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
crystal34402 ines6375
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ManageIT ines6375
Posted
Need your advice - my situation is described below, it's a little long winded, sry:
?I had food poisoning from catered food back in early March, about two-three days of nausea, tender stomach etc. But I thought I had recovered from that and went back to drinking coffee, eating salsa and chips etc. THings seemed to be fine until late March when I woke up with stomach discomfort in the middle of the night after a meal at an Indian restaurant.
?From there, things got worse (I continued to drink coffee, eat dairy etc.) and then it became impossible to ignore - I had strong gnawing hunger pangs, as well as a burning feeling high up in the stomach soon after eating. Stomach also hurt if I ate a normal size meal. ( A vicious circle - can't eat a full meal, have to eat less, and then soon a burning sensation follows)
?After self dosing with OTC Famotidine, I finally went to the doctor and was put on Zantac 300 mg twice a day. The Zantac was OK but made me really dizzy. (If I ate a protein meal, I would actually have to lie down for 20 mins before I felt OK again)
?I was tested for H.Pylori (stool test, negative) and then got an endoscopy (everything looked fine, so was given a functional dyspepsia diagnosis). So I continued for a little while longer on the Zantac, and then slowly tapered off the Zantac. I still felt a little weird ( let me describe - no pain, a little bit of fullness after a meal, sometimes some throat clearing, but no reflux etc)
?Around mid-June, I wanted to gain back some of the lost pounds, so began to take ghee (clarified butter) and some dairy, and now it seems like that was a mistake. I feel the same pain back again ( burning in upper stomach), acid reflux etc. Looks like I should have waited to reintroduce sat fats.
?Please give me your advice on what I should do now. Should I go back to Zantac? Or just stop the ghee and other butter, dairy etc and come back to a bland diet and let the stomach continue healing? Many many thanks to all of you for reading my long post and providing your response!
lewis01951 ManageIT
Posted
Don't worry it happens to the most of us. Gastritis isn't curable, its just managable and treatable. It will always come back when you eat the wrong foods. Zantac makes me dizzy too, so I take alternatives such as Gaviscon liquid and chewables or take some natural supplements listed by Ines. After you get back on your bland diet the gastritis will go away again, just be patient. If that doesn't work go back to the doctor and get put on some PPIs. I'm a 6 feet male and I dropped down to 125 pounds and now I am at a stable 145 even with random gastirits attacks. Its been so long I'm so used to having the gastritis come back, but you'll get used to it. Don't worry and do what worked for you before!
Neoison555 lewis01951
Posted
Hi, I am on 4 months of gastritis. But have made a discovery of my issue that could help or shed light for others so I thought to share. It started with nausea, coughing with chest pain. Dr. Said ulcer put my on 40mg ppi and carafate. 3 weeks later developed gastritis. Had now 30+ tests and they say nothing is wrong. In have had shortness of breath, weak, anxiety, panic attacks, depression along with cramps pinch pains in my intestines and seldom urine track pains like if I had bladder infection. So after my Dr. and Specialist Dr. feel I am a mystery. We are now testing for Toxic black mold poisoning. All my symptoms point to it and fungus can live, inflame your Gi when acid is reduced. "Thank you Nexium" causing gastritis once medicated. So if you have been living with mold issues in your home? You might look into another cause and direction.
papote53 Neoison555
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Anything else can cause these symptoms- Food sensitivity for example- Many people I see posting here on a daily basis looking for the magic pill and it can be as simple as gettting a food sensitivity test done and find out if a specific food is the reason for everything. Don't wait years in pain to find out it was as simple as removing 1-2 foods. ;-)
God Bless!
Jose
ManageIT lewis01951
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jozaaaif ines6375
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How long took you to get 100% cure? My doctor said it will take like 6 months
ManageIT ines6375
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jayjay79922 ines6375
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What do I do if I can't eat at all? I skipped supper last night and am going to try to have a bit of oatmeal this morning, but I feel so bloated and nauseated that even getting water down is tough.
Neoison555 jayjay79922
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jayjay79922 Neoison555
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kim23728 jayjay79922
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Have you tried peppermint gels? They provide a very quick relief from the bloating. I don't know of any negative side effects. Available at the health food store or online.
jayjay79922 kim23728
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I've never heard of peppermint gels? Would those be in the supplement section?
kim23728 jayjay79922
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I got mine online. I imaging they'd have them in the supplement section at a health food store too. The brand I have are from "NOW Foods".
Neoison555 kim23728
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My advice is to stay away from processed sugars and inflammatory foods. Bloating is from maxxing inflammation levels. For me the best answer to this is eating alkaline foods and drinking alkaline water. Buy a $6.00 PH water testing kit and know what you are drinking. Rice, light brown spotted bananas, scrambled eggs, eliminate all sodium or acidic foods.