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Digestive enzyme supplements with gastritis

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Posted 10/26/2014 10:15 PM (GMT 0)
I'm wanting to know if anyone with gastritis take digestive enzyme supplements? I'm hearing good things about it but I haven't tried yet.
Posted 10/27/2014 9:21 AM (GMT 0)
I have tried them although not for a long period of time. I think they actually irritated my stomach so made it worse rather than helping. In terms of supplements I have had the most success with, they are DGL, PepzinGI and Slippery Elm. Ginger helps me with nausea too.

Other things that I tried actually made it worse, and included - Mastic Gum, Candex, Aloe Vera, honey & multi-Vitamin tablets
Posted 10/27/2014 4:29 PM (GMT 0)
Hello Andy, thanks for the reply. As for the enzyme supplements, I read that us people with gastritis have to be careful when trying enzyme supplements because most of them have protease in them. Protease will irritate our condition so have to find the kinda that don't put that ingredient in there. I ordered one called Ness formula 601 gastric comfort enzymes, I'll post again and say if they helped or not after I get them. I take everything you mentioned also along with nexium and I take magnesium too cause the nexium was causing me to have low magnesium and made me jittery, headaches, nausea. Now it stopped after I started taking the mag pills. The stomach pains are slowly getting better, I hope it continues! Are you feeling better now? Are those supplements helping you?
Posted 10/27/2014 10:01 PM (GMT 0)
Interesting about the protease, let us know if you find the enzymes help.

The supplements do help me, I've gone from stomach pain eating absolutely anything and wanting to just die and progressed to stomach feels ok eating safe foods in moderate amounts, but get frequent nausea and pain under boths ribs at the bottom, no actual stomach pain though.

I'm thinking maybe there is something else going on, like gall bladder issues, am trying to convince my GI to give me a HIDA scan but he's more interested in my inflamed small bowel despite me not having any symptoms from it.

My biggest problem is weight loss atm, stomach is ok if I eat safe foods, but on this diet Im losing weight. If I try and eat enough to actually put on a bit of weight my stomach cant take it :(
Posted 10/27/2014 11:27 PM (GMT 0)
Yes, it was kind of by accident I came across the thing about protease cause I actually ordered this 1 enzyme supp that was rated #1 but then I looked into more info on if they help people with gastritis, I read an article on it and seen that issue with protease and looked at ingredients of what I just ordered and it has protease so cancelled right away and ordered the one the article said too get, glad I did now! Glad you're feeling better, I think you have it worse than me, I never really lost my appetite too bad but, I just had to cut way down on amounts and can't eat or drink most everything I was. I've lost 35 lbs since march 2014 which is the good thing for me cause I was about 40 lbs over weight. I stopped losing wt about 3 weeks ago, now I keep staying the same. I get the pain in the same spots as you, under both my ribs it is like a burning, scratchy feeling and I get back pains too. Slippery elm seems to sooth that feeling the best...... I was wondering about my gull bladder too but I don't really get nausea or the symptoms I seen for it so I don't think I do have that prob. It's a struggle but, hopefully we can get back to normal. Gotta be patient I guess
Posted 10/27/2014 11:45 PM (GMT 0)
1 more thing...... Have you heard about when you have gastritis, you're not supposed to drink water with meals? You're supposed to leave a time of 20-30 min b4 and after meals of no water because it slows down the digestion process. I've been doing this for months now, I'm not positive if it helps or not but I just go along with it since I've seen that many times on Internet with gastritis talk.
Posted 10/28/2014 12:25 AM (GMT 0)
Hi Jeff,

Have you ever tried Carafate suspension? I have found it to be a really important part of healing my stomach. It can make my stomach feel better instantly, and the relief lasts pretty long. My GI doc said it can last up to six hours. I have a reactive stomach, so I've got lots of experience with gastritis. I am never without a filled script in my house. It works great, and actually helps protect the stomach as it heals. Just a thought!

It takes a lot of time and patience to heal gastritis/esophagitis. Be sure to chew your food carefully and stay away from foods that are rough/scratchy when they enter the stomach. Part of the digestion process involves the stomach mashing the foods, and scratchy irritants can further inflame/irritate the stomach lining.

My GI doc said to wait until my stomach felt "perfect" for two weeks before attempting to introduce more challenging foods. I've always found that if I'm starting to heal and challenge my stomach too soon, it really sets me back.

