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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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  • rafiq27035
    rafiq27035 ines6375

    Posted

    Hi, thanks doe sharing ur experience. I HV a query, pepzingi should be taken before or after food and what is the dose, basically in inflammation and gas problem. Appreciate ur response
    • ines6375
      ines6375 rafiq27035

      Posted

      I took pepzin gi with meals, one with breakfast, one with dinner.

      In the studies they use two different doses: 75 mg per day or 150 mg per day. They obtain slightly better results with 150 mg per day, but the difference is small. I personnally chose to take 75 mg per day (so 37.5 mg twice a day) because this amount is closer to the recommended amount of zinc per day, also this was the amount recommended on the bottles of both brands of pepzin GI I used.

    • rafiq27035
      rafiq27035

      Posted

      35 mg one tab after breakfast and after dinner. More over it just got off my mind last time. Discuss with ur doc about taking levosulpride( check for the brand name). This is the remedy for functional dyspepsia. Think ur dyspepsia is gone to. Great extent.
  • nataly87663
    nataly87663 ines6375

    Posted

    Hello, Ines! May I please ask you a question? You mentioned that you avoid all diary and gluten. Did you start doing this yet before you were put on antacids/PPIs? If you still ate these when on meds, did you fill bad after eating these or will meds mask these symptoms? I was trying to avoid gluten when I was trying to only go natural way to help my deodenal ulcer which I didn't succeed. Now I'm on Zantac and fill better as far as the pain. I tried to eat some wheat breat and it doen't make me feel worse while on meds, do you think it'll mean I don't have problem with gluten? I won't want to avoid it if I don't need to, it is hard enough. With diary, I know I can't eat most of it now, though I used to love it, but I think it is because it is too sour for me now (yogust, kefir, cottage cheese etc). I don't have a problem with butter, which I eat alot now to make the bland diet to taste better. Do you think if I had issue with all diary and gluten I'd fill it even on meds?
    • ines6375
      ines6375 nataly87663

      Posted

      Hi Nataly,

      I was avoiding gluten before having stomach problems because it irritated my bowels. The rare times I had gluten, I did not feel that it had any negative impact on my stomach. My problem with gluten is related to IBS not gastritis. So if you are fine with gluten, please enjoy it.

      Dairy is another story.  I have always eaten a lot of dairy in all shapes and I loved my greek yoghourt at breakfast. The first time I tried the PPI, I did not feel that it was helping much until I stopped eating dairy completely, then I got a huge improvement in just a few days. Still now that I feel good most of the time, if I eat some dairy (can't resist the parmesan on pasta), I feel that it causes me LPR at night. Butter is probably fine is small quantities, but personnally I feel better with olive oil and it is more healthy. I have been using vegan butter lately, it is very tasty too.

      To answer your question, I could tolerate dairy better with meds but I felt that it delayed/prevented my recovery. Gluten did not seem to have any negative impact on my gastritis tough.

  • scott20738
    scott20738 ines6375

    Posted

    I just came across a recent article in Smithsonian Magazine, titled "Does Dieting Actually Make Your Stomach Shrink?".  What I got from the article is that chronic dieting/food restriction can cause physiological changes to the stomach that may prevent it from expanding as easily as it used to, and may result in symptoms of functional dyspepsia in some individuals.

    The full article is here:

    http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/does-dieting-actually-make-your-stomach-shrink-180955521/?no-ist ;

  • nicky47271
    nicky47271 ines6375

    Posted

    Hi just started reading your article having been diagnosed with suspected gastritis last Thursday.  Lots of great information, thank you.

    You say to avoid citrus fruits but I have read another article which says having a lemon squeezed into luke warm water each morning can cure gastritis as it's PH level goes up when it's absorbed into body tissues.

    Any thoughts on this?

    Thanks

    Nicky

    • ines6375
      ines6375 nicky47271

      Posted

      When you squeeze a lemon and test its ph level, you will find that it is very acidic. So when it arrives in your stomach, it is very acidic and it will irritate the stomach lining. Supposedly, once it is absorbed lemon has an alkaline effect on the body. I don't really know the science about this. The problem is that to get assimilated its acidity must first be in touch with your stomach lining.

