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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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  • matt85910
    matt85910 ines6375

    Posted

    So, started on the PPIs again now, just wondering which of the supplements I can also use at the same time as taking the PPIs as Im sure there must be some kind of compatibility issues, there usually is.  Has anyone else taken PPIs of any kind along with supplements if so which and how did it work out?
    • ines6375
      ines6375 matt85910

      Posted

      All the scientific studies I read where done on people taking either the PPI alone or the supplements alone. I tried different combinations and from what I tried dexilant works best first thing in the morning on an empty stomach 30 min before breakfast, then I take DGL licorice 30 minutes before lunch, snack and dinner to not interfere.

      The first week I took pepzin GI with lunch and dinner and it seemed to help but then I got much better and stopped. 

    • matt85910
      matt85910 ines6375

      Posted

      Sounds like a plan to me!  Ill try and get moved onto this Dexilant as well.  Im taking the Nexium 30 mins before breakfast with my coconut water now.
    • matt85910
      matt85910 ines6375

      Posted

      Do you eat many Bananas as sometimes they seem to set it off, but others they dont.... very odd.
    • ines6375
      ines6375 matt85910

      Posted

      I eat one banana every day with breakfast. I love it. For the rest of the day I try to vary: watermelon, melon, papaya. Sometimes I go back to bananas. Lately I made a cream with silken tofu and bananas in the blender, it was delicious.

      Are you sure that what sets you off is the banana and not something else you eat it with?

      Also ripe bananas are more alkaline than unripe bananas.

    • ines6375
      ines6375 matt85910

      Posted

      My favorite is cooked banana in the oatmeal, but I have a sweet tooth.
    • matt85910
      matt85910 ines6375

      Posted

      Yeah, just had one now, and its set it off for no reason, nothing for 2 hours before that.  Perfectly ripe, nice black spots on yellow.  Perfct ripness if anything.
  • sheny1979
    sheny1979 ines6375

    Posted

    Have you already cure by now? I have been on persistent nausea and vomiting for ten month until now...and wondering am i going through this..i am a cancer patient...but for me..gastritis..thhe suffering of nausea and vomiting unbearable...and sometime my stomach like on fire...i try everything..dgl,glutamine which i think make it worse..colostrum..probiotic..everything make it worst except dgl...i can,t do anything..bedrest all the time..starting to feel hopeless and going crazy suffering this long...anyone can help me or like me? Or it is just me?
    • ines6375
      ines6375 sheny1979

      Posted

      I have been pain free and feeling good for 10 days but still on dexilant 60 mg and a strict diet. I guess I will consider that I am cured when I will be feeling good off medication.

      What does your doctor say?

  • sheny1979
    sheny1979 ines6375

    Posted

    On october 2014..doctor told me i have chemical gastritis..trying every medication..nexium..zantac,etc etc zimor..you can name it...this one month..dr gave me dexilant...still nausea ..but better than before...but started getting unbearable pain...its like my stomach got on fire...i am so afraid when i found a lot of people going through this thing for years..the pain makes me crazy an helpless..cause it persistent
    • ines6375
      ines6375 sheny1979

      Posted

      What is chemical gastritis? Is it gastritis due to medication?

      The problem with online forums is that the only people there are people who are in pain, you usually don't hear about people who are cured. I got good results with dexilant. How long have you been taking it? the first time I took it, I got relief after 2 months (but it got increasingly better the second month). With the diet I am sure you will get better.

  • viki02823
    viki02823 ines6375

    Posted

    Like some others have mentioned I am really afraid at this point to try anything. The latest I tried which made me worse was just one drop of raw saurkraut. I did this because i have been having both issues of gastritis and reflux as well as lower GI symptoms, and an increading intolerance of foods and vitamins, all with weight loss, on  off for a few years now. I was going to be speaking to my doc the next day and since he once mentioned trying probiotics i thought maybe for once i'd actually try something he suggested or he'll start to lose interest. In retrospect, it was a bad time to start because i was making some progress eating very plain foods. Well that one drop produced violent diarrehea (sorry!) and set backwith terrible  gastritis - it was just 2 days ago so don't know what happens next. Everything i try seems to make it worse. The thing which really finished off my GI track was that I was on Valtrex (and liquid acyclovir) for a shingles infection taht was giving me vertigo. although i was very reluctant to take meds, i hate vertigo and kept trying and took a half dose for more than 3 weeks. i do not swallow pills well (they get stuck in esophoguas- i've had lifelong esophagous problems), so i would crush the tablets and mix them in any number of things. I tried: apple sauce, cous cous, flax oil, and gaviscon. The end resuslt of all of this was pretty much non-stop reflux and gastrtitis. GI docs say "can't happen" but clearly it did; they keep thinkihng i have h pylori, which i do not. I cannot even try PPIs since i'm allergic to MMA, something they use in the time release part of it. i probably would do badly on PPIs anyway - more synthetic garbage to pour down my gut etc. Have considered H2 blockers, but am so reluctant. Although i've always had troulbe with GI stuff (which when i think back i think in the beggining as a child was probably esinophilic esophagitus to potatos), a few years ago after 2 or even 3 episodes where i really seemed to have food poisining, ever since, the foods i'm able to eat have gone down. first it seemed to be all dairy - and it didn't seem to be the lactose since even 1/4th of a teaspoon of lactose free yogurt, or a tiny drop of butter, etc. would give lower GI problem for at least 3 days. AT the same time, I started getting more reflux, and more dyspahia as well. GI docs keep saying the upper and loewr GI issues are unrelated, but I don't beleive that. Anyway, was keeping it under control until the Valtrex episode, and now it seems impossible. my BMI is 16 something and getting worse. Others suggested cabbage juice, but after my eperience with saurkraut i can't risk it. I tried DGL powder (can't take pills) and i felt a horrible burning in my throad- didn't like it at all. i tried a slippery elm lozenge (a piece) - that has more promise, but its high argninine content might bring my shingles right back (i seem to be getting reccurrent shingles- not supposed to happen either). I had never heard of pepzin GI - but it's a capsule and can't have it (I just emailed to ask them if i can sprinkle it on food without harming my esophogaus- not that i'll beleive them). ihave had to go off all vitamins including mymulti with iron since everything was bothering my gut. I cannnot take many of the things suggested here- even things like rice - rice for me is like potato and just gets stuck in my esophagous and doesn't go anywhere. So just feels like i'm doomed. i have other health issues as well and its alot to deal with. docs don't know what to handle first- and none have ever really helped. i'll keep reading the posts in hope someone will suggest something i can try, though like i said, after all my attempts at self help make things worse, i'm am relucatant.
    • vicky888
      vicky888 viki02823

