How I cured my gastritis

Hi Kamalas,

It is hard to tell you if apple cider vinegar is ok to take because I don't know what you have exactly. I used to have mild gastritis and the apple cider vinegar would be irritating and not good for me. Also in the approach of Dr Koufman, she recommends a low acid diet to reduce irritation of the stomach and prevent heartburn/silent reflux. But some people on the internet claim that if you have low acid in your stomach, apple cider vinegar is helpful. I have never talked to somebody who was helped by apple vinegar but you are saying it helps with your heartburn.

I never had stomach noises, so I am sorry I can't help you with that either. I just had stomach pain.

I think the best thing to do for you is to ask your doctor to better identify what your problem is (heartburn caused by low acid or excess acid) so you can know what to do, and also listen to your body to feel what is really helpful and what is not.

60 mg the first two months than 30 mg

I don't know, everybody is different. I don't have pain or bad acid reflux anymore but I can't eat anything I want. I don't know if I ever will be able to, my guess is that I will always have to be careful to some degree, managing the amount of irritating things I eat so things don't get out of controle. But I am not the right person to ask right now, I am pregnant and my reaction to foods is different than usual because of the pregnancy.

Hi Eric,

I am not a doctor but my guess is that you stopped zantac too quickly before being completely healed. If you feel good with zantac, keep going on with it until you feel perfectly fine for a little while, then decrease slowly the dose. If you feel that zantac is not strong enough, you can always ask your doctor for a PPI but if zantac works for you, I would suggest to continue with it.

It is good that you follow the diet from the book "dropping acid", I think it is very important for your recovery.

Thank you so much Ines for your quick reply. 

By the way, I grown up eating bread no problem, but I did not touch any bread last 3 months, because I worried about gluten. Do you think I can try a soft white bread? What is the major symptoms if I have problem with gluten today?

If you never had problems with gluten, bread is likely fine for you. Go go on with the white bread (remove the crust, don't toast it, avoid bread with lots of additives), I envy you, fresh white bread is delicious!

I had problems with gluten before I had the gastritis, it is a separate problem. My problem with gluten is that it gives me inflammation of the bowels. The symptoms are pain in the lower belly, gas, irregularity of the bowel movements, headache, feeling bloated, in one word IBS (irritable bowel syndrom). 

If you want to be sure, when you try bread the first time, just pay attention to what you feel in the following hours. If you get a reaction in your bowels, it won't come immediately but a few hours later. Many people are fine with gluten though.

I tried this morning and white bread is a good for my stomach, and I usually start my day at 6:30am to trade futures, and have breakfast at around 8:30am, so a couple pieces of bread is a great snack before breakfast. Thank you Ines for helping me to get rid of my fear about gluton.

My stomach woke me up this morning at 3am, I had a hungry feeling, I think it is because of build-up of acid in the stomach, not real hungry, do you agree? I have chewable DGL, if I chew one when acid wakes me up, can I drink a little water to wash it down? Or water may delute it? Also, if I just take one before I go to bed, can it prevent acid to wake me up? Thanks a lot as always!

 

Yes you can try one DGL tab before you go to bed, and one when you wake up. It is better not to drink though as the water will cause more acid reflux (that is why it is better to have an empty stomach when going to sleep, which means have a light dinner many hours before bed).

Yes I agree it is probably the build-up of acid in the stomach. I used to have that problem too, then it went away when I got better, now it is back because of the pregnancy. Very annoying!

In Dr. Koufman's new book, she recommends Gaviscon, looks it works similar to DGL, have you ever tried it? Or your opinion? Thank you Ines. 

Hi Eric,

I am sorry I don't know much about Gaviscon. I might have read about it in the past but I don't remember now. I see it contains carbonate calcium, which alone did not help me at all but maybe combined with sodium alginate in gaviscon it is different. If you try it, let us know how it worked for you.

Hello Ines,

Tried Gaviscon early this morning, and it has similar effect as DGL, only gives me less than 2 hours relief. 

Last 3 days, I feel terrible, my burning stomach (mild) always on, and when I breath I feel the air mixed with acid. During sleep, it wakes me up at around 2am with burning feel under the left rib cage. I feel I maybe experiencing horrible PPI rebound, I never had heart burn or stomach pain before I took Protonix. However, I suspect the rebound too, since I was off Protonix one month ago. 

