 ups and downs, I see a sine graph, with peaks of improvement and lows of flare-up. However, I intuitevely feel that the trend is upwards and the present flare is not at all as bad as the previous ones. It is a flare nonetheless and frustrating.
So my quesiton is this: Have you, or anyone else here, gone through the same thing?
I take PPI's, I only follow strict gastritis diet and eat when hungry. Relapses happen when I am a little bit less strict and sometimes for no apparent reason.
youkon1988 Trismosin
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noam55390 ines6375
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ian21671 ines6375
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I would have recommended PPI like Omeprazol immediately before experimenting with "natural" things which could have caused more harm.
You worry about calsium and B12 absorption far too early.
Of course, it would be best to get a gastrocopy, along with a biopsy to see if there is any change in the esophaghal cells. Also to see if
you have an excessive size hiatus hernia.
Remember that acid reflux even if it is silent (no symptoms) can lead to dangerous consequences. This is no place to try "snake oil".
The problem with "natural things" is that while experimenting a lot of time can be wsted while the actual condition might get much worse.
ines6375 ian21671
Posted
You are right and I did end up using dexilant (PPI) and it worked much better and faster. It cured me completely of the gastritis in a few months. I got my B12 levels tested recently and even though I'm the normal range, they are a bit low. But it might just a general problem of vitamins absorption I have. Iron was at the lower limit as well.
juan63187 ines6375
Posted
Hi ines6375,
I've recently been diagnosed with gastritis, and I'm 25... I went to the er to get it checked out, and was looking into natural remedies because I have read about how antiacid can be more problematic in the future.
As this is my first time, and I do plan on having a visit to a physician real soon to look on how bad I have it. Do you have any advice as to how to treat it as the time being. I had to go to the er, which I regret because of the bill, but I was suggested after being completely done with the visit that I was allowed to eat whatever food I wanted, but I found it to be a weird thing to say.
I'm just scared... and I also wanted to ask if relapse happens a lot.
ines6375 juan63187
Posted
Antacid can be problematic if you take them for years, but if you take them for a few months to cure yourself, it is fine. I had no side effects with the PPI I took for a few months and it cured me very efficiently.
While waiting to see a physician, you can always follow the advice listed at the beginning of this thread. I do think that diet is very important.
Regarding relapse I guess it depends on what caused your gastritis in the first place, how well you take care of yourself in the future and avoid whatever caused your gastritis in the first place. I am careful with my diet now and I haven't had a relapse.
juan63187 ines6375
Posted
Thank you so much for the reply! I'm suppose to take the antibiotics for 2 weeks. Thank you for clearing that out for me. I was really scared that if I took them longer than a week, that it would affect me.
I still need to go see my physician, hopefully it isn't too bad. I was just given the status of being diagnosed with gastritis at the hospital, but nothing else. And i will follow your advice from your thread! I also think diet is a key part to your healing. Certain foods still cause me to flair up. So far, I've eaten some chobani yogurt and hasn't really bugged me at all. It's really hard to keep a good diet without starving yourself...
For what caused it, I have two ideas. First one is that I recently had 8 teeth pulled out(4 one month, and the next 4 the month.) And they prescribed me with some antibiotics that were 500mg each, and i had to take them 4 times a day. Sometimes I was still on an empty stomach when I took them. I'm an idiot for not following the directions even though it said that I can take them without food. It's really dangerous that I did... and the other prescription I was prescribed for a week was medrol dos pak(steriod pills).My second conclusion might be that I had mixed orange juice and milk, and caused me to develop gastritis. I'm leaning more towards the first one.
Thank you again for replying. It really means a lot during this hard times. Sleeping is really becoming a pain in the butt.
ian21671 juan63187
Posted
Why do you say that antacid can be a problem in the future?
This may be true if you keep taking antacid for too long without
knowing what really caused the gastritis. On the contrary. If you keep taking so-called "natural" remedies without knowing the cause of gastritis, and without knowing what these "natural remedies" do just on an anecdotal basis, you would be self-treating something you don't know with a "natural remedy" which you also don't know. You should see that there is no logic in this approach. My advice is don't self-medicate before seeing a physician.
papote53 ian21671
Posted
My advice is to let the Doc do his job and if nothing improves then look for natural options. Any medication that is just for symptoms is not good long term. But you have to give them a chance. ;-) So if you take PPI's and see no improvement then ask for another medication. If nothing works within a few months then look for natural options.
ian21671 papote53
Posted
I am surprised why you don't recommend identifying the underlying cause of the gastritis whenever the prescribed medication did not bring about any improvement.In such case, before resorting to "natural medications" I would definitely recommend a gastroscopy and testing for heliobacter infection, and even a biopsy for possible hyperplasia (change in lower oesophageal cell type), or even displasia (precancerous lower esophageal cells), or excessive hiatus hernia. In more serious cases, resorting to "natural remedies" would delay the healing process until it might be too late. Look for the causes of a symptom first before trying questionable :"natural" cures..
juan63187 ian21671
Posted
The idea I got from the antiacid pills was that after a certain amount of days, it would start affecting the amount of acid produced by the stomach. But this was just in my head. These pills were prescribed by the er doctor.
I'm sorry for any inconvience in my last response. I'm still haven't taken any of the remedies yet, but I'm have been eating better so that I dont get any flair ups.
But I am going to visit my physician real soon to see what is the cause of all this.
ian21671 juan63187
Posted
Of course they will. Antacid pills are alkaline and tend to neutralize the stomach acid. However, the relatively small doses of antacid pills do not cause a total neutralization of stomach acid, only that of the excess acid that causes "heartburn". That is its role. Drugs like proton pump inhibitors (PPI) are a lot stronger and cause a much greater reduction of stomach acid secretion by a different mechanism. However, a recurrent heartburn must be followed up and if a PPI-type drug does not stop it completely,
a gastroscopy would be recommended. I have made more detailed recommendations earlier for a biopsy as well which can be done through the gastroscope. The idea is to find out the cause of gastritis before
prescibing any specific additional treatment.
juan63187 ian21671
Posted
The ppi that I am on right now are esomeprazole 20mg. So hopefully those aren't to bad. I take one a day.
I did have a relapse yesterday because I ate a pizza slice, which was the biggest no no... But it has come down this morning.
I will, I dont have a physician appointment until the 9th of January... So hopefully during those weeks I can get much better. I won't start anything new until I know exactly what i have.
One question, I usually take my pill at night, it doesn't have any directions on medicine whether it should be taken at night or the morning. Which one did you see a better inprovement.
ian21671 juan63187
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with or without food.
juan63187 ian21671
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Alright, I'll change that starting today! Thank you clearing that up for me.
juan63187 ian21671
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One last question! Which side do you usually sleep I'm? I sleep either straight on my back or my left.
ian21671 juan63187
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while straight on the back (when using a fairly stiff matrass) helps
to stretch lower back muscles before getting up and thereby preventing lower back pain.
juan63187 ian21671
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Thank you so much! I'll make sure to start that tonight! Also, thank you for the quick response!
ines6375 juan63187
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juan63187 ines6375
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