Como curei minha gastrite

Saúde geral e estilo de vida
1

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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What works: the diet

I eat only foods with Ph level above 5, more details below.

Fruits: only melons, watermelons and bananas, sometimes a pear (at the limit - Ph level 5.3).

All vegetables except Bell peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, garlic and onions that are too irritating.

Lean proteins like chicken breast, lean white fish like cod, shrimps, seafood, tofu, tempeh, beans, chickpeas, lentils.

All cereals (I mean by cereals the pure grain, not the breakfast cereals with sugar and additives): oat and oatmeal, rice, corn, bread (artisan fresh bread with no additives), quinoa, buckwheat, millet, wheat (I don't eat wheat for other reason --IBS-- but for the stomach it is supposedly ok), ... Potatoes and sweet potatoes are very good too.

oil and nuts in moderation because of their fat content. Fat is inflammatory for the stomach lining. I eat either 1 Tbsp of nuts per meal or 1tsp of oil.

Drinks: the only safe hot drink is chamomile. Evamor water Ph 8.8 feels good (not easy to find, I order it on amazon), fresh raw coconut water, fresh vegetable or fruit juices with allowed fruits and vegetables (I use a carrot base and add fennel/celery/beets/spinach). I find pureed soups with butternut squash, potatoes, cauliflowers, and/or carrots, ... very soothing.

Food to avoid particularly because either irritating or known triggers for gerd: coffee, mint, tea, chocolate, sparkling water, citrus fruits, fat, vinegar, all spices, herbs (not sure which ones are ok or not, for safety I just avoided all of them), salt (reduce as much as possible), alcohol, no herbal teas except chamomile, dairy (stimulates acid production by the stomach).

I made sure I control the volume of what I eat too to not fill my stomach too much: I keep it under 3 cups (usually 1 cup of vegetables, one cup of rice/potatoes/pasta, and the size of a cellphone of meat/fish/tempeh).

I don't eat anything 3 hours before bed, and don't drink anything 2 hours before bed. Also I sleep on a wedge.

Helpful supplements

DGL licorice, 1 tab 20-30 minutes before each meal, 3 times a day. It coats the interior of the stomach lining. Sometimes I ate one during the night if my stomach hurts but slippery elm works better.

Slippery Elm: 2 tabs between meals with a big glass of water. Sometimes I took 2 tabs in the middle of the night with a big glass of water if I had stomach pain. It coats the stomach lining too, works better than DGL licorice.

Zinc-Carnosine: the most mysterious of the supplements, supposedly reduce inflammation and protects stomach lining. I felt a great improvement after taking it (they say it takes 2 weeks for it to work completely). I take one caps 35 mg with breakfast and one at dinner.

Cabbage juice. There are some studies of ulcer patients cured after taking 1 cup of cabbage juice 4-5 times a day for 7 to 10 days. I had the courage to do one day 3 x 1 cup, and two days 2 x 1 cups, and my stomach pain disappeared completely with it (I was already doing better before I started). It is very unpleasant and one feels overall bad with it, moreover it causes gas, bad breath, slight headache. It interferes with the thyroid as well. But it works very well for the stomach. I mix the cabbage juice with carrot juice to make it more tasty, sometimes with celery, spinach and fennel as well.

Water Ph 8.8. Supposedly helps deactivate the pepsin in throat and esophagus, and helps recover from sore throat and esophagitis. It feels good to drink it between meals.

1 curtida
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Wow...just...wow. You've obviously done your homework (and then some). I consider myself passably intelligent but dang...I don't think I have enough processing power to juggle all that on a daily basis. That isn't to say I'm only capable of, or willing to accept, being a pharmacological 'sheeple' but where did you find the time?...and it must have cost a fortune!

I'm all on board with natural(ish) approaches. There's nothing worse these days than taking a prescribed medication and suffering side effects equal to or worse than the initial complaint. It's sad that the New Healthcare for the 21st century is dumbed down to apathy and acceptance of horrid side effects instead of futuristic cures.

Nice work! I'll definately try as much of this as I can afford.

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When I was in pain I got obsessed to find out what to do and I tried many things. I think it is possible to keep your recovery relatively cheap. I eat in the morning oatmeal with a banana, very cheap, the other meals are not particularly expensive either. I usually eat chicken breast or tempeh, vegetables and rice for lunch and dinner, with some variations. melon in the afternoon with a raw coconut water (this one is pricey but not necessary for recovery, just delicious). I think I actually save money as I don't eat at the restaurant anymore.