      From my experience if I eat or drink something with citrus my stomach is going to hurt and I will get excess acid afterwards. Still now I get a bad reaction to citrus. Yesterday I had a cake with lemon juice in it and I got LPR for 24 hours.

      Moreover it is in many basic guidelines to avoir citrus to avoid heartburn (which is related somehow to gastritis), so I don't think lemon will cure gastritis. But if you have been convinced, you can always try it, a little bit at first (a few drops in water), your body should tell you very quickly if it is helpful or not.

    • nicky47271
      nicky47271 ines6375

      Posted

      Thanks for your quick reply.  Actually now you've explained it I'm tempted to give it a miss at least for now :-)

      Thanks once again.

    • suzie058
      suzie058 nicky47271

      Posted

      I know ines6375 says the acid will burn, but I am telling you I have been doing the 1/2 lemon, squeeze the juice in lukewarm 1/2 cup water, and drink an hour before you eat. I have been doing this 3 months and have noticed a huge improvement. It works, not sure how or why, yes there is acid but it does NOT burn!! I had a gastritis attack back in November, was in alot of stomach pain after that and tried everything and nothing helped. I am on generic prilosec, but the lemon juice and the Pepzin GI is what helped the most. I read about it somewhere, thought the lemon juice was worth a try since I was in so much pain. It helps for sure smile
    • lynne69494
      lynne69494 suzie058

      Posted

      I think the acid alkaline balance is very complex, even the experts differ in opinion. l have gastritus- a bit of inflammation seen on stomach and duodenum, given omprazole which didnt really help. Long before gastritus l was diagnosed with intersticial cystitus, which is inflammation of bladder wall, where no bacteria is seen in samples, or with biopsy, so thought either allergic response or auto immune, if inflammation is bad it causes pin point hemmorages, causing tiny cracks in bladders first skin  layer, down to fibrogen layer.  l think, increased mast cells release histamine, so pain. There is a big emphasis on avoiding acid foods, be it initially cranberries advice, then discounted, along with all acid foods, most base their diet on that. l personally have a natural aversion to acid fruits, oranges and berry,s, even strawberry,s, but can eat tomatoes, use vinegar and other acid foods, some cant. Now some experts say avoiding acid makes no difference, some still think it does. l dont think most people with inflammation test themselves for ph acid alkaline, but l and others who keep tropical fish no its important to test the ph, some fish will become sick if not neutral, but some tolerate acid or alkaline better than others.  So l guess were all different even when weve the same inflammatory conditions, so its about reading advice, trying  and then using your own judgement about what suits you. When even the experts consultants researchers cant agree its down to patients to go with what suits them.
    • suzie058
      suzie058 lynne69494

      Posted

      agree 100% with you~! That's odd, I was diagnosed with cystitus years ago, was constantly getting bladder infections yet no bacteria showed up, just the symptoms and it hurt alot!
    • lynne69494
      lynne69494 suzie058

      Posted

      A lot of women, and men sometimes  have multiple inflammatory conditions, often along with allergy probs,  and many do seem to have acid alkaline probs, guess a lot is immunity, if youve cystitus symptoms still with pain and no bacteria check out intersticial cystitus.  Ines, lve used a normal filter jug for a while, also used spring water, just to make sure flouride isnt a aggrevant, and like you found lactose an irritant, so got milk alternatives, then found couldnt even cope with small amounts in custard tarts vanilla slice, but could be egg also, as seem to have gone off them also, have you intollerance to eggs also. Will check out the jugs.  
    • nicky47271
      nicky47271 lynne69494

      Posted

      Suzie and Lynne, thanks for your comments.  I guess different things help different people so I will have to work out what helps me.  Also interested in Ines comment about water filer - will have to look into that one.
    • valerie56655
      valerie56655 suzie058

      Posted

      My gastrologist said to go ahead with the lemon water since lemons turn alkaline in the body as long as it did not bother me. Now I tried squeezing the lemon in when this all started I thought it was bothering me so I have not done it since. But I do put a lemon wedge in my water. And I am fine with that. glad to hear it helps you I think I will try the lemon juice again.
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