My stomach had always been sensitive from quite a young age, in my twenties, if I went out for a drink with friends, we would all be drinking the same, but I would always be the one being sick afterwards.
On holiday after eating and drinking different foods for a couple of weeks my stomach would always end up feeling uncomfortable and bloated, often taking weeks to return to normal once I was home.
But it wasn’t till years later that I started to have more and more issues, I would feel nauseous a lot of the time and my whole digestive system just didn’t seem to work properly. I would have Constipation, bloating, no appetite, and stomach pains on and off. It was stopping me from enjoying my life as much as I should have been, and I was losing weight too.
Starting PPIs
My GP diagnosed me with Gastritis, and he sent me off with PPIs, at first, I had Omeprazole which after 3 days gave me a horrendous migraine, so was swapped over to Lansoprazole. To be honest it worked very quickly getting rid of nausea and I was so happy something had made me feel better so quickly.
This was the start of a cycle for the next few years, I would take PPIs for a couple of months and start to feel better, so would come off the PPIs. Weeks would pass where I felt ok and would be eating and drinking as normal and then BAM the symptoms would all come back. So, I would go back on the PPIs again.
Deciding to stop PPIs
It was around this time that I started to notice some side effects which I only seemed to have when I was taking PPIs. One thing I was aware of was my eyesight seemed to be a little blurry, but this would always improve
as soon as I stopped the medication.
My hair was also falling out, it wasn’t a huge amount, but it was enough to concern me. I started to wonder if I wasn’t getting enough vitamins (even though I took multivitamins every day). I also suffered from constipation when on the medication.
I started looking into the long term use of PPIs and found quite a few recent studies that gave me cause for concern.
Although they are a safe drug and are used by millions of people every day with no issues. There is a concern by some experts that long term use may be linked to dementia, heart problems and bone fractures.
One study published by JAMA Neurology in 2016 showed a link between PPIs and a higher risk of Dementia. The study took place over 8 years on more than 70,000 adults over 75 years old. The results showed that after 18 months patients had a 44% higher chance of being diagnosed with dementia, the chance was slightly higher in men at 52%.
It was at this point I decided I really wanted to stop PPIs if I could. I knew I needed to get serious with my diet and help my stomach cope with the changes as best as I could.
So, I bought ‘The Gastritis healing book‘ by L. G. Capellan and went shopping for the foods allowed on the meal plans and made a list of all foods I should avoid.
I knew it was going to be a big change, but I felt like this was the only way I was going to successfully heal my stomach and get off PPIs for good.
Foods to eat
These are some of the foods that helped me, everyone is different though and triggers can differ.
Bone broth – very soothing on your stomach, especially during a flare-up.
High fibre foods – Vegetables such as Broccoli, green beans, and cabbage.
Whole-grain foods – such as brown pasta and rice.
Fruits – Fruits are more difficult with gastritis, especially Citrus fruits which are too acidic. Watermelons and bananas are usually ok as are less acidic.
Low-fat foods – lean meat and fish, avoid processed meats. I ate lots of plain Chicken and Salmon, which never gave me any issues.
Probiotic foods – kombucha, kimchi and sauerkraut – These are full of healthy bacteria, which has lots of benefits for your gut.
What to avoid
Coffee – Coffee is highly acidic and contains caffeine which can irritate the stomach lining.
Alcohol – Alcohol is a major irritant of the stomach lining and should be avoided for the first 90 days of healing to give your stomach the best possible chance of healing.
Carbonated drinks – Avoid soft drinks like Cola, Lemonade and Beer.
Spicy foods and fatty foods.
Certain vegetables – Tomatoes, Onions, garlic, and Peppers should be avoided if possible. They are common triggers for Gastritis sufferers.
Weaning off the PPIs
The Next thing I did was start to wean off the PPIs. My stomach was in quite a good place at this point, which I think is important.
