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
carmel83758 ines6375
Posted
How are you now?
ines6375 carmel83758
Posted
You are right that we are all different but at the same time I believe there are some generals rules that apply to most of us regarding gastritis. Also I believe that some foods are irritating for most people and some are safe for most. Then there are those foods that are tolerated by some and not by other. This is explained well in DR Koufman. I chose the safe road and avoided anything I suspected might hurt my stomach or with which I did not feel good.
You asked how I am. I am much better than a few months ago. I rarely have stomach pain anymore and when I do it is mild and goes away almost immediately with one tab of DGL licorice. I used to have intense pain that prevented me to sleep.
But my stomach makes too much acid still when I don't take the PPI, much less than before though. If I don't take the PPI I have silent reflux at night and a sore throat in the morning. I used to have a bad acid taste in my mouth, I am not sure how to describe it, like a metallic taste, thankfully that has been over for a few months.
A few days ago I decided to take the PPI again hoping that it would help me recover completely more quickly. My sore throat is gone with the PPI. I am more hungry. But I don't digest as well. My stomach feels a bit sore sometimes. But I feel good overall. I am planning to take dexilant (PPI) for 2 months hopefully for the last time, than keep going with the natural supplements again. I was wrong to think I was cured in three months, it is a much longer process but the most important is to see progress. Thank you for asking.
carmel83758 ines6375
Posted
ines6375 carmel83758
Posted
You are right, I wish I took the ppi longer the first time. It is definitely helping. The natural supplements help too though but I feel that the recovery is slower, and lately I grew impatient that is why I switched to ppi again. Whatever works. From what I read on other forums (dailystrength is really good), completely recovering from gastritis takes a long time, at least 6 months, sometimes a year and more.
I don't think taking vitamins is good though. I feel that they really hurt my stomach. They contain vitamin C which is very acidic, some other vitamins in big quantities are irritating. I actually wonder if the vitamins I used to take every morning contributed to my gastritis. It is true that with low stomach acid we don't absorb Calcium and B12 well but I take the PPI only two months at the time and in two months I will stop the PPI slowly and will get what I need from healthy food.
There was an article recently in the New York Times talking about long term experiments showing that taking vitamins does not improve health.
carmel83758 ines6375
Posted
chintan84 ines6375
Posted
)however the pain still not gng away..I m totally vegetarian and drink no alcohol or coffee as well...what would u think the best solution for me??...also drink the probiotic powder as well but the condition is almost the same.
ines6375 chintan84
Posted
What is tazac?
What is helpful for me when I take the PPI is the diet and DGL licorice 20-30 minutes before each meal and when I have pain. Slippery elm between meals might be helpful too.
Pepzin GI helped me a lot when I was not taking dexilant (PPI same as nexium), I am taking it with dexilant now and it seems to help but I would need a few more days to be sure.
I never noticed that probiotics help but maybe they do. I hope they are not too acidic. As long as it feels good when you take it.
carmel83758 chintan84
Posted
ines6375 chintan84
Posted
The first time I used dexilant (PPI like nexium), the first month it did not help. When I changed my diet (after a month), it started feeling better almost immediately. I noticed that I have to be very strict as anything not recommended gives me stomach pain for a week. Are you avoiding spices, salt, acidic foods, sparkling water, ... everything I describe?
How long have you been taking nexium?
carmel83758 ines6375
Posted
ines6375 carmel83758
Posted
In my case, the ppi AND the diet TOGETHER helped. The ppi reduces the stomach acid but I needed to get on the diet to not hurt my stomach anymore. Once I did both, I felt much better very quickly. For me I get strong stomach pain with the ppi alone if I am not very careful with my diet. And if I do the diet but don't take anything else, my stomach hurts as well from the excess acid. Both are needed.
carmel83758 ines6375
Posted
chintan84 ines6375
Posted
ines6375 chintan84
Posted
I described the diet that worked for me at the beginning of this post. It is very similar than the diet recommended by Dr Koufman with small differences. I found out that I need to be very strict to see improvements. And I can't eat any spices at all. The only "spice" I eat is a little bit of salt. Even though salt is irritating (proven scientifically) it is too hard to do without. Sometimes I put a little bit of herbs like thyme, rosemary and sage on my food when I can't take it anymore and it does not cause too much troubles. If you like you can tell me what you eat and I can give you some suggestions to modify your diet and make it easier on your stomach.
chintan84 ines6375
Posted
Tazac is the proscribed tablet for proper digestion
And probiotic powder is all organic so no probably no acidic at all.
ines6375 chintan84
Posted
The spices irritate your stomach even in small amount. Try a few days without any spice at all, just a little bit of salt when cooking. Avoid completely garlic, ginger, onions, and tomatoes as well. Use little oil when cooking (1 teaspoon) as it delays digestion and causes more inflammation. Avoid tea completely too, just drink chamomille tea. And for now avoid yoghourt and cucumber, when you feel better you can test if yoghourt and cucumber agree with you or not (they make me worse, milk product cause the stomach to produce more acid, for some people cucumber is irritating but not everyone).
Try making the dahl with just salt and some parsley at the end, plain rice, vegetables roasted in the oven, steamed or sauteed, .... you should feel a relief in 2-3 days. You can also take DGL licorice 20-30 minutes before each meal to coat your stomach lining before eating, it should help with the pain. But check with your doctor first that the DGL licorice does not interact badly with the other medication.