My own experience.
In 2019, out of nowhere, I got a pain in my stomach that lasted for 8 months.
For 56 years of my life, this was my first serious encounter with the medical doctors. Until then, I hardly knew what my doctors looked like. It is not like I did not have any health problems, but all my health concerns in the past I was able to address with my own set of knowledge and experience.
For the first three months of different tests and evaluations, we could not find any logical explanation for this pain. In my case, this stomach pain came as a thunder in the middle of the blue sky.
Things did not get easier when my doctor tested me for Pylori and, I was positive. Because now my doctor was sure that the whole problem was around H. Pylori.
Considering that nothing I have tried from natural medicine worked, I was convinced that eradication of H. Pylori with antibiotics may finally bring me to the resolution of this situation.
The doctor prescribed standard triple therapy with PPI, clarithromycin, and amoxicillin.
I could not do this treatment because on the day two of the treatment I got the reaction to clarithromycin. So, I stopped with the treatment.
Our body is a complex system, and sometimes to get a deep understanding of the specific disorder we need to go through a learning process where our body becomes our own school. Luckily, I have a professional knowledge related to digestive problems. I did a few months of intensive diet and natural therapies after which the stomach pain was gone, but all other symptoms were persisting, and I was still H. Pylori positive. I must admit that testing positive for H. Pylori regardless the fact that I had no more pain in my stomach mislead me to think that it was the H. Pylori that caused all the problem. And, of cause persisting positive lab tests nocked me out of my relaxing zone.
I decided to go for another antibiotic trial, but this time I made a private lab test to know which antibiotics was the best tolerated by my body.
Eradication of H. Pylori can be quite challenging because it is well adapted to live the human stomach. It took me one and a half years to eradicate H. Pylori. After two attempts of antibiotics the H. Pylori was gone forever, BUT NOT THE SYMPTOMS! The loss of weight, no appetite, a lot of mucus, tension under the ribs and in the esophagus, and headache was persisting.
This was the turning point for me to understand that H. Pylori where never the cause of my symptoms!
Now, after the eradication I was open to look for other reasons.
Step by step, I get to face the real cause of all my digestive problems. IT WAS NOT MY STOMAACH! It were several other reasons, some related to digestive organs, and some had no relation to digestion system at all.
It was the wisdom of TCM that brough me to the right resolution. Step by step I understood the “cause and effect” connections. It also took time to deal with the stress that was created by chasing “pylori”. I will say that stress is almost always going hand in hand with chronic, non-healing conditions, especially digestive.
In total, it took me three years to become free of “chronic gastritis”.
Only when I addressed the correct reasons, did my digestion start healing, and my symptoms were improving one by one.
I must deal with several issues to get these results. Some of them were balancing other digestive organs like liver and spleen (by TCM theory), microbiome in the guts, emotional traumas, and some others.
I wished I knew better right from the beginning, but at the same time you cannot buy such experience for money or learn it from the book. Live experience was the best teacher in my case.
I am now understanding why gastritis becomes “chronic”
There are several reasons
The fundamental reason is the way medical doctors look at it. If the symptoms are in the stomach, they will only look in the stomach.
If they find something in the stomach, the treatment is standard for everyone, regardless of their findings they will prescribe triple therapy of PPI plus two antibiotics.
When you do not respond to the antibiotic treatment, you will be given PPI, more likely for the rest of your life.
OTHER REASONS FOR CHRONIC GASTRITIS DIAGNOSES:
In conventional medicine misdiagnoses can be the reason where treatment of the wrong cause produces the wrong effects.
One more case of stomach-related problem that was not gastritis
One member of my family had something going on with his digestion for about 15 years. It started with the occasional feeling of food not going down smoothly during eating. First Gastroscopy did not show any visual problem, and the complaint of stagnant food was not examined feather. With time, he started waking up in the night from the cough, a lot of mucus and some acid reflux feeling in the esophagus. During the day he was having more problems with eating, and one day he could hardly put food down into his stomach.