One of the reasons many people end up staying on these drugs long term is that when they stop, they get unpleasant side effects, often similar to the symptoms they had when they first started taking them. This is referred to as rebound.
One way to help stop this from happening is to wean off the tablets very slowly. I was taking Lansoprazole 30mg, I told my GP I wanted to come off the tablets and she gave me some 15mg dose capsules.
Week 1 – I started by taking my 30mg dose one day, followed by 15mg the day after, then 30mg again the next day.
Week 2 and 3 – I did this for a week and then the following week I just started taking the 15mg every day, which I did for 2 weeks.
Week 4 – On week 4 I just took a 15mg tablet every other day.
Then I stopped taking any tablets, but I did buy a bottle of Gaviscon advance Gaviscon Heartburn and Indigestion
Liquid, Double Action, Mint Flavour, 600 ml which lots of people said was fantastic at this stage of weaning off. If had any acid symptoms I would have a couple of spoonsful of this, and it really did help.
The amount of time it takes to wean off will depend on how long you have been on the PPI’s in the first place. Generally, the longer you have been taking them the longer you should take weaning off.
Sometimes people will transfer on to an H2 blocker when weaning off PPI’s. Your GP is the best person to ask about this.
Obviously, not everyone should wean off PPIs, this is certainly something you should discuss with your GP/Doctor first.
Supplements
Supplements made a huge difference in my healing journey. I used slippery elm powder, Zinc L carnosine and probiotics as well as a few others too.
See my post – Herbs and supplements for Gastritis to see more details on these.
Celery Juice
I also had a great experience using Celery juice. I was very sceptical about using this and didn’t expect to see much of a change, but it made a huge difference to my symptoms.
I have written a post about my experience with Celery juice, as well as a step-by-step guide to making it, with or without a juicer – Heal your Gastritis with Celery Juice
How long to heal from Gastritis
It took roughly 6 months for me to heal, with me following the Gastritis healing book diet strictly, taking the supplements I mention and avoiding alcohol and NSAIDs.
It’s been over a year now since I have felt better and can now eat and drink as normal. Saying this I will always be cautious with certain foods and drink.
I tend to avoid coffee as I know my stomach just doesn’t like it; I do drink alcohol now but always in moderation. I will never touch NSAIDS and always take Paracetamol/Tylenol instead.
If you are considering taking a step to healing your stomach naturally then I would certainly urge you to do so. My whole digestive system just works better, and I feel healthier than I have in years.
But everyone’s issues and problems are different, so you do need to discuss this with your doctor. Some people’s gastritis may need a much longer course of PPIs.
That’s so amazing you were able to heal yourself naturally! It’s really inspiring. I’m trying to get off of PPIs.. I was on it for about 4 weeks. However, when I came off of them (no tapering) I was experiencing really bad nausea (a symptom I never had beforehand). Unfortunately, I ended up going back on ppi because I couldn’t handle the nausea. Do you recall having nausea while coming off your ppi? If so, does it subside eventually? Any tips for handling nausea? I appreciate you reading this! Many thanks!!
Hi Lisa, Sorry that coming off the PPIs wasn’t easy for you. I do think coming off slowly makes a lot of difference, I stopped mine over the course of a month and it seemed to work with no nausea. Did you feel better on the PPIs and were you in a good place i.e no symptoms when you stopped taking them ?
I have erosive antral gastrisitis. Can it be healed in natural way? I am taking ppi since two months.
Hi Mikesh, Please follow the advice of your Doctor, it may be that you still need to be on PPIs. Many Supplements can be taken alongside medication safely and will help your stomach heal. Then once you are starting to feel better and your Doctor advises you could wean off the PPIs, you can just use the supplements to improve your stomach health and hopefully avoid getting Gastritis again. Hope that helps.
Thanks for your inspiring story. I’m going on 9 months now I just weaned off ppi and I’m wondering what your meals were for a typical day? Did you eat 5 small meals a day? Thanks for any tips.