Again here is what I did, 6 weeks on Protonix, then off with Zantac, first week on Zantac is fine, second, third, and fourth week, I felt a little bit heart burn, no other sytombs, and fifith week, I did not feel heart burn anymore, so I just stopped Zantac, now the problem occured, stomach burning and breath with acid causing cough. 

Do you think it is rebound causes my current situation? Do I need to keep Zantac to wait it out? Or I need to get back to Protonix? When you had rebound, DGL helpped your sleep or just help with couple hours? What did you do to manage for a sleep? Thanks a lot. 

Hi Eric,

If you have stopped the PPI 4 weeks ago, I doubt your problem is rebound. Maybe you stopped taking your medications too fast before being completely cured and you need to take zantac a bit longer and then stop more gradually by diminishing the doses, not stopping all at once.

If you are fine with zantac, I would stay with that, it is less strong than the PPI.

The second time I took the PPI, I managed my rebound by decreasing the dose very slowly over two months.

DGL helped me with stomach pain at night, it does not really help much with acid reflux, you need zantac for that.

 

Thank you Ines.

I doubt that is PPI rebound too, however, why suddenly I got so much acid - symptoms: burning in the chest and breath air with acid and cause coughing. I did not have all these before. I found online PPI rebound may last 2 months or more, I am still in the period, but usually the worst at the early stage; maybe H2 block (Zantac) creates this rebound? I am confused, and could not get enough sleep just make me feel horible. When you didn't have enough sleep at your worst days, have you tried to take a nap sitting in the chair daytime? Or no matter what position, if sleep with food in stomach will cause reflux? 

From what I read zantac might cause a small rebound, nothing like the PPI though. Maybe it is just your condition coming back full force without the medication or your diet? I think you should take something a little longer, zantac for example if that works for you. When the time will be right, you will be able to decrease the dose and stop without any trouble.

Yes when I was sleeping badly or not sleeping at all because of stomach pain, I would take a nap in a position between sitting and lying down. You can use a wedge under your mattress too. It is just gravity, you need that acid to stay in your stomach, if you lie down completely flat it is more likely to go up your oesophagus.

 

Thank you so much Ines, without your help, I am already crashed. I am so frustrated and depressed, my job requires full focus, but I get so distracted by this.

I will take your advice and take zantac for a longer time. Currently, I am not sure how long this situation would last, almost half of time, I feel burning stomach and breathing with acid, plus I can only get 4 hours sleep. I am using DGL, Gaviscon, Tums, PepZin GL, Chamomile tea, and Manuka Honey to deal with it, anything else you can recommend? Certainly, I am on strick diet since day one I was on protonix, never violated. Comparing with your second time off PPI, my current symptoms are hard to deal? If so, I may consider to back on PPI and get off again like you. Thanks again. 

You are using a lot of medication. Try to identify what really helps you, stop the ones that don't help and stick with whatever helps you for a few weeks/months. Personnally I felt that manukka honey was just irritating and not helping at all. Also tums gave me immediate relief but half an hour later they made me worse.

When I went on the PPI the second time, after a few days I felt that the PPI alone was enough to make me feel comfortable and help me heal, so I stopped taking anything else. If you can feel comfortable with zantac, that is good, if it is not strong enough, talk to your doctor, maybe you need the PPI.

I tried zantac but did not go with it because it made me feel dizzy but since you seem to tolerate it well, that might be good enough to help you.

I will remove tums from my list, manuka honey does not irrate my stomach, but did not feel help either. When I have an empty stomach, it seems tums, DGL, or Gavison does not work well as a bowl of rice. I also drink a lot of alkline water (ph 8.88) to prevent the acid fume hurt my throat. 

I remember you ate smashed potatos when more acid appeared, we can't use butter or milk, what is the seasoning to make it a little tasty? I think smashed potatos is a better choice to absorb extra acid than rice/bread.

Thanks

For mashed potatoes, I use a bit of the cooking water to make it smooth, a pinch of salt if necessary, a teaspoon of olive oil or vegan butter (tastier). I eat it sometimes with sunny side eggs. I never tried adding an egg yolk, that could be tasty, but there is the risk of salmonella.