I find the supplements reasonably priced: DGL licorice "natural factors" 90 tab $12 on amazon, last a little less than a month; slippery elm "nature's way" 100 caps last two weeks, if you take 3 or 4 times 2 caps (if you are on a budget I would take it only when your stomach hurts between meal), I find the recommend dose of 4 caps 3 times daily too high; there is nothing cheaper than a cabbage, one cabbage makes 2 x 1 cup of cabbage juice but you have to buy a juicer; the juicer breville compact is $100 on amazon (if you want to skip the cabbage juice, I think I would have recovered without it but it would have taken longer); pepzin GI is $13 for a month supply. The most expensive thing is the water. It helped with my sore throat and esophagitis but I am not sure it is important for the recovery of the stomach so it could be skipped.

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I'm with Greg on this....wow...just...wow! Thanks for all this information. I can't digest it all properly (pun intended!), so I'll read through thoroughly tomorrow.

In the meantime, I have a rather random question. Do you know if there's anything in pasta that isn't in bread, rice etc. I've had really bad reactions recently when eating pasta. Now I realise it could be the tomatoes or herbs or meat, but I will 'test' each ingredient out individually. The most obvious thing is the pasta however, but can seem to eat bread and rice!!!!

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What kind of reaction do you have with pasta? What are the ingredients in your pasta?

I am looking at a box of De Cecco, I see some added B vitamins (B1, B2, B3, B9) and some ferrous lactate to control the acidity or add iron not sure. I know I had to stop taking vitamins as they were irritating but I don't know if B vitamins are irritating. Have you tried organic pasta? or gluten-free pasta (the tinkyada are very good, they are rice based, rice usually does not cause problems)? Also the wheat they use in pasta is slightly different than the one they use in bread, it is called in french "ble dur" (hard wheat), and it has more gluten (gluten acts as a glue).

But if you eat your pasta with tomatoes, herb, garlic, onion, red meat and cheese, those are much more likely to cause problems. Tomatoes, onions and garlic are known trigger foods for stomach problems, red meat and cheese are too fatty to handle when you are sick, herbs it really depends which one but in general the essential oils in aromatic herbs are irritating to an inflamed stomach lining (anything inflamed really).

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The first pasta meal was a home made spag bol (with cheese). Second was a shop made chicken and chorizo ravioli with tomato sauce (no cheese). Both times it felt like I had a brick lodged at the bottom of my breast bone, belching, then feeling of dry/burning sensation at back of throat and tongue. It lasts around 1-2 hours and I sometimes feel like there's something trickling down my throat. I feel exhausted afterwards and sometimes need to lie down! I get 'grumbles' in the colon area but nothing too bad.

I'm going to try gluten free pasta next. I ate a steak the other night and had no problems.....hence concentrating on the pasta! I think you may be right though about the tomatoes, onions etc as well.

Thank you!!!!! :-)

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Sounds good. I cut all grains, dairy, pasta, gluten, corn and wheat, high acid foods, high histamine foods and foods that are on my sensitivity list like yeast and almonds and honey and feel better. I drink Evamore water (on sale at our local health food store) and took Manuka honey for a long time until I found I was sensitive to it. I can't do licorice which explains why DGL didn't work for me. I was taking probiotics for a long time and feel better not taking them. Uncertain why. I drink at least 2 oz of distilled aloe vera a day and it helped me tremendously to feel better and soothes my stomach. I couldn't do pasta, even gluten free and grains like rice so I cut them out. I just added potatoes back in and feel ok but heavier on them. I may cut them back again.

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Suze...the acid in the tomato's is the killer for sure. That isn't to say pasta can't present problems for you either but my money is on the red sauce. Very few individuals and even less restaurants truky know how to make a genuine sauce. The key is to mix the sauce, puree, paste and seasonings in a very large thick bottomed pot and bring it to a rolling boil and keep boiling it for at least an hour or two. You'd notice a pinkish froth covering the top...this is the acid. It is periodically laddled off and tossed out. Then a small amount of sugar is added to take the bite out of acid that remains.

The same can be said for pasta in that everyone makes everything differently. Some use great ingredients and make their own pasta, many use a pre-packaged pasta with Gawd knows what all in it. There's no consistency at all unless you do it yourself.

And I know a thing or two about the abdominal symptoms you described. Never in all the years I've been battling ulcers have I experienced anything like what I've been feeling the last two weeks. The brick that goes down...and comes back up...just to do it over and over. And the pain while it cycles!!...it's from hell. A weird aspect of GERD (for me) is that the rumblings and churnings feel like hunger one second...and full bloated the next.

Wishing everyone good digestive health!

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Evamor water is, to my knowledge, the natural water with the highest Ph level, this is the water Dr Jamie Koufman did some research on and she published a few papers (you can find them on the internet). Which means that everything they found applies to that water and they don't know what happens if you use another water or increase the Ph of your water artificially. It is possible that a water with a higher Ph level works better, or that a water with a lower Ph level works as well. The best thing to do is to test what you have on yourself, see if it feels good. Evamor water helped me soothe my throat and esophagitis at the beginning when it was hurting. Also I liked to wash my mouth with it when I had to much acid. After a while the sore throat went away and I kept the drinking the water as a habit but I am not sure it does anything for the stomach (a glass of evamor helped a little if I had it immediately after I ate or drank something too acidic).

