How I cured my gastritis

From what I read in the gastritis forum of the website dailystrength, some people need to try different medications, with the help of their doctor, before finding something that works. I got lucky, dexilant worked well and immediately for me. But there are a lot of different PPI out there. I have heard that some people get helped a lot with carafate too.

The hardest part is to find a good doctor, some are close to being useless, some are very helpful.

Do you have gastritis too? I don't know anything about duodenitis. Did your doctor talk to you about taking sucralfate or something to coat? How did you get it? Stress probably does not help.

I am sorry your doctor was not careful during the endoscopy. If you don't trust him, he might be good to get a second opinion. I did not feel so good after the endoscopy either but I think it was more because of the laxative before and the apple juice they gave me afterward. The discomfort did not last though.

I am not happy with my current GI doctor. I am happy he did the endoscopy that showed that I have gastritis but beside that he told me to take dexilant for two months then stop. I was not cured after two months and he told me to just wait for a few more months and do nothing then he is going to reevaluate me. He gave me no information for the diet or nothing else. According to him I am just supposed to live with excess acid and pain and it is going to go away by itself. I could not take it anymore so I started to take dexilant again and I took an appointment with another GI doctor, I will see him in two days. I talked to other people with gastritis and their doctor was so much more helpful than mine. I should have gone see another doctor much earlier.

You don't seem very happy with your treatment of the care you got, that is why I thought you might benefit from a second opinion.

Sorry I am not familiar with those medications.

Hi matt,

In australia, sucralfate isn't over the counter, but not sure in USA.

It's different from gaviscon. gaviscon is an antacid. Sucralfate works by forming a coating over the stomach lining & esophagus from the stomach acid.

The pills cannot be doing nothing. Whatever side effects you do or do not get the pills cut down your acid production. That is a fact regardless of how you feel. Even if you do not need them or would not benefit from them you may still get a side effect from taking them because they still cut down your acid - whether this is a good or a bad idea. Imagine if you said "if I poke a pencil in my eye and I do not feel anything does that mean nothing happened?"

Hi Matt

My stomach is inflamed and also very sensitive. If I eat something too hot or something that I shouldnt, I get an almost immediate response.

I have just stopped my ppis because they were making my stomach sore.

It might take you a few days of eating the right food to calm it down after the endoscopy.

Hi Emma

Ive been going through a strange process of getting better then getting worse over and over, its as if the stomach gets used to the pills.  The last lot didnt do much at all and the. dox doubled them to 80mg it was then that I thought enough was enough and came off them.  Ive been on the supplements for about 2 weeks. now and want to give them a good shot at the prize until I go back to the doctors as It was pills that caused the original issue that I ended up having an endoscopy for.  Just about to add another supplement the plan, that being a probiotic, that being acidopholus.

Hi Matt. I only lasted four days on the ppis, but dont think they made any difference although it was not long. I dont feel I have too much acid unless I eat the wrong foods. 

I am just in the middle of making some cultured vegetables and water kefir because I have been reading that for stomach inflammation, it is really good to have tablet probiotics and probiotic food. I just hope my stomach lets me have them as it is so sensitive. Might be worth you reading up on them on the internet, they sound like they could really help.

Yeah, I have been looking at both prebiotics and probiotics as it seems to be the one thing I dont take at the moment.  I gave the ppis a good run in the hope that they could fix the issue, but I think now the issue I have is not the one I had originally as it reacts to food whereas the other original issue was a constant grinding pain no matter what I did.  It always seems to calm down  when I am asleep, how is yours then?  Ill try the acidopholus first as that seems to have got several rave reviews from other sufferers and may be the missing link.    What supplements are you on at the moment?

Hi Matt. Your stomach sounds like it has become inflamed like mine. Mine has also started leaking now which is worse because I now get sinusitis as well if I eat the wrong food. I do find that it does seem to settle when I have a sleep, they say sleep helps you heal. I have been taking bio-kult probiotics for a long time but I do not find that they are helping to heal my lining. They do help my digestion but I dont feel they are enough on their own. If what you try help, let me know what they are. I dont take any other supplements as everything just seems to react. I

No biotics, no matter how fantastic, help heal linings. You need other things for that - liquorice, etc.

