Gastritis

[Kimbad1990]

Hello,

Has anyone else experienced gastritis? About a month ago I began to experience on and off upper stomach/rib pain, that I was, at the time, able to ignore. I also noticed I was burping a lot and feeling nauseous. This started to develop daily, so I spoke to a doctor, who prescribed 20mg of Omeprazole daily. 2 weeks in I felt no better, so again phoned the doctors and they said to continue on 20mg and use Gaviscon, if needed. I still feel no better- I would say the only thing is the rib pain isn't so severe. I am a teacher and I am finding it hard to be in work at the moment as I just cannot eat and feel constantly bleugh. Can anyone give me some good news? Will the Omeprazole start to kick in? Does this usually take a while to settle? I'm worried to phone the doctors again as it was only 6 days ago when they told me to continue the Omeprazole and add Gaviscon.

Thank you in advance

[The_OPA Administrator]

Dear Kimbad 1990 please find attached some information about Gastritis. nhs.uk/conditions/gastritis/

You may also wish to visit our website opa.org.uk and request FREE information which we can post out to you. Also another great website is refluxuk.co.uk

Please call us if you wish to speak to anyone we can always give you a call back if you are worried about call charges.

Best wishes

OPA

[Mauser1905]

The GP's will do a lot of trial things before you could be referred to GI team at the hospital for an endoscopy.

Is this reflux you having is frequent before this time?

Diet control, I.e. not eating drinking anything which provokes acid.

Lifestyle control, smoke and alcohol, fizzy drinks etc all are harmful in your conditions. Sleeping in regular healthy pattern is also useful.

Are you prone to anxiety too much? That's a natural accelerator for the reflux

Omeprezole is ppi group medicine and meant to suppress your acid production, so don't expect miracles as such.

When the reflux is initiated you will have intense pain in your oesophagus which you will find as ribcage pain and also called heartburn and often taken as heart problem in error. When the burn happens then only gaviscon advance can soothe for a couple of hours taken orally.

Also h. Pylori test for bacterial infection to be done at some point via your GP, its simple air blow test to find out if this gut infection exists which can cause gastritis.

Tey to avoid any activities which put pressure on your abdomen/stomach. In most cases the anatomy is at fault rather the acid production.

Your acid production is required as part of normal digestion process, issue is that your body isn't able to restrict that acid flowing back up to your throat from stomach.

I can relate to your pain, the more yoh speak and loud the oesophagus will move and qith the acid reflux you will be in agony. Try gaviscon advance liquid and specially be careful to put pressure on stomach. Try more pillows so as to raise your head from your hips at an angle o upward flow is somewhat mitigated in the sleep.

Passive smoke is also harmful for you. Anything carbonated is going to add to more acidity and damage to your oesophagus and throat. You may have teeth yellowed due to long term acid reflux.

[AMerchant in reply to Mauser1905]

Hi. What do you mean by In most cases the anatomy is at fault rather the acid production?

I do spend quiet long hours sitting in my chair since the lockdown started 9 months ago

[Mauser1905 in reply to AMerchant]

Acid production is fundamental requirement for the digestion process. This also acts as a inbuilt barrier to neutralise most of the foreign bad intake.

Your lower oesophageal sphincter (LES) is the non return valve from your mouth to the stomach, located just above stomach. This is pure muscle. This muscle reaction is affected by the chemical balance within the body and lack of regular exercise, combined with alcohol, smoke (active or passive). Hence the mention of stress anxiety in my previous post. If you have been in chair for most of the day fir last months meaning the muscles at the LES are relaxed too much. Plus potentially other chemical balance related things adversely affecting the control of the valve.

The mental health aspect is a majority influencer in the GERD trigger. But not much appreciated by the clinical community.

If this issue could only be fixed with medicines successfully then we wouldn't be having this forum.