Sometimes I make mashed potatoes/carrots, you can add any vegetable you like really. Celery root or parsnips with the potatoes might taste good too.

Hello Ines,

I was good yesterday, no stomach burning or feel of breathing with acid. 

This morning at 3am, I was sleeping on my left side and woken up by a sharp pain under my left rib cage, I immediately took Gaviscon (similar founction to DGL), and the pain was gone in couple minutes. Have you had this symptom after off PPI? How did you deal with it or to prevent it? 

Currently, I take Zantac before dinner, around 5pm, I think Zantac is not working hard enough at 3am, so I are going to take it before bedtime around 10pm, but I also take DGL before bed, which will reduce Zantac effect, right? What can I do? Thanks. 

Hi Eric,

I did not have this symptom after I stopped the PPI.

I don't know if DGL prevents the absorption of Zantac, there might be no interaction but I don't know. If you are uncomfortable with taking both at the same time, I would skip the DGL before bed, or take Zantac 30 minutes before DGL, or try both and see what works best. Sorry I have no experience with Zantac.

Hi Ines,

I can't tolerate the terrible acid rebound, and I started to retake Prilosec this morning, and I feel all fine today till now, and I feel a lot of acid comes up, maybe PPI has not act fully yet, what do you suggest? Take Zantac to help or just DGL? Thanks. 

Hi Eric,

The PPI probably acted during the day but the effect didn't last long enough is my guess.

DGL won't stop the acid, it just protects your stomach. It is probably fine to take zantac but I don't know, I am not a doctor. That is what seems the best solution for now. Can you give a quick call to your Doctor to ask?

I've heard of people taking PPI in the a.m. And H2 blocker in the p.m. My GI doc had told me it was ok to so that. He thinks PPIs wear off after 12 hours even though it says 24 hours.

Thank you Ines and acakes. Just back from urgent care, the doctor told me that too, PPI before breakfast, then Zantac in the evening. 

That will be a $50 copay for Ines and Me

I vaguely remember reading that the PPI was most active for 8 hours than wears off but I might be wrong.

I remember having the same problem as you for a little while but after a week or two on the PPI things calmed down and I didn't have problems during the night anymore. Just give it some time while taking Zantac at night. At some point it should get better and you won't need the Zantac anymore.

I wrote a week or two but it has been a while and I don't remember precisely, it might have been a month too. Anyway everybody is different. With the PPI and the diet you should improve tremendously from now on.

Thank you for encouragement. 

Here is what I found from Dr. Koufman's second book:

"I believe that PPIs should not be sold over the counter, and when I prescribe PPIs I pair them with H2As and usually for a short period of time: weeks to months, not years. Furthermore, I never stop PPIs abruptly; I taper them and replace them with H2As to help weather the acid-rebound storm."

Since English is my second language, could you help to interpret what she says, 1. take both PPI and H2As at beginning, then taper PPI, then stop PPI and replace it with H2As. 2. take PPI at beginning, then taper PPI, then stop PPI and start to take H2A. Which option?

I know my failure is, took PPI and stopped it, then replaced it with H2A, skipped to taper PPI.

I am not sure what she means but for now you need both PPI and H2A. If I were you I would just go with what I need to not have acid reflux anymore. In a few weeks you might feel than the PPI is enough and stop the H2A. Than in a few months when you want to decrease your amount of PPI you might need H2A again. Only you can feel what is going on and tune your consumption of medication according to your needs.

I will do it. Thank you Ines. 

PPI is Evil or God?

After 3 LONG LONG weeks of volcano (acid) eruption, taking Prilosec for 2 days, the eruption suddenly stopped since yesterday afternoon, no more burning stomach, heart burn, breathing with acid, slept over 8 hours last night without any wakeups. 

This time I will maintain it very carefully, no more mistake to create the vicious cycle. 

Thank you Ines, acake, and all others helping me during this most painful journey in all my life. 

Eric, my opinion is that PPIs are not Evil. They are a good bandaid to let the body heal or until you find and cure the core issue. I just don't think PPIs are good long term... like taking them everyday for over a year. Ideally less than 6 months is better. I'm glad you found some relief! I know how aweful this is and peopel that don't have it don't understand.