No worries.... I assume yours reacts to pretty much anything and when it does it is pretty instantanious as well as being erratic.   Some days I can eat a banana no problem, others it really doesnt like it.   The slippery elm and DGL are both meant to line the stomach I believe and the Zinc-Carsonine is the best there is for assiting the healing process.   So this combo is the best for the healing process, I have also spoken to a dietician who says it might be something to do with the levels of long term stress draining some Adrenal Glands.  

Hi Carmel. I agree with you on the probiotic tablets but am hopeful that the probiotic foods might help. I have tried liquorice recently but it just makes me sore so cant risk trying anything else. Was reading yesterday on leaky gut forum of a guy that once he started to drink water kefir, it did make a big difference so I am just hoping it will help me.

Hope you're ok, and the dogs! Bit cooler today. 

I am ok if I eat a banana first thing but if I eat one in the afternoon, they make me really poorly. They say to have fruit on an empty stomach. 

Also I know stress makes things a lot worse as you make a lot more acid.

I was doing really well with my stomach til we got burgled which was stress. I know its hard with this illness, but you have to try and not get stressed over it. I do though so I cant say too much. I cant take dgl or slippery elm but have never tried the zinc because I thought zinc was a stomach irritant. 

That is really interesting Emma. Will have a look into that when I can. Have been thinking of making my own, do like to experiment. My sinus/head/ears are not good but have been worse. Hate this head. The dogs are fine thanks.

Am going out with that gent tonight. Hope you are ok.

Hi Carmel. You dont think you might have leaky gut do you? Does your head/sinusitis start after eating certain foods?

Hope all goes well tonight. x

Have wondered about the leaky gut idea Emma. My problems all started with sinus - years ago. The doctor I then had would keep giving me steroids and antibiotics which would clear up the nose/ears and headache for a while and then it would come back. This went on for years with an operation to remove polyps and skin and bone from nose.

But the headaches nose and ears continued to be a problem. Then last year I got a terrible stomach suddenly after eating garlic - over a period of weeks it was like it festered and rumbled there and got worse until I was in agony with it. None of the doctors have listend to how it was because of the garlic. One said hernia one said this and that. All ignoring this. Had an endoscoopy and told ok there.

What happend though was that for the stomach I took pp2s - cimitidine - and this hekped my ears and nose and cleard up my headaches so I asked that I could carry on taking it because it helped so much with that. For a while I did not take it and my ears and nose and head got bad again and now I am trying to get rid of that problem while

Thats weird. My problems started with sinusitis. I was working in an old warehouse with huge air conditioning pipes coming out over the tills. When I was referred to hospital, I was told it was caused by dust allergies. I had a lot of painkillers and antibiotics and this was what started my stomach problems. I was then given a strong herb to kill h pylori and this just made things a lot worse. 

I had an endoscopy years ago and nothing showed.  Have you ever been tested for allergies? You might be allergic to house dust/mites or even the dogs. Dont understand why the cimitidine would help your ears and nose though. 

Hi Matt,

From some foods like spices, very acidic foods, garlic, foods too hot, onion, I get an immediate reaction of pain. From other foods like fat, some fibers, dairy, I get a reaction later on. For the second type of foods, the way they irritate the stomach is milder or different than very irrating foods, this is why it took me longer to identify that they were not good for recovery.

I don't know much about the duodenum but I read that some foods might leak directly from the stomach to the duodenum so it is not impossible that you could get a reaction immediately after eating from a duodenitis too? Just wondering, I know nothing about duodenitis, my duodenum is fine.

About the PPI, I forgot if I asked you how you were taking it. I noticed that mine works only if taken 30 minutes before breakfast. It is strange that you got no reaction after stopping cold turkey but so suprising as not everybody get the rebound effect. I still think that PPI is the best way to go for treating gastritis if you can find one that works. I have been taking it for one month now and with the diet I am pain free today, I sleep well and feel mostly normal. I won't make the mistake of thinking I am cured though. I feel that my stomach is sore and not acting up because of the medication and the diet, and it will probably take longer to recover. But still I never got to that level of comfort with just natural supplements. I took the natural supplements for three months and the improvement was much much slower, also any disgression from the diet was much more unforgiving. It would take me one week to recover from a mistake on the natural supplements, while with the ppi, it takes me a day.

