What Is Gastritis?

Author's Bio: Marcie Vaske, MS, LN, CNS

Hi, and welcome back to our channel.

Today we're going to talk about the causes of gastritis, common symptoms, the different types of gastritis, as well as ways to treat gastritis and even changing some lifestyle factors.

And before we dig in today, my name is Marcie Vaske. I'm a licensed functional nutritionist with Oswald Digestive Clinic, and at Oswald Digestive Clinic, we work with many people who struggle with gut issues, constipation, diarrhea, even gastritis.

And so if you're interested or know someone who is struggling with any kind of GI issues, I'll link our website here where you can easily make an initial appointment. I'm also going to link our free guide, which is Five Ways To Improve Your Gut Health.

[Video Transcript Below Video - it is the same information]

So let's dig back into this topic of

What is gastritis?

And gastritis is really just an inflammation of your stomach lining. And this can lead to different issues in which we will discuss today. And first we want to cover

What are the causes of gastritis?

So one of the first causes of gastritis can be H. pylori infections. And this type of bacteria is common in the development of gastritis. It increases that inflammation of our stomach lining by reducing good bacteria in our stomach and creating just an unhealthy environment.

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Other causes of gastritis will be excessive alcohol. So if you're drinking every day too much every day, a lot of times people are individuals can end up with this gastritis. There are also certain medications that can cause or put you more at high risk for gastritis, and one of 'em is an nsaid. So medications like ibuprofen, and oftentimes we think of them as bit of benign medications.

But if we're taking them frequently every day, a few times a day for different issues like maybe joint pain, muscle pain, whatnot, it can start to cause a breakdown of our stomach lining, which inflames it, and then you end up with gastritis.

There's also autoimmune disorders that can increase the risk of gastritis, and one is pernicious anemia. And with this, this is where your body's immune system is actually attacking the stomach, which can then, of course lead to an inflammation of our stomach lining. And the last two causes of gastritis would be bile reflux, which is just a backup of bile from the small intestine into the stomach, which just sits there and creates constant irritation. And then lastly, chronic stress. And I talk about chronic stress and stress in almost every single video I do because it is so, such a big issue with our body in general.

But of course, chronic stress can increase the risk of gastritis.

So now that we know what causes gastritis,

What are some common symptoms of this issue?

And one of 'em can be just abdominal pain and discomfort, almost like agna or burning sensation in your stomach. There's also going to be nausea or vomiting that can show up as well as bloating, belching, even heartburn. And lastly, some dark tarry looking stools, which is just a sign of bleeding in the Upper GI.

Different Types Of Gastritis

So now we know what can cause gastritis, what does it feel like? But there are different types of gastritis, and this will be helpful in understanding what your next steps can be.

Acute Gastritis

So first, the first type of gastritis is just going to be acute gastritis. This happens when there's excessive alcohol consumed. There is also a high amount of medications consumed, or even that bacterial infection, which I talked about that H. pylori.

This can all bring on gastritis very quickly. And when it comes on quickly, sometimes it does go away quickly with some just care with your digestive system and taking some treatment options in terms of what we'll maybe talk about later and just changing a few foods.

Chronic Gastritis

But also there's chronic gastritis, which this is oftentimes caused from an extended period of time of h pylori. So if you get that acute h pylori infection, it goes away sometimes because of the treatment used to get rid of the h pylori, which is often antibiotics. It then kind of sets up this issue where you're having poor bacterial support in your stomach, your small intestine, and even your large intestine. And so just setting up kind of a negative environment which can keep that gastritis from going away and becoming more chronic.

Also, chronic gastritis can be caused from what I talked about earlier in the bile reflux sometimes where we have that bile just sitting in our stomach, it's just not going away. It's not being able to be broken down properly, which can just cause tons of inflammation of something just sitting in your stomach all the time.

Erosive Gastritis

And then there's also erosive gastritis, and this is where we think about ulcers. You've heard of them, you can get peptic ulcers, you can have these sores in the lining of your stomach, which will create sometimes what you might sense is not just that gnawing and burning sensation, but a very specific part of your stomach that seems much more tender.

Now, we know symptoms. We know what it is. We know the different types of gastritis. So how do you find out for sure?

Where do you get a diagnosis and how can you figure this out?

And there are several different tests that you can do for gastritis. And one is an upper endoscopy where they'll put the scope in through your mouth and down your esophagus and just look at your stomach lining to see where the inflammation may be, check for ulcers, and also just check for any thinning of the stomach lining during this endoscopy.

