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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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  • Tea0916
    Tea0916 ines6375

    Posted

    Hi Ines,

    I took your recommendation of Killing me slowly from the inside and I'm trying the acid watcher diet. And.. It's difficult! I can't stick to the time constraints due to work (teacher with a set lunch!), but I assume whatever is fine as long as the food has a low acidity. I eat as many fruits and veggies as I can but don't do his exact meals. Just wondering your and whoever else's opinions on whether this sounds ok. I was also wondering thoughts on air popped popcorn with just salt. Corn has a low ph but not sure if popping corn is different. Also, does anyone have any good dessert recipes? Seems like using something like agave would be ok.. I am missing dessert badly. Ideas?

    Thanks!

    • ines6375
      ines6375 Tea0916

      Posted

      When I eat out what I am most careful with is to avoid spices, dressing, fatty food, garlic, onions and tomatoes.

      I had low-fat popcorn before and it was fine.

      For the desserts, I usually stick with fruits and raw coconut water, or if I really need something very sweet I cook a banana. I also sometimes make GF pancakes. A little bit of maple syrup on top seems to be fine.

    • rex_44766
      rex_44766 ines6375

      Posted

      Aggree with Innes - eating out can be really trying and it can depress one quite easily.
  • victoriaqween
    victoriaqween ines6375

    Posted

    Hi there I have found this very interesting, please please please help... If u can?

    For the last 2months I have been very unwell to the point of I feel like I'd rather be dead (I know deep but true) the doctors have said that I may have this thing where my body is producing to much acid in my stomach and is now attacking my stomach lining, can't remember what hell said it was called...

    Anyway I feel sick all of the time day and night I've not been sick but feel like I wanna be, I also have this pain just where my ribs separate like a gnawing feeling.. I've lost so much weight and I'm scared this feeling will never go away.. The doctors have booked me in for an endoscopy waiting on a date also they have put me on emoprozole 20mg one in the morning and one at night I've been doing this for 3day.. I've had a ultrasound to check other things gaulbladder etc and all is normal... Is there a routine maybe I could do with alternative home remedies that u maybe could suggest.. I'm 31 and feel lost and beaten down by this.. I'm gonna loose my job as I don't feel I can work like this, then I'm gonna loose my home and I don't even want to be around anyone I just feel so ill I haven't seen my boyfriend for 3weeks this is ruining my life I feel... Please if u have any advice I would love to here it.... Thank u victoria 😓

  • JEG435
    JEG435 ines6375

    Posted

    In May I was turned away from donating blood because of low iron result on prick test (6 mos into omeprazole regimen). So at annual physical I requested my iron be checked. Yes, my iron is low and my blood counts are off. So I have to have further study. I will be surprised if it is not related to the omeprazole. On the positive side, my thyroid test is back to normal since being on the supplement regimen (since early June).  I am more determined than ever to get off of this stuff  because it has an effect on the thyroid, the calcium, and now the iron. I don't want to be supporting the multi-million dollar cash cow. 
  • juan98366
    juan98366 ines6375

    Posted

    Dear Ines, thanks for your helpful post, i feel completely identificated with your symptoms. I'd like to ask you how do you feel after one year you wrote this post about your gastritis relief. Are your recommendations working  nowadays? Have you had to take PPI again? Wich consider is the best remedy when you feel esophagus pain? 

    I'd like to share with you this study about accupunture. I had terrible days with acid reflux and i hardly can sleep. I began accupunture treatment and although i'm not healed at all, serious acid reflux when i lie down dissapeared.  One person wrote in the web that after 20 years of acid reflux found heal using accupunture and psycotheraphy.

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20697939

    Thaks for all!

    Thanks again!

    • ines6375
      ines6375 juan98366

      Posted

      Hi,

      I don't take PPI anymore.

      When I am strict on the diet for a while (a few weeks), my symptoms disappear completely, than if I have garlic/onion/acidic food, ... I get some light LPR and light stomach discomfort. It if fairly light but I take it as a sign to stay careful with my diet. Also I am pregnant now, which does not help.

  • r85061
    r85061 ines6375

    Posted

    I was also diagnosed with chronic gastrritis which later developed into GERD. I was prescribed ppi (40 mg) for two weeks, then told to take it whenever symptoms rear its ugly head, or everyday if the symptoms persist. My triggers are peanuts, spicy food, citric fruit. What I can take in small amounts: coffee, soy sauce, oil (olive, sesame). Basically my diet has been lots of tofu, mushroom, green vegetables, melon, cantaloupe, pears, fish, and a bit of lean chicken and lean beef. I stick to a low fat diet, but have reintroduced a little bit of fatty items (a bit of butter, coconut milk) to help with the constipation (which it did).

    I still take my ppi every now and then when it's really bad. What I find really helps is turmeric. Aside from avoiding the obvious triggers, I now take 2 capsules of powdered turmeric. I've also recently added "kencur" infusion (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaempferia_galanga) first thing every morning. I take a bit of kencur, skin it, squash it and steep it in a cup of boiling water for 30 secs, take it out, wait for the water to cool down, drink it. Reason why is although generally I feel better, I still wake up with chest pains which go away after I have my breakfast and although it doesn't come back until the next morning, this obviously means I'm not completely healed. So far, the kencur tea has helped, no chest pains when I wake up, but it's only been 2 days.

    Hope this helps.

  • walter79704
    walter79704 ines6375

    Posted

    Hi

    Any chance you might explain WHAT DID WORK FOR YOU, as distinct from WHAT DID NOT. ?? Whilst interesting, I find your comments a little confusing.

    Thanks

    Walt

    • ines6375
      ines6375 walter79704

      Posted

      When I was really in pain and having lots of acid reflux, what worked best was the diet I describe at the beginning of this thread + PPI. When things calmed down, I could manage with the diet + alkaline water + raw coconut water only.

      I found all natural supplements (licorice, pepzin gi, slipery elm) somewhat helpful when one is half recovered, but not strong enough in case of crisis.

  • alice10848
    alice10848 ines6375

    Posted

    Hello Ines, I have been on strict diet for some months now but I still have problems sometimes. Recently I managed to get hold the book Dropping Acid" and I tid one recipe on sunday, but after eating after sometime I had stomach ache.  I dont know maybe I did not agree with one of the ingridients.  I also want to ask if the acid or the pPIs we take cannot cause damage to other body part inside our stomach.  But all in all I have noticed some improvements as compared to how I was when I started the diet only that I have lost  weight.  I do take the ppi when every second day as I want to rely on the diet more than he drugs. Just want to know if there is any difference betwenn Gastitis, reflux and gerd.
    • rafiq27035
      rafiq27035 alice10848

      Posted

      Hi, Alice reflux and feed are same., gastritis is inflammation of stomach lining caused by irritants which could be the food stuff ornexcess acid, u need to check which one causes irritations mean food.
  • kieron99190
    kieron99190 ines6375

    Posted

    hi ines,,, 

    how r u ,,,hope u doin good..

    i have been diagnised with Chrinic Gastritis ,,, and i have IBS (leaky gut) ,,,Coming to Gastritis ,,,i i have pain and discomfort in the ribs ,,

    I have tried PPI ,,, but they giving me  loose stools ,,,( i donno why? ) think bcoz of this IBS ....and tried SUCRALFATE also infrequent bowel movements ....

    So iam not finding a clue ,,how to heal my Gastritis ...

    i am using Glutamine , coconut oil and colostrum for IBS ( leaky gut )... 

    So .. plzz tell me ,,,how to heal my stomach lining ( GASTRITIS ) ...

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