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Hi again,

I did not read this until now, we wrote to one another but you did well, good for you! You know I agree with you about almost anything you wrote.

I have a silly question about fish, I want to have some but I can not use anyting on it I like, so no lemon but then how do you eat it? No salt, black pepper or garlic, I know is going to taste awful. So, any suggestions?

I manage with chicken and tofu.

Also I have an underactive thyroid and the cabbage juice is not good at all for my thyroid, how do you think could I go about it? I can eat cabbage but not huge amounts!

Thank you Ines

 

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Hi Daniela,

For fish, I choose the best fish I can find and buy it as fresh as possible, as you don't have anything to enhance the flavor, it is important that it tastes good and fresh. Also I noticed that I like a reasonable amount of it (when you are hungry all good foods taste good) so I buy no more than 1/3 of a pound (150 g). More than that and it is not as tasty anymore. I usually cook it simply: I pat dry it, put a spray of olive oil in the pan and sauteed it with a little bit of salt (I put a little bit of salt in everything, enough so it tastes good but as little as possible). Sometimes I add some parsley on top afterwards. 

I haven't tried in a while but it might be good "en papillote" with a little spray of olive oil, a little bit of salt, fennel, carrots, parsley...

I like to cook pasta alla vongole (with clams) sometimes too, or sauteed wild shrimps, or shrimps cooked with rice (like a paella) and vegetables. shrimps and clams don't require extra salt (they contain some) and give some juice. 

I agree with you that fish would taste much better with lemon and garlic at least. I used to love cooking and try all sorts of things but with this diet it is just too complicated to make interesting dishes, so at some point I just gave up and decided that I would eat simple, good quality food, get in a routine, get better and focus on other things than gastronomy for now.

About cabbage, I am confident that you can recover without using it. When I drank the cabbage juice I felt a very strong effect related to the thyroid: I felt cold, extremely tired, ... Since you already have a problem with your thyroid, if I were you, I would avoid it. If you are looking for other things to do, check the book "Ulcer free!", it talks about a lot of natural supplements to help heal the stomach.

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Hi Ines,

Lovely! I also love clams and pasta so I will do that. Fish I always buy it as fresh as I can  like you, and fennel, dill, parsley can go with it very well. At the moment I am not using oil at all, I just cook without it so I can give my tummy a break and ease digestion.

I tried two days cabbage juice and I gave up. It helpd me though! I can eat cabbage but only small amounts together with other vegetables. 

I got that title of the book from your personal story, so kindly you shared with all of us, on the forum. I will buy it, I also got other books on this subject. I intend to take medication for a limited period only, the same way you did and for the same reasons. The diet and natural supplements will carry me through the rest of my life!

Thanks,

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What I do sometimes to get the benefit of oil without really having it is to put a little bit of oil in the pan then wipe it with a paper towel. The flavor is there but not really the oil.

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I see what you mean! Good idea! I am cooking" en papillote" which is quite nice with some herbs and vegetables, grill my chicken breasts and fish also, and bake meat and vegetables in a dish with some chicken stock, covered with a lid.

I used to cook really nice dishes and I still am, for my dear husband and friends. I am having a dinner party this Saturday and I am planning my menu. I am all right not eating the food I will prepare for my guests, I will indulge in smells and the pleasure of seeing them enjoying themselves.

 

 

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I find it very hard to resist "normal food" so I try to avoid restaurants and dinner parties, instead I see my friends to exercise or go to the museum.

What I cook a lot when I have guests is roasted vegetables and sometimes potatoes. I put a little bit of olive oil (I use the cooking spray) and salt, sometimes fresh herbs. It is tasty and easy.

For myself I like to make a stew with potatoes, parsnip, turnip, carrots, a little bit of salt and a bay leaf. I add roasted chicken to it at the end.

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Yes, it is hard but I have to get used to it! Since I have been having this diet and treatment, I also avoid restaurants or pubs!

I have no choice this Saturday, it will be my husband's birthday and we made the invitations sometime ago but I am really fine, I enjoy cooking and I am doing this for him!

It will be relaxed! All our friends know about my  trails and tribulations with acid reflux and they are very supportive.

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That is nice that your friends are supportive. I hope the dinner party goes well.

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Thank you, very much! I hope all will go well! 

I like stews and I do them as well, as for roasted vegetables I love them, can not eat them at the moment but you can and should enjoy some!

I can resist normal food, the very thought of pain in my tummy, the burning in my chest, makes me cope!

Take care,

20

Hi ines

I had commented on your cabbage cure post about a week ago about me having ulcers. Im just wondering what brands you took for slippery elm, dgl, and pepzin gi. Ive tried manuka and mastic as well and find they irritate me too, make me feel weak and just not like im healing.

Thank you again