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
ines6375
Posted
According to this article and the different studies it talks about, drinking milk might increase the risk of hip fracture and is associated with increased risk of death. People who were not drinking milk were doing much better. Also they could find no link between the calcium intake and the risk of bone fracture. So it sounds like dairy and calcium supplements are not necessary (if you don't have a condition that requires you to take calcium supplements).
I am sharing this because from my own research I found out that dairy increases acid reflux and makes gastritis worse. This is something I feel very much and I got a huge improvement when I stopped eating greek yoghurt every morning many months ago.
Regarding my experiments with vitamins, I don't tolerate any vitamins (gummies or pills) that I have tried except the calcium, but since it seems we don't need calcium supplements I will stop taking them. I will just keep having my organic fresh vegetable (romaine, carrots, celery) juice every morning for my intake of B9 vitamins (my doctor recommended I take a supplement of B9 vitamins).
I started seeing a chiropractor recently. My back pain has improved tremendously. The chiropractor said that the nerves inflammed are the ones connected to the stomach and I will get an improvement with my stomach with the treatment. So far I can't tell if it does anything for the stomach. I did not go to him for that but it would be a nice side effect of the treatment. At the moment my stomach is doing good as long as I stay on the diet and avoid anything irritating and dairy.
The chiropractor said that a misalignement of the spine can cause stomach problems. It does not always cause back pain at first, pain is the last symptom to appear. I don't know if this is true but it is something else to try that can help.
joy47826 ines6375
Posted
No reflux, no gerd, no heartburn EVER and the stomach ulcer I ended up with in the 80's from a pharma inflammatory is healed and when one lives in chronic pain stuff, Ibuprofen for me is a lifesaver....I take most days 4 and some days 6 if I have more to do and will be on the go so to speak.....
I too work to keep as alkaline as possible, but we do need acids too....so it can be a real balancing act....but the DGL saves it all. There are literally 100's of reviews on line and I just added mine on amazon. Take care all, good thread and I'm sure it's helping a lot of people. Joy 76 US
donclaudio joy47826
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I'm up to speed with motor neurons (kinda) but not sensory ones...however, should I find something of value in this area, will pass it on...DGL, about 18 months ago, the componding company who produces the tablets changed the ingredients some...if you have one of your old containers (I don't) compare with the new....I've now, and swanson, and they are identical...many others are into these...haven't compared ingredietns....we yet get the same results...the taste differs perhaps due to the fructose manitol ?? sugars?? claudio
joy47826 donclaudio
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donclaudio joy47826
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Claudio
joy47826 donclaudio
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I was raised on pastas but avoid them now....so much confusion out there on what is right and what is not.....protein is important, fats are important, nightshade foods play havoc with arthritis.....it gets crazy....
Oh yes the days of pepto bis, malox, etc.....now for me it's only DGL...and all is good.....so many overdose on tums daily....
donclaudio joy47826
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I find little comfort in any diet that does not target a specific deficiency/need...be it temp or otherwise. We humans differ than other species..although we might share as much as 99% similar genetics with some...that 1 percent can be "infinity"...We need as you say..carbs..oils...proteins....vitamins..minerals and fibers.
(a little dr good maybe too?)
In the past 100 years a tiny few cure's...but thousands of treatments...maybe cures are unprofitable?
I'm dealing with maintaining ovarian cancer at bay...not stopping at current 100% remission signs.over the past 4 years...it's gonna be a lifetime effort...and consider "luck" as a partner...but I'd urinate on a spark plug if I thought it would assure me of a cure.
...claudio
joy47826 donclaudio
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donclaudio joy47826
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I've used resveratrol to tidy up inactive or dead cells, then the theracumin as an adjunct.
IP6 when I "think" (huge swag) when the cells are stable...but not daily.
My take re resveratrol, is that one needs to clear any obstructions before making an attempt to boost production or to reactivate production of needed enzymes etc...its one of the few active scavengers that has potentials....a few current ones are in the mix..
Pycnogenol might be ok for pain, but thought it was more for blood flow or immune boosting...its in my study papers a few years ago...keep in mind my current study is in neuro but it overlaps elsewhere, I just don't over reach unless it's a current need..........Claudio
christine66818 ines6375
Posted
I have bought the supplements that you have used but wondered if it is OK to take them at the same time as the PPI's.
I would be grateful for your comments
ines6375 christine66818
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About ranitidine, I felt that it helped with the stomach acid but it made me dizzy so I only tood dexilant 60 mg.
I hope you feel better soon.
frederick68461 ines6375
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ines6375 frederick68461
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I had good results with dexilant. It helped me get rid of my gastritis. Unfortunately I think I have some silent reflux/Gerd at night which gives me back pain and a little bit of a sore throat.
My suggestion to help you is to give up milk. It aggravates GERD and according to a recent article from the New York Times, we are better off without it. Try rice milk if you need a substitute.
ines6375
Posted
vicky888 ines6375
Posted
Coz it's weird that you still have reflux at night. What causes the reflux?
I used to think that symptoms always represent the condition inside e.g heartburn = reflux, bloating = indigestion, stomach pain = gastritis, but then I found out that bloating could mean there's reflux going on as well, so reflux could come without heartburn, gastritis could come without stomach pain etc......