Hi Lozi, thanks for your kind words, it’s really appreciated. When I was healing my meals were basically very plain. I would have 3 smaller meals and then snacks in between. I have an example of a typical day on this page Soothe Gastritis fast which gives you some idea. Mainly though it was a plain chicken breast or Salmon, with some new potatoes and green beans. Rice and plain pasta were ok for me too. Everyone is different though, luckily Gluten doesn’t bother me. I obviously avoided things like coffee and alcohol until I was completely healed. saying that I still don’t drink coffee as I feel it’s something that may be a trigger for me.
Glad you are managing to wean off the PPIs, although they do help I feel that my digestive system never really recovered properly till I came off of them. Good luck on your journey!
cant i take supplements now? my constipation is not going away. i tried many things as high fiber diet and lots of water but this too didnt helped me. i am thinking of taking probiotics. will it be helpful as i am on ppi.
I have found probiotics helpful with constipation, so it’s certainly worth a try. I also often have prunes short term and they make a big difference to me too as well as psyllium husk.
Hi Sam
After being diagnosed with gastritis a couple of months ago I knew I didn’t want to stay on Omeprazole so reading this story has been the biggest help for me, mentally and physically!
I would like to ask, while following the diet from the book it seems everything needs to be dairy and gluten free, would this mean you would buy items from the supermarket which were dairy and gluten free or would you still only use whole foods made by yourself so you knew of every ingredient?
Did you also do the diet for 6 months solid or in this 6 month period did you start to introduce gluten and dairy back into your diet etc.?
It’s my fourth day of celery drinking and I have finally gotten used to it! Yay!
Excited to go on this journey and hopefully go back to eating normal by Christmas!
Thanks so much for sharing your story! 🙂 x
Hi Steph, Thanks for your kind words, I’m glad you are finding the site helpful. I personally didn’t completely cut out Gluten, as I didn’t seem to have any issues with it, but I did cut down and tried not to eat any bread. As for dairy I did swap to Almond milk and avoided cheese for a couple of months(so not 6 months). This was so hard as I do love cheese and bread.
It’s great you are doing ok with the Celery juice, I had brilliant results with it.
Hoping you start feeling better soon x
Hi! Just reading your advice about celery juice. Looked at Amazon and there is an organic powder…would that be okay do you think? Thank you
So sorry for the delay in replying. It does really need to be freshly made celery juice rather than a powder. It is a bit of a pain making it but it’s so worth it, it really helped my symptoms at the time. I ended up investing in a juicer machine in the end which made life so much easier.
Did you cut out dairy and gluten too like it says to int he book? I don’t want to give up my kefir yoghurt! Stomach pain and chest pain getting better but can’t shift the acid reflux and heartburn 🙁 miss my social life
So sorry for the long delay in replying. I didn’t cut out dairy or Gluten as I never seemed to have any issues with these, but I did tend to limit how much I had, I was fine with a small amount of cheese but I swapped to almond milk just to avoid having too much dairy. How are you feeling now? it’s a miserable condition isn’t it and I know what you mean about the social life.
Hi, This is so inspiring. I am also following the Healing Gastritis book by Capellan. And It was really helpful. I am happy about your healing journey. If you dont mind me asking, what was you diagnosis back then? How long did you feel that you are feeling better than the first day? And were you able to maintain or gain weight back? Thank You in Advance
Thanks for your comment. I was just diagnosed with Gastritis but had been suffering with lots of symptoms for a few years. It took me between 3-6 months to start to feel better, after a following a strict diet, no alcohol, coffee, chocolate etc. Starting to get an appetite again was the first sign that things were improving.
Yes my weight is back to normal now after losing a couple of stone. Hope you start to feel better soon.
Did you get diagnosed by having an endoscopy? Thanks in advance x
Yes I had an endoscopy about 18 months after starting to have issues. My doctor just treated my symptoms for a long time before he referred me for any investigations. Although uncomfortable I was pleased to actually have my stomach looked at and get a proper diagnosis.