Gastritis Support Group
Gastritis is a medical term for inflammation of the lining of the stomach. It means that white blood cells move into the wall of the stomach as a response to some type of injury. Gastritis has many underlying causes, from infection with the bacterium H. pylori, bile reflux, or excessive consumption of alcohol or certain foods or drugs like aspirin.
Hey all,
I found this group while researching gastritis on Google. I've read through some of the threads and I feel for everyone who is also going through this. It is nice to read through and know that I'm not alone, something about knowing that makes me feel better.
I've had alcohol induced gastritis since May 2016( possibly longer, but this is when I was diagnosed). I kept having pain all over my abdomin and in my chest, radiating to back, pain under rib cage on both left and right sides. I couldn't take it anymore and went in to the ER. They did a CT scan and the doctor said my digestive system was "pissed off!" He said inflamation and diagnosed gastritis.
I have drank less and less and just went 20 days and had some beers last night, suffering today. My gastritis comes and goes but it's definitely worse after drinking. I also smoke and I know this doesn't help. I plan to quit tomorrow.
Has anyone else or does have gastritis due to alcohol? Did it get better after long periods of sobriety?
I have followed a strict diet (picked from lots if different suggestions on here and other forums). It definitely helps, although its not gone completely. On days14-20 sober, I noticed pain was only a couple times a day and was much less in intensity,but I was stupid and had 8 beers and woke up with pain and bloating and have been paying the price today. No more.
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!! This gastritis really turns on my anxiety and makes me a huge hypochondriac.
Ryan
Sorry to hear if your pain. As hard as it is, for now at least as you've worked out you have to avoid your trigger ingredients, alcohol being just one no doubt. Anxiety is just as bad a trigger for pain and it can become a vicious cycle. Are you on anything for the anxiety be it natural or medical? I found St. John's Wort helped me and still does. I went without alcohol for at least two years. I was slow to introduce it back and I can now safely drink several glasses of wine if I choose to.
Give you gut time to heal and see how you go later with alcohol. Maybe try wine if you drink it as it may be less bloating than beer.
Cas
I had pneumonia just after Thanksgiving, I was on antibiotics and it seemed to clear. Tonight I am feeling that pain in my lungs when I breathe and worse when I take a deep breath, no way near as bad as when I had pneumonia, but I'm wondering if acid reflux is effecting my lungs/esophagus.
You're right though, anxiety makes everything that much worse. I start lexapro tomorrow and I was prescribed Ranitidine(Zantac). I was also tested for H. Pylori and will find out results next week.
Do you know if Zantac works?
My diet is basically nothing acidic, fried, no coffee or tea, no chocolate. I eat yogurt everyday and veggies, chicken and fish.
I cannot believe you have started drinking again with gastritis. I also had alcohol induced gastritis 10 months ago and stopped drinking immediately. I still have gastritis but with much fewer symptoms than the beginning. Compared to the beginning, it is like my stomach is semi-normal, but of course it is not healed yet and if I eat something irritating it all comes back. I still can only eat when hungry, and must stick with the diet and a general discomfort once in a while is there. Don't expect your stomach to heal if you continue doing what caused it being "pissed off" in the first place. You really, really need to let it rest completely.
Not drinking alcohol is an absolute must. Also having a good diet. If you eat anything and it irritates your stomach, don't eat it. And eliminate stress to the best of your ability. Mind-gut relation is very real. I still avoid dairies and raw veggies and fruits, but if you can tolerate them, then good for you. Actually as for fruits I can only drink fruit juices and, veggies only baby carrots and beetroot. People can usually tolerate cooked veggies, I dunno why I can't (except those two). Then again, gastritis can be hugely different from person to person.
One more source you can inform yourself about "safe" foods is this forum I link below. Keep in mind that it can be very different from person to person, but there are certain things that almost universally can be tolerated by people with gastritis.
http://patient.info/forums/discuss/how-i-cured-my-gastritis-185914?order=oldest&page=0#topic-replies
good luck.
I am feeling better since yesterday, quit smoking, started zantac and sticking to the diet. I notice if I start thinking about gastritis and how I feel, I start having the pains. So, I see what you mean when you say mind-gut relation is very real.
I also avoid dairy, I do drink organic unsweetened almond milk, it doesn't seem to bother me.. Sometimes I can't tell if a food is bothering me or if its stress from thinking about it. I know garlic and tomatoes definitely causes pain though! Which sucks cause I love Italian food. I'm a passionate home cook and its hard giving that up.
I would much rather have my food then have my drinks, so I will stick to no alcohol completely.
It's hard too, I go to a lot of family and friend events where there is all the bad food. I have to explain I can't eat it and Prepare my own food or find one thing I can eat. I notice eating small portions helps as well.
Do you use a vitamix? I went grocery shopping yesterday and for fruit I bought only pears and bananas. I heard bananas are good for sime, so we'll see but I thought I'd just vitamix them I stead of eating them raw.
Good that you have decided to stop drinking and smoking because they almost certainly prolong this condition. And yes, over this time I found out that it is really the best to find a bland diet that works and stick to it so then you can easily get your mind off of it by keeping busy. But if you try new irritating foods so often, then you have bad times longer and it is harder not to stress out. It is just frustrating to freak out whenever you wanna eat. Is it gonna flare up? is it gonna be okay? ... So when you have a list of safe meals and stick to them, the chore of feeding yourself goes into the background. If you keep to a bland diet your symptoms will improve fast. But you must be careful that you have to continue on a diet even months after feeling really good. I have done a couple of mistakes, thinking I was healed and experimented too soon only to find myself again on square one.
