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
gloria82922 ines6375
Posted
To the medic that commented on my post! I have gastritis and acid reflux. I was trying zinc cardisone like everyone suggested to heal the linning of my stomach. Should I continue to take this or not. I'm taking dexilant and I read that you shouldn't take ziinc with a ppi. I took one yesterday and it made my stomach hurt. Should I continue to take zinc or is there something I can take to stop my stomach from hurting?
eric49486 gloria82922
Posted
I had the same result as you with zinc several years ago, but I found zinc made from whole food, which did not hurt my stomach, even taking it without food. You can find it on amazon, they don't want me to post the name here.
I have fully recovered from gastritis and reflux, I gained all my lost weight back, can eat acidic food, spicy food, even raw garlic, raw onion without problem, please follow the instruction from ines, you will too.
robin93893 gloria82922
Posted
I didn't see any medic comment, I said I'm NOT a medic but maybe you misread that. I already said above I see no reason you shouldn't take zinc C with a ppi and that I don't think zinc C would cause stomach pains but that's just my opinion, if you're that concerned you should ask a doctor. One more opinion from me though: zinc C is not intended for short term relief, you need some kind of antacid for that.
gloria82922 eric49486
Posted
Great to hear you recovered! I tried taking zinc twice and it hurts my stomach! I don't have any sleepy elm yet to take that would help! Has anyone else have the same problem taking zinc cardisone make there stomach hurt please let me know!
andrew36797 gloria82922
Posted
Hi Gloria,
yes, Pepzin Gi from Dr. Best irritates my stomach, so i stop using it.
Chucky777 andrew36797
Posted
Same. Ended up throwing away all of my OTC gimmicks in the trash. Going to rely on a PPI and a strict diet. Been doing a trial & error since August, so now I think I found all the culprits. Today was day #1 of healing my gastritis the old fashion way. Reduce stomach acid and eat clean.
alex03952 eric49486
Posted
Could you give tell us in detail how you fully recovered from gastritis. I am recently diagnosed gastritis by underwent endoscopy. I am taking Omeprazole 40 mg daily, but I also add Pepcid 20 mg at bedtime by myself. Also could you mention the brand of Zinc from whole food (could send me an email). Thanks
ffmffm7 alex03952
Posted
Hi. Don't use pepcid by yourself without the Dr telling you.
eric49486 alex03952
Posted
Hi Alex,
Since I have been normal for a while, and I have forgot the detail about the treatment, but I remember I followed ines's instruction, here are the major things I did,
1. Taking PPI two times, each about a month. The first time, I stopped PPI too quickly, and caused rebound, so I took again, and gradually reduced the dose, ines has detail in her posts. Do not take PPI for too long.
2. Strick diet. I had strick diet for about half year, which was too long, recommend about one month, then gradually back to normal diet.
3. Supplements: the most I used is DGL, when I had irritating stomach, I would chew couple DGL tabs. Other most helpful is Ginger, you can eat raw ginger, put in smoothie, cooking dishes. Zinc was sent to your box.
4. Relax: meditation and yoga will help.
That's about it, don't search internet too much, which will make yourself stressed, gastritis is just a very small issue, more than half people has it, but just most people does not have the symptoms, you and I are unfortunate and have the symptoms, but if you do a little care, you will be fully recovered. My mother, mother -in-law, brother-in-law, they all had it and suffered from it, and now they are all well and eat normal. So relax and good luck!
alex03952 eric49486
Posted
I got GERD back in April last year. I was on Prevacid, then Pepcid for a total about 2 weeks. It was over. Maybe I eat to much after, stress too much from overwork and family issues. I started to have abdominal discomfort in late October 2017. Start myself on Pepcid but only got little better. Then abdominal pain about 2 hours after eating in late Nov. Finally able to get endoscopy in late December, and was found to have mild chronic gastritis (did not know how I got chronic because I had not use any antacid, PPI, or H2 blockers before April), and small hiated hernia. My doctor told me that hiated hernia is small, so no need to worry.
Thanks everyone for contribute the useful info. And big thanks to Ines to help all of us.
alex03952 ffmffm7
Posted
The blog is so long, so I could not finish reading all at the moment. Could any one provide how to beat or control gastritis, and how long does it take. I just recently diagnosis chronic gastritis from endoscopy. Will have ultrasound, and CT scan to rule out other problem.
gloria82922 ines6375
Posted
rafiq27035 gloria82922
Posted
Hi,
Surprised to know it hurt . It' just the powder of the bark. Just taste the powder. It's tasteless....
mariast gloria82922
Posted
I have the same problem as you. Zinc and slippery elm both hurt me. Did you find any solution?
artur89532 ines6375
Posted
You need to avoid nuts and seeds(the only form i would recommend eating seeds is in the form of tahini).
You must avoid Banana(dont eat this fruit ever because even if u think you healed,banana tends to damage the stomach lining-i dont know exactly why but i know from personal experience thats what made me fall into gastritis for the third time).
You can eat fruits but not many. 1-4 fuits a day it ok.
Red meat is very efficient healing food because all of the nutrients,fats,protein such as collagen which helps repair the stomach lining and all the gut lining.eat red meat daily.
If u take omepradex or nexium(or some other ppi) i recommend that you take very strong multi-vitamin pills(especially if you have been prescribed long term treatment with ppi) because ppi pills inhibit the body from absorbing iron and vitamin b12
you should avoid all kinds of grains(especially breads-very hard to digest and causes damage to the wounds in the stomach lining) go for sweet potatos(or yams-but sweet potatos are better) instead of grains.
Avoid dairy and alcohol(i recommend u to avoid dairy forever-it is very dangerous for human consumption)
Beans and all legumes are hard to digest and causes damage of the stomach lining.
Dont worry about all these idiots who tells you that meat is very hard to digest especially without the stomach acid.because our gut can break the fats and the proteins in the meat without the stomach acid(i dont want to go deep with biological explanation of how exactly because it is too complex but you can study this alone with the internet)
you should be aware that even if you u think you completelty healed after the treatment or/and the Diet,in most of the cases your stomach lining will not be as strong as it was before your first gastritis even after a year.
if u want to ensure complete protection against gastrits(i mean after u already healed)i recommend u to avoid breads and dairy forever.
Chucky777 artur89532
Posted