      Posted

      Hi Viki,

      I'm so sorry to hear your condition. 

      I have reflux but since my doc hasn't done any endoscopy, I don't know whether I have gastritis or any other condition. But I'd wasted a year trying many things that worsened my condition sad

      I suggest with reflux and gastritis, try to eat low acid, low fat and low fiber diet. At least, that what I think works for me now. 

      Apples is acidic. Same as yoghurt.

      Try to refer to Dr.Koufman book Dropping acid. Bananas work for other people but not for me. And I can't tolerate high fibre e.g. wholemeal, brown rice etc, so I go for white bread, white rice, sweet potatoes. I think white rice is the safest, if it's still hard to swallow, then try to take it as porridge.

      For fat, I don't take butter, just a bit of olive oil, lean chicken breast fillet.

      Not sure whether my suggestion is helpful to you. 

      If not, maybe it'd be better if you ask your doc to get tests done on you, for all your allergies and conditions and then recommend you a proper dietician for your conditions.

      Good luck viki!

       

    • ines6375
      ines6375 viki02823

      Posted

      Hi Vicky,

      Why do doctors think you have h. Pylori? If you really do, it would be important to get rid of it. If the doctors you have seen are not helpful keep looking for another doctor.

      Sauerkraut is way too acidic. I can't tolerate dairy or vitamins either. And yes I have diarrhea sometimes that is related to the stomach problem.

      For me the PPI works the best but I don't have h. Pylori. I used to be afraid of them but it is what worked best so far. I have been pain free for two weeks now after 9 months of suffering.

      You said the bland diet was working for you so keep going but with your esophagus problem it might be easier for you to  make soups and even to blend them, whatever works to get food down, a lot of carbohydrates.

    • matt85910
      matt85910 ines6375

      Posted

      Beware of the triple therapy, I started on Friday, 7pills a day, upto last night I was ok, but last night I felt like a freight train, and overnight was the worst night I have ever had, so today I have laid off all the pills for a day and hopefully tomorrow I will improve.
    • viki02823
      viki02823 vicky888

      Posted

      Interesting that you tried stuff for a year with no luck- are you going to go for an endoscopy now?

      thanks for suggestiongs on food- at this point though all I can eat are the following: oatmeal (1 minute kind cooked for about 15 minutes), plain white angel hair pasta (italian brand - no added anything, cooked for about 30 minutes), sliced turkey breast (only 2 brands, both natuaral and/or fresh). that's mostly it, i was doing ok on boiled chicken and broth, but not sure anymore. I can ocassionaly now eat a small bit of well cooked asparagus. There  are alos 2 acidic foods I seem to tolerate better than many non acid foods, but because of their acid content, i don't eat often now - poached eggs and eggplant broiled until it becomes spreadable). That's it. everything else, and I really mean everything either will not go down the esophogaus, or causes reflux, or irritates stomach lining, or causes diarrehea.

       

    • viki02823
      viki02823 hebert28695

      Posted

      I don't see a url for that site- i'll check earlier posts. thanks.
    • viki02823
      viki02823 ines6375

      Posted

      p.s. its just that h pylori is the first thing second rate docs think when you have symptoms of an ulcer. so i say this happended following a month of trying to stick with valtrex and they say impossible, sounds like h pylori.

      but its a long history. the thing is i think there is more than one thing going on. St this point, at least 3. this doesn't work well with docs- one patient, one disease - that's how they like to do things.

       

    • matt85910
      matt85910 viki02823

      Posted

      Well the three drugs I got were Metronidazole 400Mg 3 times a day and Clarithromycin 500Mg twice a day along with my Nexium.   Ive had real problems and its taken 24 hoirs just to get back to feeling half way like myself again.   Nighmares all night, extreme lethargy, muscles aching.... ugh
    • matt85910
      matt85910 viki02823

      Posted

      The more I read about my issues, symptoms and reactions, the more I actually think I might have IBS not Gastritis, and I think it was caused by the guy who did my initial Gastroscopy as 2 days after that I felt miles worse than I had before.    Im going to detox today and stop all drugs then concentrate in reactivating my good bacteria in the gut with probiotics.
    • viki02823
      viki02823 matt85910

      Posted

      Let me know how that works out. my primary doc also though i had IBS which is why i tried the probiotics in the raw saurkraut, which worked out miserably and led to my post. I'm now reluctant to try any further probitotic - especially given i can't take capsules. be especially caeful of protease when you start - i know a few people who have had bad reactions to that. protease eats everything in its path (these enzymes "try" to disgest each other as well...) including you if it gets into the wrong place.
    • matt85910
      matt85910 viki02823

      Posted

      Check out the vsl3 website, these are meant to be the daddy of probiotics and are available in soluble powders
    • viki02823
      viki02823 matt85910

      Posted

      potatos have never gotten down my esophagous since i've been at least age 10, possibly younger. i supsect EE.
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