Oftentimes they'll take a biopsy just to do some further testing. There's also blood tests. And blood tests will look for an h pylori bacterial infection. It'll also look for different signs for anemia, which we, as I noted earlier, can complicate the gastritis. Of course, there are stool tests and stool tests will show, of course the color.

And as we mentioned above, if there's bleeding in the upper gi, you can have dark or tarry looking stools. In addition to that, stool tests will also be able to look for h pylori infections. So not only can you do a blood test, but you can also do stool testing, especially if there's not an acute case of H. pylori. Sometimes it doesn't show up in our blood.

So if you've done some testing, you have all the symptoms, you're really struggling with this,

What are some treatment options that are going to be available to you?

And of course, as I mentioned, if it is an acute H. pylori infection, doing antibiotics is usually the first round to go. So you may have to just rid it and then you deal with the gastritis that may be lurking underneath. And a lot of times that can be helped by the use of digestive enzymes to help things digest better in your stomach if your gut kind of a rest because it's getting extra support.

There's also several other different kinds of supplements, and this is where it's important to work with someone who is very well versed on gut health and supplementation so that you can be on what's going to support you the best.

In addition to any kind of supplementation or any antibiotic of having to get rid of that h pylori infection, there is lifestyle changes and in specifically dietarily. And if you're going through something that's pretty acute or it's just getting worse over time, really taking a deep dive into what you're consuming and getting rid of inflammatory foods, number one.

So just those processed packaged foods and leaning into good proteins, good carbohydrates, healthy fats, a nice well-rounded dietary meal plan or plan of whole foods. Now, in addition to making dietary changes, other lifestyle changes that can be impactful for gastritis is going to be stress. And oftentimes I meet people who do struggle with gastritis and they know and they can feel that stress is a big trigger to flaring up their gastritis even more. And so working towards finding a way to de-stress, and I know as I talk about this all the time, it's not easy to de-stress.

There's always something lurking of stress in our life it seems like. But even though those stresses are there, what can you do on a daily, weekly basis to find a little repeat reprieve? Is it working out? Is that something that relieves your stress? Is it reading a book and just sort of taking time for yourself for 15-30 minutes a day? Is it taking bubble baths? Is it just sitting quietly and maybe meditating? There's so many different options, and really we can talk about all these things work for stress, but it really has to resonate with you.

And so if you're struggling with gastritis, I do recommend trying to find ways to reduce the stress in your daily life or really reduce the stress within your body. Now, in addition to some of the treatment options I talked about above, I also alluded to some different supplementation. One was digestive enzymes.

Another support can be a specific probiotic. We have an abundant amount of lactose, bacillus acidophiluss in our stomach, our esophagus. And when that flora, it gets wiped out by maybe that antibiotic you had to take or just a really unhealthy environment in the stomach, it needs to be, you need to feed it again, right?

So taking something called acidophilus can be very helpful to support a better environment. Along with that, doing ginger teas, which can help to bring down inflammation in the stomach, support digestion in the GI tract or in the stomach. And those things can be very helpful.

As I mentioned, gastritis can really be acute or chronic. And depending on what type of gastritis you're struggling with, will really depend on what kind of treatment and care you give it. But we all know, number one, hands down that we need to work on our stress level because that flares gastritis a lot. And also basically in tandem with that is going to watch what you're eating. And it doesn't have to be anything dramatic or you're on this really tight dietary plan, but more about putting in foods that support you, foods that are nutritious and getting rid of the stuff that just takes us out.

Things like I mentioned, processed food, extra sugary stuff, damaged oils, things like high fructose corn syrup. I mean, those are all going to be toxins and they will all light a fire in your stomach for sure.

So I hope this video was helpful for you today. If you are struggling with gastritis or somebody that is, please make an initial appointment with us down below. I've linked our website where you can do so, and if you have questions, happy to answer them. Please comment in the comment section and enjoy this video and please share with others if it seems right for them.

So thanks for watching today and take care.

functional nutrition dietitian, registered dietitian nutritionist, functional medicine clinic, gut health help, how to improve gut health, functional medicine taking insurance

If you'd like to explore any of this information further or obtain an individualized nutrition plan, you can schedule an initial appointment at our clinic. We also take insurance and some of our clients get full coverage, which is great.