healing gastritis

I'm 21 and was diagnosed with chronic gastritis and hiatus hernia 7 months ago by an endoscopy. They never said whether it was mild or severe but did say very bad inflamation. Since then I've been on lansoprazole (tried oprazole but was allergic)
i've also gone to health stores and have been talking slippery elm to ease inflamation 3 times a day and polyenzyme forte before each meal to help with digestion.
I've changed my whole diet - For almost 2 months I've been going lactose/gluten/refinded sugar free and the only meat i eat is chicken and fish. . bar the odd day il cheat a bit but on the whole im eating so healthy.

I also follow all the tips you get off the internet.. taking certain herbs to help (cumin, tumeric, oregano), drink plenty of water, dont eat after a certain time in the evening, small meals, eat regularly, sleep with bed tilted so acid doesnt enter stomach, eating plenty of the foods that promote healing..

some days i do feel ok but i still have symptoms on a daily basis and can be very severe which is so annoying because I really am doing everything I can to cure it. The fact I've had such bad symptoms for well over a year now I'm starting to get really depressed over it - burning in stomach, very bad pains in chest and stabbing pains on the left side just under my boob, alot of pressure under breastbone so that it feels like I can't breathe, feeling so full after meals, nauseous and just very uncomfortable.. the typical symptoms. it's preventing me from doing so much stuff..not only that but I'm so keen to get better because I do worry about the future and stomach/bowel/throat cancer..

I just wondered if anyone had any other tips or natural remedies that could improve my healing because it really doesn't seem to be improving that much.
To anyone with gastritis who replys thanks so much and i have such sympathy for you having to deal with such a horrible stomach problem..

Sorry but I don't actually know, what is the Antrum?? Yes I found that doctors have been pretty much useless in giving me information. They never even mentioned my diet, just said it would get better eventually. It was only when I took it upon myself to go to a nutritional therapist that I was told diet is a big part.

I am wary of trying different medicine because I had tried one other and was allergic and have a lot of allergies, I seem to get very bad side effects and although I do experience side effects from the lansoprazole, they arn't too bad so I'm afraid to try anything else. But I will speak to my doctor about it next time I see her.

My main question is, If you stick to a acid free diet and take the proper medication, will it ever go away? I'm negative for H.pylori and don't drink a lot of alcohol, nor do I take alot of medication so no one could tell me where it came from. . perhaps stress as I suffer quite bad anxiety.. I'm just wondering if there is no serious cause for it will it ever go away and will I ever life a normal life/eat normals foods?

I'm glad you've seen a big improvement in your condition

sarakelly - I don't think it ever completely goes away, it's all about controlling your symptoms, and managing what triggers your gastritis. I also think that if you are still experiencing the same discomfort, you need to speak to your gastro doctor about either changing the medication, or the dosage. A lot of us on this board have suffered from gastritis, GERD and a host of other stomach issues for most of our lives. You might want to consider ways of monitoring your stress issues, because that and alcohol could be triggers for you. There are also a lot of things that you can take to relieve the gas pressure and anti-nausea medications. It might be time for a follow-up visit and consider further testing.

Another sufferer here, been over 2 years since I started but I had a big gap where my stomach felt OK. But after a huge tub of chocolate ice-cream I ended up back where I started! Still not over it a few months in :(

My top tips are to really control the quantity you eat, too much is bad. This seems to affect me more than what I eat. Also chew very thoroughly and eat slowly, min 30 minutes for a meal and only eating soft foods, means food is mixed with more saliva and will pass through the stomach faster. The stomach senses lumps in its contents to decide when to turn on/off secretion.

Also stick to a low fibre diet. That means limited vegetables, always cooked never raw as fibre is impossible to digest and the stomach works very hard to try. There are certain foods like cucumber that cause me horrible pain, more so than even fatty foods!

I use pepsin gi from Amazon too, works better for me than carafate. Plus some ranitidine at night.

Oh and GINGER! brilliant for nausea, and it is a natural anti inflammatory. I take capsules cos I hate the taste.

And finally drink plenty of warm water, sip it after meals to try and keep acid diluted but again watch how much because too much makes the stomach expand which is painful