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
mahesh1976 ines6375
Posted
Although He attributes the success to homeopathy, but I have some reservations.
He Suffered for more than 3 years after when started Homeopathy. he says The underlying symptoms got aggravated drastically initially before settleing down eventually . It still took more than 2 years for him with homeopathy to become completely normal. Now he eats every damn thing on the earth. Iam so jealous...
My take on this is, It may not be Homeopathy.. It cud be just placebo...But Bodys Natural ability to heal itself.. Since it is just a disorder & not a disease. .. ( Probably disturbed Gut Flora aftr Heavy Anitbiotics course ) provided you give right environment for it to do so....
So Guys.. Chill Out.. Dont stress yourslef ... belive in yourself .... Have patience.. Give enough goodys to your Body... Watch out on food intake... Lots of water to hydrate... Don't experiment with meds & suppliments specially... And just focus on Diet.....
jessica_aloha mahesh1976
Posted
I quite believe the same.. It's important that we trust our own body and that it has the power to heal itself. I am not saying that modern medicine is all bad, but sometimes I wonder if they really want to heal you or make the problems more persistent so you come back and have multiples appointments. Honestly...I don't know what to think anymore, and it makes me feel quite lost.
As per my personal experience homeopathy may work for some but not for others, taking into consideration that it works on a long term period, you need to be patient. I say that because when I was a teenager I would always have chronic tonsillitis, and was so much in pain every time. So I finally decided to take homeopathy and within a couple of months I started feeling the difference. Sore would come back eventually, but not that often.
Stomach is probably way more complex... 3 years to see improvements is a lot of time in my opinion! I have recently started homeopathy, it's called "robinia" from the brand Wala. I have now been taking it for 3 days, but I don't really see a difference to be honest... I'll keep you updated haha.
Have you heard of Curcuma? They say it's a good anti inflammatory, especially for the bowel.
Also another question, do you think ear ringing might be related to the flare up in your stomach?
Hope you're doing ok today!
mahesh1976 jessica_aloha
Posted
I haven't experienced ear ringing ever hence can't comment.
About Curcuma, it comes from family of Turmeric herb, it's definitely anti-inflammatory. In India here we use it in milk and drink as sore throat remedy. But I m not sure how much it useful for Gastritis. Infact it may stimulate more acid production.
I did try homeopathy for couple of months but with no success.
Today I had spicy chicken curry for lunch so slight discomfort. This always happens wid me I messup n giveup to my temptations.
Wish you all the Best with Homeopathy
jessica_aloha mahesh1976
Posted
Well, I'm a food lover, so I also struggle with following a strict diet, but I know this is one of the most important things.
I'm not convinced homeopathy will help, still waiting for results hahaha.
Best wishes
jessica_aloha ines6375
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General question that I already mentioned in one of my replies :
Does anybody have ear ringing associated to gastritis??
Thanks in advance for your replies.
Positive vibes for all of you!!
ines6375 jessica_aloha
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Tea0916 jessica_aloha
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Another question- has anyone hear found that anxiety affects their gastritis? Or was even the cause?
anne45901 jessica_aloha
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valerie56655 Tea0916
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eric49486 valerie56655
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ines6375 valerie56655
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valerie56655 eric49486
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mahesh1976 valerie56655
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I used have similar symptoms as yours. And I could closely associate the relationship between Gastritis and panic attacks. Probably gut disorder caused low levels of serotonin. Short course of anti depressant and could get away with both the issue to a larger extent. Thankfully no more panic attacks. I do regular Yoga as well and definitely vouch for it.
anne45901 ines6375
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skythroat ines6375
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Having a year of this nightmare. Symptoms come and go but it's still with me. I was feel good 3-4 months ago but eating salmon every day destroyed everything again. That was totally my fault. So, I read your meal/food recommendations of course but just want to ask something. I'm flexitarian (rarely eat meat). Is it safe to eat lentils/chickpeas with brown rice while suffering gastritis? What about quinoa?
Thank you.
ines6375 skythroat
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