On examination the doctor prescribed him strong PPI, assuming that it was the GERD causing the problems. PPIs were giving incredible discomfort and a lot of acid reflux. Luckily, my family member was also sent for a barium meal and another gastroscopy to find out that he had Achalasia, a motility problem in the esophagus.
Extra examinations were done because, at this point, the symptoms were extreme.
The problem with PPI in this situation is that it reduces stomach acid, and can slow down the food passage through the stomach which in turn will worsen the symtoms.
There are several disorders of the esophagus that can be mistaken for gastritis because it has some similar symptoms. These are some of the examples:
Epiphrenic Diverticula
Most patients with epiphrenic diverticula present asymptomatically. They may present with dysphagia(difficult food passage) or chest pain, regurgitation, epigastric pain, anorexia, weight loss, chronic cough, and halitosis.
Achalasia
The presenting symptoms consist of dysphagia, regurgitation, and weight loss. However, heartburn, postprandial choking, and nocturnal coughing are commonly seen.
Ineffective Oesophageal Motility
Symptoms
The symptoms of IEM are mixed but patients usually present with symptoms of reflux and dysphagia. Heartburn, chest pain, and regurgitation are noted.
Nonspecific Oesophageal Motor Disorders
Patients with NEM present with chest pain and dysphagia and tend to experience more reflux symptoms and regurgitation than patients with other defined disorders
.
The text is taking from this link: Esophagus | Thoracic Key
As you can see, in conventional medicine correct diagnoses can only come with correct testing and it is easy to misdiagnose gastritis because the symptoms could be so similar.
HOW GASTRITIS IS DIAGNOSED IN TCM
Looking at chronic gastritis from TCM perspective.
In TCM chronic gastritis described under 12! Different disharmonies.
Depending on the symptom’s combination, TCM looks for a specific pattern in the combination of presented symptoms. The disharmony can be belonged to a specific organ or systems of the organs.
There are about 27 herbal prescriptions to treat chronic gastritis. The right prescription can be found after the consultation with a trained in TCM practitioner, who will look at the total of presented symptoms, the diet, lifestyle, tongue, and pulse of the patient and identify the right pattern to treatment. After the analysis of all findings, the practitioner may prescribe several herbal combinations. Patients may start with one herbal combination, and as the symptoms changes, a new combination may be prescribed accordingly until disappearance of the symptoms.
For example:
Gastritis that is caused by stagnation of liver energy will have these symptoms:
Abdominal fullness, belching, rib side pain, fever and chills, stiff sensation in the chest that causing to have deep sighs and frustration.
The formula that will be recommended is Chai Hu Shu Gan San. The herbs combination in this formula will work to “open “the liver energy and relieve the symptoms. This formula usually taking over several months to achieve complete clearance of the symptoms.
Sometimes, this formula may be combined with another formula, for example with the herbs that give energy to the body and specifically work with the spleen meridian.
The extra symptoms that will be present together with other symptoms will be:
Pale complexion, poor appetite, loose stool.
Si Jun Zi tang or other spleen strengthening combinations may be given together with live herbs to strengthen the spleen organ and help to bring body energy up to achieve the clearance of the symptoms. As with the Conventional medicine, TCM will work when diagnoses are right, and followed with the right prescription.
SUPPLEMENTARY THERAPIOTIC METHODS I USED IN MY GASTRITIS JOURNEY ARE:
Test that I used for microbiome, and choosing the right antibiotics was GI Mat private lab test. It made it clear my treatment plan with antibiotics plus balancing all other pathological bacteria that came up on the GI MSAP test.
Devices I was using for the regulation of energy through the organs.
PAPIMI – a device to activate cells’ capacity to optimize the cellular absorption of nutrition and supplementations.
MiHealth – a device from the NES health company to stimulate the Vagus nerve, activate some energy flow through the digestive organs, and circulation of blood.
Other treatments I used:
Acupuncture
Meditation
Vacuum cups
Massage
Yoga
Nature walking
Medical nutrition for gastritis.
Medical disclaimer.
The information in this article is for educational purpose only.
We strongly recommend to contact your professional health provider for your medical diagnoses and treatments.
If you don’t have any medical background, We strongly recommend not to use self-diagnoses and self-treatment based on information in this article.
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