You said that you took the ppi for 4 months. 4 months is really not that long. One of the GI doctors I talked to told me that one must stay on PPI for at least 6 months to be cured. I also talked to somebody on the daily strength forum who got cured from gastritis in 6 months with PPI, for some it takes one year, some even more. All the people I talked to who tried to cured themselves with natural supplements only managed to get better slowly, none of the ones I have talked to got completely cured even though one of people I talked to said that they know some people who did. My feeling is that the stomach heals much more slowly with natural supplements because of the presence of acid that hurts the stomach constantly.

Emma, Kefir is one of the things that hurt my stomach. First it is too acidic: ph level between 4 and 5. Second dairy make my stomach produce more acid and it hurts if not immediately in the next hours. Be mindful how you feel after eating it. Kefir is a healthy food but I don't think it is good for gastritis. But we are all different. I hope it works well for you as it is delicious. I miss dairy the most with tomatoes.

I read a lot about the bacteria in our gut and for sure we are just starting to discover how they participate to our health. For example I read a study that show that the bacteria in the oesophagus was different for people who had a healthy oesophagus than for people who had an inflammation. Who comes first, the inflammation or the change of bacteria, they don't know but it is interesting. Anyway I have taken all sorts of probiotics supplements hoping they do something in the background, and maybe they do, but I have never felt that it helped with gastritis.

Just one word about bananas: when they are still a little bit green they are more irritating than when they are ripe. My favorite is cooked banana in the oatmeal for breakfast, delicious!

I have a different experience about the night. Somehow if I eat something I should not have during the day, my stomach will hurt at night and prevent me to sleep. Thankfully DGL licorice helps me to go back to sleep. Also when I was not taking the PPI, I would get more acid at night and a sore throat in the morning. Thankfully the PPI took care of that.

I am seeing a new GI doctor today, I hope he will help me get completely cured finally.

Hi Ines. Thanks for that. I do worry about the kefir reating. Was going to try water kefir rather than milk kefir but am concerned about the yeasts in it.

Just made a batch of cultured veg so might try them first. 

Hope you get on well with the new GI doctor today. 

Hi Emma,

Have you tried tempeh? It is fermented. I eat it regularly and I tolerate it very well.

I wonder what is the ph level of miso, this one I have not tried but it has lots of bacteria as well.

Hi Emma. Some people are allergic to garlic or can have a reaction to it - and it does kill bad bacteria so it might have suddenly caused an imbalance. The cimitidine can help the sinuses etc becaue they stop stuff coming up in your head. My dogs have no fur and I was just as bad before I had any dogs.

Ines, thanks for sharing.

Me too, if I eat something too spicy or too acidic, I will get immediate symptoms, but for fatty food, fiber it'll take few days to notice they are not good.

Just wondering though, when you said your stomach hurt, does it mean that you have pain in the stomach location or it's more like general pain e.g. reflux, acidic taste, sore throat etc?

Since I haven't done my endoscopy, I'm still wondering whether I have gastritis, hernia, etc I don't think I have pain in the stomach location, mostly my symptoms are reflux related e.g. heartburn, chest pain, sour taste, sore throat, excess saliva....

It's really scary to read the story that people have to stay on ppi so long  

Hi Vicky,

When I say my stomach hurt I mean that I have pain in my stomach. I feel the pain inside my stomach. I have not had a sour taste in my mouth for a long time now, at least 6 months. I had some acid in the last months before taking the PPI but it was mild and more or less constant, I noticed mostly at night and in the morning because of my sore throat.

Before I saw the doctor I did not identify stomach pain very well. When the pain is more or less constant sometimes it is difficult to be aware of it as one forgets what normal is. It is like a constant sound bothering you that you don't hear anymore after a while. I used to have insomnia for many years, and only this year I discovered that it was because of stomach pain. Also so many things can go wrong in the digestive system. Before my endoscopy, I wondered at some point if I had a liver disease or diabetes. But I remember the doctor touching my stomach and it hurt. I found it a great relief to get all possible tests done and know exactly what I have.

I used to be very scared of PPI, now I am glad they exist to help us be cured faster.