Good luck with your healing!
Best wishes,
Denise
Posted 10/28/2014 1:04 AM (GMT 0)
Yes I've been taking carafate suspension for a few months now 3-4 x a day and it does help but it's still not healed yet. I realized how much it helps when I forgot to bring the bottle with me 1 week (I'm a truck driver) when I left for 5 days and after 2 days of not taking it, my stomach burned after every meal no matter what I ate! It protects the lining pretty good cause when I got back home and took my reg doses, it got better and has been not too bad lately. I've done the same with thinking I'm healed just cause I went 3-4 days with no pain hardly and sluffed off and ate some no no foods and had beers and the next day it came raging back! No more doing that till I'm completely healed! lol
Posted 10/28/2014 10:13 AM (GMT 0)

Jeff99 said...
1 more thing...... Have you heard about when you have gastritis, you're not supposed to drink water with meals? You're supposed to leave a time of 20-30 min b4 and after meals of no water because it slows down the digestion process. I've been doing this for months now, I'm not positive if it helps or not but I just go along with it since I've seen that many times on Internet with gastritis talk.

Never heard this, I actually find drinking water regularly after meals helps, I think it keeps my stomach diluted.

Interesting you have the same pain under ribs. Do you also get problems having sugary food/drinks? At times I've been having lots of sugar to try and keep my weight up but realised its actually making me worse. I also get light headed and dizzy all the time. After reading up a bit on the gall bladder and pancreas these symptoms seem to suggest problems with one of them, but I've had an MRI, ultrasound and CT scan and they've not found anything besides inflammation in the terminal small bowel.

One of my relatives has to take synthetic enzymes because her pancreas doesn't produce them or something, Im wondering if I have the same thing. Like I said the stomach pain has gone away, its just this kind of ache under ribs and nausea, both brought on by eating more than small amounts of fat or sugar.

I also have severe constipation, on a good week I'll go to the toilet twice, bad week is only once. When I had to take powerful laxatives for my colonoscopy they barely worked, I had to sit on the toilet for an hour and force it all out :/

Post Edited (Andy1986) : 10/28/2014 4:21:35 AM (GMT-6)

Posted 10/28/2014 3:10 PM (GMT 0)
Yes they say the water dilutes the stomach and said that makes digestion slower but who knows if that really causes probs or not. My pain under ribs is more of a burning or raw feeling instead of ache when it flares up and feels worse when stomach is empty. As for the sugary foods, yes they bother me...... I only use honey to sweeten things with and never have sweets or candy anymore cause it irritates stomach, especially chocolate or caramel. I do get constipated sometimes but, then I just take more of the slippery elm and it gets normal again. Do you take the powder form or the capsules? I take the powder and mix in half glass of water till it's a thick substance and drink fast cause it doesn't taste good but sure helps things! I would agree that you should I'd agree that you should have those things checked too, that could be why you get dizzy and nauseous, better to know for sure. Even if the pancreas and GB are normal then you can rule those out and ease your mind. Good luck!
Posted 10/28/2014 5:25 PM (GMT 0)
Yeh Ive got the powder and capsules, disgusting stuff :p I used to mix it in a glass but I just couldn't take the taste anymore, now I usually put the powder in my mouth, add water, swish it around then swallow.

I actually found slippery elm makes my constipation even worse, when I started taking it I didnt go for about a week, and then when I did finally go it felt like a cheese grater was going through my intestines, never been in so much pain there before. I now use S.elm sparingly and haven't had the pain since, have found it good for the stomach pain though so try to balance it.
Posted 10/28/2014 5:50 PM (GMT 0)
Oh I guess everyone's diff haha, it did the opposite for me when I started taking it I went like 4 or 5 times on the first day! Have me the runs, now it doesn't do that but just makes me regular or slightly more than regular. It does taste nasty, I put a little honey in it and helps some but I just down it fast like a shot of whiskey! Lol, whiskey tastes better tho haha. I am having a real good week so far, very little pain at all but, that doesn't mean it can't start up again. I've had good days like these and think I'm almost cured then it came back with a vengeance again and that's really frustrating! When I feel good it's harder to be strict on the diet too cause I get hungrier and crave stuff I shouldn't eat but I'm too scared to do that cause I know what'll happen! Gotta keep the same boring diet till I know it's healed for sure.
Posted 10/12/2015 10:42 AM (GMT 0)
I've experienced gastritis a few years back and from what I remember, my doctor let made me take PPI's plus another drug (which I already forgot). I felt that after taking it for a certain period of time, it has helped with my gastritis. Then I went back and asked if I could take something that would help with my overall digestion and he recommended that I take enzymes. As far as I know, I haven't experienced gastritis since I've started taking enzymes without having to eat certain or limited kinds of food.
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