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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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  • Saultarus
    Saultarus ines6375

    Posted

    I seem to be curing mine with carrot juice, cabbage, and strawberry juice.
    • joanne84073
      joanne84073 Saultarus

      Posted

      I seem to feel better with the carrot and cabbage juice too, but what gave you the idea of the strawberry juice?
    • Saultarus
      Saultarus

      Posted

      Just google best juicing for gastritis honestly it seems like carrot/strawberry is the best from my experience and idk how well cabbage was working because I did that first for two weeks and than when I started doing the carrot/strawberry it seems I got instantly better .
    • Saultarus
      Saultarus joanne84073

      Posted

      Honestly I alternate twice a day between the 3. Never do the same one in a row. Did it about 5 days straight and ran out of stuff, starting again tonight . Also on Prilosec another month, doctors orders.
    • joanne84073
      joanne84073 Saultarus

      Posted

      Thank you again. I decided not to take the meds, so this will help much. Please remember to wean yourself off the Prilosec , so you don't have a rebound effect. Take care and stay well

    • rr33976
      rr33976 Saultarus

      Posted

      Hi Saultarus,

      How have you been doing on the juicing? Has it help you cure yourself? Are you also taking medication?

      I have been struggling with this since 2 months. Started Omeprazole 20mg 2 weeks ago. Read your comment and have started Cabbage and carrot juice since 2 days. How much of cabbage and carrot juice do you take and how many times a day?

      Thanks so much for your reply.

  • sabrina6969
    sabrina6969 ines6375

    Posted

    I know this sounds really simple, but I had REALLY bad chronic acid reflux and heartburn and found the culprit was skipping meals!

    Making sure to eat on a regular basis gets rid of it. It's sometimes easier said than done to eat regularly, with such a busy lifestyle. 

    Remember that some people don't produce enough stomach acid, and others produce too much, and my naturopath said the latter is less common. But that's the category I fall under of course. 

    People with not enough stomach acid, need to eat more acidic things like bitters and lemons. It seems counterproductive to curing acid reflux but apparently it helps. 

    It didn't for me, because I create too much acid, especially when I'm hungry and haven't given my stomach any food to break down. So the fix for me is easy, eat regularly, and if I happen to mess up and skip a meal and get acid reflux as a result, I drink milk because it soothes the acid and also gives my stomach something to digest. DGL seems like it should work for someone like me, but it never did. The problem for me was not eating enough. 

  • pili41981
    pili41981 ines6375

    Posted

    So how long exactly did it take you to get 100 percent healed ?
    • Saultarus
      Saultarus pili41981

      Posted

      I am still not completely 100 percent but about 80. Slowly getting off the Prilosec now taking it every 2-3 days.
  • Dlbecker217
    Dlbecker217 ines6375

    Posted

    I have been dealing with awful gastritis and esophagitis for months now. They started me on 40mg of Nexium and then doubled it, because my throat and esophagus hurts so bad sometimes, the pain radiates into my face and head, triggering debilitating migraines. The doc basically told me there isn't much else he can do??? There has to be something. This is ruining quality of life big time. I have two children ages 2 and 5, and I want to fully enjoy them before they're grown!

  • russ95208
    russ95208 ines6375

    Posted

    Taking sodium ascorbate (alkalinized vitamin c) for 3 months at 2 grams per day accidentally improved my gastritis. I was supposed to take it for my acne since some studies showed acne is caused by low vit. C intake. No improvement for my acne but suprisingly relieved me from my gastritis' constant pain.

    • jennypangan
      jennypangan russ95208

      Posted

      hello russ! i have been taking soduim ascorbate for two weeks now, and i must agree with u that it has helped in healing my gastritis. its not acidic and the stomach can tolerate it. its also great for boosting the immune system!

       

    • mariast
      mariast russ95208

      Posted

      which brand did you take? Send me a private message, if you can, pls.

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