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.
Here's my story and I want to share it with you so that you won't have to suffer as I did. I am now 90% cured from my gastritis. I am eating big portions of almost anything I want (but still going easy on spicy food and citrus) and I'm drinking coffee every day and one beer a night. I no longer elevate my bed. I've gained all of my weight back and I'm glad to say I'm now a little over weight. :-) No more GERD related chest pain and pretty much zero stomach pain. I had been suffering with gastritis and its many manifestations for about nine months. It started with severe GERD that kept me up all night because of the heartburn pain. I also had severe stomach pain that caused me to lose a lot of weight. I could barely eat. After lots of tests and finally an endoscopy I was diagnosed with gastritis, but no H.Pylori. I radically modified my diet, no spicy foods, no citrus, coffee, alcohol etc. I ate tiny portions of oatmeal, chicken, greens, rice, tofu, just really bland. The PPIs my doctor prescribed made me feel worse and I had read up on all the side effects so I didn't stick to those. I tried carfate 4 times a day for about 3.5 months and that helped a little, but not enough. Although with the diet changes and the carafate my severe heartburn was gone, but my constant stomach burning was still bad. It seemed almost anything I ate burned my stomach and gave me constant burping and just a small portion of food made me feel really full. I was reading every published medical study I could find and following up with all of the herbs, vitamins, minerals, that were recommended, even accupuncture.
It was frustrating to find online studies about many proven medications that are not available in the U.S. that cure gastritis. However, I did come upon a proven medication that is available here in the U.S.. Here are a couple of links:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8017357 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2710.1991.tb00330.x/epdf
The medication is called Misoprostol and it is used to repair the mucosal lining of the stomach. It will not work for H.Pylori induced gastritis. I have been taking it for two months and I am almost cured of my gastritis. For me the side effects were negligible, just a little loose stools for one day and a very slight constant salty taste in my mouth. I am on half the prescribed dose now because I am doing so well. This medication works by stimulating your bodies ability to create a mucosal protective stomach lining. It does not block stomach acid like a PPI which we know causes serious health problems (we need stomach acid). Misoprostol helps your body do what it does naturally and it is a healthy and logical way to cure gastritis. Read up on it and consider talking to your doctor about trying it for a month or two. Neither my primary doctor or my gastrointerologist suggested this medication I had to discover it myself after months of reading everything I could get my hands on. Good luck to all of you!
Hello, I'm new to this site and have been diagnose with HPylori for almost 3 years now. This diease cause me to have chronic gastritis and have destroyed the cells in my stomach. What did you mean when you said that it will not work for HPylori induce gastritis? Also how small were your food portions?
It's a year after my original post about Misoprostol curing my gastritis. Yes, I am totally cured. Once in a while I will take one Misoprostol pill if I feel a flare up from too much coffee and spicy food. My life and stomach are otherwise totally back to what they were before my almost year-long ordeal with GERD and gastritis. Now to answer some of you questions and address some concerns.
1. Pipppin821 I did not ask my gastroenterologist to write the prescription, but rather my General Practitioner who knows me well. I brought in research articles from the site I posted above and she thought it was worth a try.
2. Jorge75 It took about 2 weeks until I started to really feel a dramatic improvement and about a month to know I was on the road to recovery.
3. To those of you who are concerned about the pregnancy warnings. Yes, it sounds scary, but you are welcome to read the research sites that I posted above (original post) and you will learn that Misoprostol is a prostaglandin analogue, which means it helps your body produce hormones and if you are pregnant you will miscarry. It is not toxic to the body in any way, it just stimulate hormones. It stimulates natural bicarbonate in your stomach which neutralizes stomach acid.
4. To everyone considering Misoprostol...it has been a God send for me. I never suffered ANY side effects from it. None, and I am cured. Read the research. Look it up on NCBI which is the Government clearinghouse for all medical research.