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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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  • skythroat
    skythroat ines6375

    Posted

    Hi ines,

    Scoped and diagnosed as chronic gastritis with low level inflammation 8 months ago. My main symptom is constant nausea but I'm better now. Nevertheless, I feel nauseous after eating.

    All blood tests are ok. No HP infection. (stool, scope and blood tests, I have triple confirm)

    I used PPI first 3 months but it didn't help me but my diet was really bad.

    And now, I don't eat meat for a while, I mainly eat beans, lentils, chickpeas as protein sources, brown rice, wholewheat bread, egg whites and small amount of pumpkin seeds.

    Also I take 10 gr glutamine a day.

    Do you recommend me PPI in this case? I think I'll use omeprazole 20 mg a day for faster healing process. 8 months and still feel nauseous. This is really nightmare.

    By the way, most of fruits irritate my stomach. I'm only ok with bananas and cherries. Berries, apples, melons, watermelon all of them cause nausea.

    Any recommendation for me?

    Thank you.

    • JEG435
      JEG435 skythroat

      Posted

      I have been on PPIs sinc last Nov. it was increased to 40 mg b.i.d. In Jan. It was not a total cure and I do not want to be on this forever. In June saw a naturopath who added regimen of probiotic,  mastic gum, DGL, and another digestive med plus slippery elm lozenges and Chang of diet. No caffeinated beverages , wine, beer, etc. I have been much better.  Started to reduce PPIs to 49 mg a.m. Ang 20 mg. p.m.  If this goes well I will reduce to 20 b.i.d. Still do naturopath regimen until at least December   Hopefully be off PPIs before then by slowly reducing use. Repeat endoscopy in a couple of weeks. I highly recommend changing diet and seeing naturopath. It will cost out of pocket. 
    • skythroat
      skythroat JEG435

      Posted

      Can vegan/vegetarian diet (not raw foodism of course) heal gastritis?

      Did you ask that question to your naturapath?

      Any diet tips?

    • rex_44766
      rex_44766 skythroat

      Posted

      I can certainly confirm that heaps of vege juice can heal gastritus but sadly it wont fix reflux unless you really know what you are doing. I stupidly left physillium husks in my breakfast to avoid constipation and took heaps of slippery elm. My doctor told me had I left these out the bacteria (nasties) in my stomach would have all died. Thats exactly what I am doing at present as well as zero sugar!
    • rex_44766
      rex_44766 JEG435

      Posted

      Jeg could you possibly tell me the name of the treatment that your naturapath has you on please? Do you have any known food sensitivities? Thanks in advance.
  • premji
    premji ines6375

    Posted

    i also have same like gastritis ,but i felt itichin on abdomen..as well as devloping wrath os skin...what should i do  
  • acakes
    acakes ines6375

    Posted

    My Gastritis cleared up and I have been able to eat and drink whatever for awhile now. But the past couple of days I have some upper stomach cramps that don't feel like Gastritis. It doesn't feel like burning. It does feel, however, like if I were to take vitamins on an empty stomach, or dring undiluted vinegar.
    • ines6375
      ines6375 acakes

      Posted

      Hi acakes,

      I am so glad your gastritis cleared up!

      About the cramps, is it on an empty stomach?

    • valerie56655
      valerie56655 acakes

      Posted

      so what worked for you to clear everything up and how long did it take? And are you still using whatever helped you?
    • valerie56655
      valerie56655 acakes

      Posted

      so what worked for you to clear everything up and how long did it take? And are you still using whatever helped you?
    • acakes
      acakes valerie56655

      Posted

      For me, it was lots of Aloe Vera Juice. Then I realized that I believe my issue was low stomach acid due to stress. My body wasn't digesting well enough. So at the very end I had a little lower belly bloating and took some digestive enzymes (for sensitive stomaches) and it made my stomach flat in a day or too and I was using the restroom so regularly.
    • acakes
      acakes valerie56655

      Posted

      I was on PPIs for a few weeks then switched to Aloe Vera for a few weeks because I was allergic to PPIs (terrible chest pain). I also ate plain things, no dairy, no sugar, no spicey, no grains (to be safe). But once I got a system down it took about 6 weeks or less.
    • acakes
      acakes ines6375

      Posted

      I am not sure it's cramps but it's all I can use to describe the feeling. It's when I eat and on an empty stomach too.
    • ines6375
      ines6375 acakes

      Posted

      That is strange, I don't know what to tell you. Do you think your stomach is reacting to something you take?

      Could it be stress? Sometimes I get stomach cramps when I get very stressed.

    • eric49486
      eric49486 ines6375

      Posted

      Could be stress. I used to have cramps very often when I am trading, but after exercise and relax, it would disapear, now my stomach got tougher after taking yoga and meditation class. 
    • ines6375
      ines6375 eric49486

      Posted

      I am doing yoga and mindfulness meditation too (I am about to start the 8-weeks program from the book "Mindfulness, how to find peace in a frantic world"), they are very helpful! My back pain is gone, I sleep better, I feel more relax and happy. I highly recommend them!
    • valerie56655
      valerie56655 acakes

      Posted

      thank you..what store did you find the enzymes at? I think I have the same issue with the low acid and could very well be due to stress I still have not been able to get on the anti depressant my doctor wanted me to try . My husband switched jobs to a company with no insurance and now I have to wait till Nov for open enrollment before I can see a doctor...ich its all pretty annoying. Does the aloe vera taste okay, I have not tried it mainly because im afraid it may be gross. I dont like the way coconut water taste and everyone else seems to like it.
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