If you really can't wait, when you feel much better, you can introduce new foods one teaspoon at a time so you can see if you tolerate them or not. This way it is far less possible to have a flare up. Don't suddenly eat one plate of something that you have doubts about (which is almost everything with gastritis :) )
It might be a bit hard since you love your nice food, but if you really want to get back to it, you do need to go on a bland diet for quite a while. The more you irritate your stomach the more delayed your going back to normal will be. I know. it sucks, but that's life.
No, I don't have vitamix. I just buy 100% juices, no mix or anything. The only raw fruit I can try is banana. The rest only in juice. There is something about fiber which can be really hard on a weak stomach. I also try soya milk (with vanilla and a bit sweet) and it's really nice. Oatmeals, cream of wheat, potatoes, rice, boiled chicken (thighs are softer), white fish (tiny bit fried when you feel better), bananas, honey, bread etc. are some of the safe foods to start with.
I was encouraged and more determined by your advice to stick to this for months even if you think your healed,
My diet is pretty much like yours oatmeal , potato, chicken , fish and steamed veggies . I have tried eggs with no ill effect. Have you tried avacado ? Someone told me try them for some good fat in your diet . About the bananas do you eat them when there not too ripe, I find anything sweet gives me grief so it makes me nervous to try.
Any ideas how long to heal before you start feeling better?
Spybee you have my sympathy I had such a great variety of foods in my life prior to this and I long for a good plate of pasta
What ever fruit you eat needs to be really ripe. Pineapples are good if you can handle them. They have good acids or become alkaline in our gut (sorry I can't remember which) Also don't beat yourself up for slip ups along the way. Learn from it and keep moving forward.
Lovinlife- the healing process is different for everyone sadly. I say it took me three years to feel mostly healed.
Cas
Yes eggs are fine too. I should actually try avocado, but I'm afraid of any thing vegetable or fruit like, fiber in general. But I might give it try. Now I can handle butter very well. In bad periods I avoid it though. As for banana, in bad periods I can only tolerate ripe ones (let them out a couple of days), in good periods I can have even greenish ones. I have no problem with sugar at all. Can eat lots of honey and fruit juice.
As for healing better: for me it took maybe 1.5 or 2 months of strict diet to feel much better. But could never continue it for long since I slipped every once in a while. Got better, experimented with wrong foods not little by little as I later learned to do, and square one. Got better, then ate right before going to sleep (so wrong!) and slipped again. But sticking to a bland diet will make you feel much better in a matter of weeks. Just try not to slip. But if you do be kind on yourself and don't stress out. It will make it worse. You will go back to good periods again. I'm also feeling that even with the slip ups, the general trend is upwards. If I slip up now, although bad, it is in no way as bad as the beginning.
As for full healing: I am in the dark myself. It is so exceedingly different between individuals. Months to years. It all depends on the person, how well they take care of themselves, degree of inflammation, other concurrent medical conditions and so on and so forth.
You might wanna protect your stomach from its own acid either by natural route or PPIs. I myself take PPIs and two other people on this forum who got healed and disappeared also wrote they took PPIs. In another forum I also read a girl got well nigh healed by PPIs. your own choice though. If you start, you might not wanna stop them while still having the gastritis because of rebound effects.
As for stress and anxiety, they always made my pain worse. Eliminate them if you can. Some people have said Tricyclic antidepressants like Amitriptyline are great at severing the link between gut and mind. Or you can try the natural recommendation of Soretum: St. John's wort. Best of all is just to be calm mentally though, but if hard you can use help with these.
People with IBS report great success with Amitriptyline. This shows how effective it is in calming the gut nerves. I have not tried them yet, but might do in the future, the next time I go to my doctor. I'm not sure how a gastritis stomach handles this pill though, but if I try in the future I will say it here.
https://www.drugs.com/comments/amitriptyline/for-irritable-bowel-syndrome.html
I guess when we have set backs the important part is to not beat our selfs up. I was experimenting with some natural things and learned very quickly it was disasterous so have decided no more ! One in particular was Gastro-assist ( Natural Factors) made things worse. A company here in Canada makes them. It supposedly was for gastrointestinal issues and inflammatory issues.
I will let you know when I get my CT Scan results hopefully tomorrow which I'm not expecting many answers from.
Wendy
So I'm feeling a lot better. I'd say before I was at 50% and this week I've been at 80% better. I think the Zantac is kicking in along with the bland diet. Far less pain and I go hours without any at all.
I basically keep sodium at a minimum and eat anything over like 5 PH. Bananas, eggs, avacado, bread, turkey, fish, yogurt(organic), rice, veggies; carrot, spinach, potatoes, artichoke, basically most veggies other than spicy peppers, onion and tomatoes. I eat almonds, Peanuts, peanut butter. Almond Milk(organic) I was at school the other day and had no lunch, found a sandwhich at Starbucks with some sweet potatoe chips, no problems!
A big thing is do not drink alcohol, carbonated drinks(soda for sure) and definitely not coffee, including decaf. Not even once. Lower salt intake! No fried food at all, I ate a few ruffles potatoes chips and had heartburn the rest of the night.
No vinegar, mustard look for dressings and canned veggies that don't have vinegar. Its best to just eat fresh veggies instead of canned.
I check ingredients in everything, if it says garlic, vinegar or onion or tomatoes I don't eat it.
I hope this helps! Here's to all of us getting better :-)
Never be afraid of asking questions when eating out, even if you can supplement some of your own food in certain situations.