Gastritis, the symptoms and the cure

Gastritis is inflammation of the stomach lining. This can be due to long term damage, a bacterial infection, or repeated gastro episodes. It can be quick, or develop slowly over a longer timeframe. When gastritis becomes chronic it’s called atrophic gastritis

So What Causes Gastritis?

Gastritis can be caused by regular use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as aspirin and nurofen, excessive alcohol intakeand/or other drugs, or even an H. pylori bacterial infection (a bacteria that lives in the mucous of the stomach lining). Gastritis can also be caused by a stressful physical situation such as surgery, severe burns or trauma . Or it can be caused by an auto immune condition, although this is very much less common. Whatever the cause, you can have gastritis for years if left untreated, especially if you are continuing to irritate your inflamed stomach lining through poor diet or ongoing medication usage.

What are the Symptoms?

A gnawing or burning stomach pain after eating or generally,
A loss of appetite,
Heartburn,
Indigestion,
Nausea and/or vomiting,
Abdominal pain or bloating.

It’s important to note that there are other causes of these symptoms, which is why we should all read and take note of this next section.

When to See Your GP

The first thing you should do is visit your GP to undertake tests including those for a bacterial infection, and to establish the underlying condition. This is especially important if you have blood in your stools or you’re vomiting blood, if you have recently started taking a new medication, or if this condition is going on for more than a week. If there are no bacterial infections present your GP can test to see if a food allergy or other causes are to blame. If you’ve been experiencing gastritis for a while your GP will want to run vitamin B12 tests.

What else can you do?

When it comes to actually healing your stomach lining, there is no quick cure. Reducing your stress and getting more sleep can definitely help. The right diet can also help to ease your symptoms and promote the healing of your stomach lining. However, if you do nothing else, the stomach lining should actually heal itself, so long as you make changes. This includes avoiding foods and drugs which irritate the lining of your stomach and allow it to heal. This is important. This can take time and discipline, but it’s worth it to put the inflamed stomach symptoms to rest.

Read our following popular articles on the next steps:

You can also improve the health of your stomach and ensure that you have plenty of good bacteria in your gastrointestinal tract to suppress the growth of bad bacteria. Read our article on eating for general good gut health here.