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
alice10848 ines6375
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Am trying as best as I can to restrict myself to the diet though I run of ideas and receipes. What are smothies and how are they made? Also want to find out if green beans are okay. What about beet root is it okay and how do you find out if any type of food has acid or not? Is it okay to use olive oil for frying food?
acakes alice10848
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Ines can answer your other questions.
ines6375 alice10848
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As acake said, smoothies are a sweet drink made from blended foods. A good base is bananas and rice milk. You can add papaya, maple syrup, muesli, cooked quinoa, cooked rice,... Some people add some green leaves but I don't like it. I made once a smoothie with just silken tofu and bananas, it was very good. My mother in law used to make a smoothie with milk (you would use milk substitute), ripe avocado (in small quantity because very fatty) and sugar, strange at first but addictive. In the summer sometimes I blend bananas and papayas with ice and maple syrup. When you are better you can add a little bit of fruits with ph level between 4 and 5 like mangoes: rice milk (or whatever milk subsitute you tolerate) + bananas + mango is delicious!
Cooked green beans are excellent, I eat them all the time. I make a belgian salad with lettuce, potatoes, green beans, eggs, cut turkey slices, chopped parsley, olive oil and salt.
I tried raw beet root in juices but I found it slightly irritating. Cooked beet root is fine though, I love to add it to my salad cubed or make a puree to put on bread or pasta (goes well with walnuts).
To know about the acidity of food, you can type in google "list of ph level of foods for canning". You will find a list of ph levels of foods. The best is to eat foods with ph level above 5. When you get better you can eat foods with ph level above 4. It is best to stay away from foods with lower ph levels. There is also a list in the book "dropping acid", the list is actually visible in the preview of the kindle version of the book on amazon.
Olive oil is a good choice in reasonable quantities. I use it for everything, even pancakes.
ines6375
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About olive oil, it is a good choice as long as you don't cook with a high temperature. If the oil smokes, it is not good. If you need to cook at higher temperatures, you need an oil with a higher smokepoint like grapeseed oil.
DGR ines6375
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ines6375 DGR
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The first time I had heartburn and acid reflux after taking ppi the first time because I stopped abruptly and before I was really better. The second time I took the ppi longer and I stopped gradually, and I felt perfectly fine after I stopped. Maybe you should take your ppi again until you feel good, then take it a little longer to be sure, than lower the dose slowly. The second time I took mine for two months (even though I felt fine after a month), than I lowered the dose slowly over two months, then I was perfectly fine (as long as I sticked to my diet).
maryam324 ines6375
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The diet you are following is it for too much acid in the stomach or too less. I think mine had to do with too little it now gone since three days i have been on the candida die for a week now.. But I have been reading about it alot.
ines6375 maryam324
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The diet I follow is to reduce irritation of the stomach which causes it to produce excess acid.
acakes maryam324
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maryam324 acakes
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I am on the candida diet for a week. I have preety much cheated slightly 3/4 times. I was planning in using cocunut oil and probiotics even bought them. But havent started yet. I was however oil pulling since 4days. Dont think that has anything to do withith it. I hope it doesnt come back *praying alot* but I am going to focus now on the leaky gut.made broth n kimchi and will make some sauerkraut I heard that is good. And will avoid some stuff. I do want to add some fruit back in my diet to see if it stays away or comes back. I dont want to get too happy and then be disappointed. I did take 2 vitamin d pills 20.000 oe on friday and one yesterday. Could it be them? My vit d was 15 and I am sufferung from pain in back and knuckles.
maryam324 ines6375
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ines6375 maryam324
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ines6375 maryam324
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I found out what works for me doing a lot of trials and errors. I noticed that anything acidic causes me pain, while the low-acid, low fat diet helps me feel better.
maryam324 ines6375
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valerie56655 ines6375
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ines6375 valerie56655
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Also tomatoes are part of the nightshade family with contains eggplants, potatoes and peppers. All the members of this family contain toxics that can be irritating: this is why you cook the eggplants and don't eat it raw (it tastes bad raw), why green and/or germinated potatoes are toxic and why it is recommended to avoid bell peppers too when you have stomach problems.
ines6375 valerie56655
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