1. Community
  2. General
  3. Alternative and Complementary Medicine

How I cured my gastritis

Posted , 375 users are following.

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).

39 likes, 3077 replies

3077 Replies

Prev Next
  • JEG435
    JEG435 ines6375

    Posted

    Recently this book was brought to my attention:  Gutbliss by Robynne Chutkan
  • localjoe
    localjoe ines6375

    Posted

    Hi I'm new and going to start the strict diet. I have a few questions. Would sugar free jello be ok? Boiled or scrambled eggs? Lowfat graham crackers? Whole grain or wheat bread? Sorry if those question been answered before. Thank you so much for such a awesome thread and I wish u all well in recovery. This has truly been a nightmare for me. Poor diet, alcohol/weed, and laying down on a full stomach is what caused my problems I think sad
    • papote53
      papote53 localjoe

      Posted

      We are all different so you would have to take each and see how you feel after you do,  But normally no sugar jello, boiled or scramble eggs are ok (boiled is better) and whole grain is better than wheat bread because wheat bread has Gluten which is hard to diggest. I love graham crackers so I will love to hear any suggestion on that.  I'm trying to gain weight because I lost 50 pounds the last 2 1/2 years so now I'm borderline underliner weight.
    • mahesh1976
      mahesh1976 localjoe

      Posted

      Hey!

      I found raisins v helpful. Handful of them before bed and after you wake up in the morning really soothes the stomach. And also it's good for weight gain!

  • gopi86
    gopi86 ines6375

    Posted

    I have recovered some 75% from what I have been undergoing. A slight recap of what I was undergoing a slightest of pepper or green chilly or coffee or tea or alcohol or orange-lime will affect me, i can take in only bland foods, indigestion, acid reflux, sleepless nights, i suffered this for almost 4 months two years back. More cooked foods, spices, alcohol, ignoring hunger induced a ulcer in my stomach. I stopped milk, alcohol, coffee completely.  Later I took a ayurvedic medicine made of bael fruit which really helped me in stopping PPIs and Gaviscon. It improved my digestion and somewhat healed my stomach ulcer. This helped me recover 50%. Then I introduced a way to eat a balanced acid and alkaline foods. Introduced nuts(almond, pumpkin seeds) fruits like apple, papaya, pomegranate, grapes, mango, coconut milk freshly prepared as snacks in between my meal times. Whenever I am hungry I eat some fruits mostly avoid orange. Never ever leave your stomach in hunger for long time, it might make your ulcer more. I started eating natural yoghurt 3 table spoons miminum 3 times a day to increase good bacteria in my gut which will naturally heal ulcer. Also include natural fermented foods, as a Indian we ferment rice with Urid dal to eat pancakes which adds good bacteria to gut. Never ever eat food or water which is cold or hot. Take it in a warm temperature. Drink plenty of room temperature water in a day. Avoid stress, listen to music or do something which takes away stress from you. Mild licorice is good to heal stomach ulcers it helped me. Ginger in empty stomach is disaster for us so avoid them in empty stomach. Take vitamin c supplements after food. Protein and vitamin c crucial in reparing our body. Chew your food so that half the digestion finishes at your mouth. Chewing a lot is difficult at beginning, after a week you will notice the difference. Anything more acidic is bad for us, Give a healing time to your stomach might be 6 months for someone, might be a year for another. More strict you are in your diet, more speedy is your recovery. Dont forget to add good bacteria to your guts. Some foods I given above are not fit to eat in empty stomach for some people, just take them after your meal. Avoid yoghurt in morning empty stomach. Ask your doctor for vitamin and iron supllements. Your guts are weak so absorption will be poor, i turned anemic during my first 6 months. It took 8 months to reach 50% healing. Nowadays whenever i feel stressed more i get this acidity and ulcer then I will stick on to the routine more strictly then it goes off. Looking for a permanent cure some day.  
    • gopi86
      gopi86

      Posted

      I missed few points. Try to go to sleep early and rise early. Sleep in a darkest room possible. Melatonin which secretes in night in deep darkness is very crucial in repairing our body. Help body to secrete melatonin by sleeping enough and early in a dark room. Try to google Circadian rhythms and try to stick on to that. They say for 1000s of years our body has sticked on to this timetable.
    • emma666
      emma666 gopi86

      Posted

      Thanks for all your helpful information. Can I just ask why not to have

      yoghurt in the morning and also how do you ferment rice? Thanks, Emma.

    • gopi86
      gopi86

      Posted

      I missed few points. Try to go to sleep early and rise early. Sleep in a darkest room possible. Melatonin which secretes in night in deep darkness is very crucial in repairing our body. Help body to secrete melatonin by sleeping enough and early in a dark room. Try to google Circadian rhythms and try to stick on to that. They say for 1000s of years our body has sticked on to this timetable.
    • gopi86
      gopi86 emma666

      Posted

      Hi emma, Yoghurt even though contains good gut bacteria, it is slightly acidic in nature so it might hurt a little so just avoid it in the empty stomach. Also try to eat yoghurt at room temperature. 
    • gopi86
      gopi86 emma666

      Posted

      Soak rice(Indian rice prefereably if you have srilankan or indian shop nearby) in room temperature water for 8-10 hours. Soak urid lentil in water for 8-10 hours. Then grind them together in a blender. Then keep the wet flour in room temperature(warm room is preferable), this will ferment the wet flour. Fermented wet flour contains good bacteria. It will be easy if you google how to prepare Idli(South Indian dish) wet flour, that will be easy to refer with exact measurements. It is a typical breakfast we have in South India along with Cocunut Chutney which is a perfect combination to heal our ulcers. 
    • gopi86
      gopi86

      Posted

      Allow the wet flour to ferment for atleast 18-24 hours in a cold country. In tropical areas the fermenting happens in 12 hours.
    • search45
      search45 gopi86

      Posted

      Thanks for your thorough account. Have you been able to add most foods back in completely?
    • ines6375
      ines6375 search45

      Posted

      No not at all. I am not "reintroducing" anything. All the foods that were irritating before are still irritating now. The only difference now is that I can have a little bit of irritating foods every now and then without much consequence. Also I don't limit my fat intake anymore and I eat goat cheese regularly. It is like after being on a diet to loose weight: if you go back to a junk food diet after loosing weight, all the weight will be back. I eat healthy 90% of the time, and I have irritating foods 10% of the time. If I start eating more irritating foods, I will have acid reflux and stomach pain again.
    • ines6375
      ines6375

      Posted

      The less I eat irritating foods, the better I feel, so I stick to it.
Back to top
Prev Next

Report or request deletion

Thanks for your help!

We want the community to be a useful resource for our users but it is important to remember that the community are not moderated or reviewed by doctors and so you should not rely on opinions or advice given by other users in respect of any healthcare matters. Always speak to your doctor before acting and in cases of emergency seek appropriate medical assistance immediately. Use of the community is subject to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and steps will be taken to remove posts identified as being in breach of those terms.