Hi, I had my scope done 2 days ago- the doc says everthing is fine except some swelling in the stomach (gastritis). Just waiting for the biospsey - I did have the HP bacteria. I was on PPI's for 1.5 years...Does the biospsey check for Atrophic gastritis ? or just infections (bacterias) and Cancer ?

From readings they say that 90 % of gastritis is caused by the HP bacteria, and the other 10 % from food allergies/stress. 9 months ago I had the fundo surgery. Is is still possible the gastritis is from the stress of the surgery ? is it safe to take HCL when having gastritis ?

The biopsy will check for cancer and HP but I am not sure that atrophic gastritis would be checked also. Atrophic gastritis is characterized by atrophy of the stomach wall with reduced or absent gastric acid secretion. A major cause of atrophic gastritis is h-pylori. A endoscopy may show gastric folds which is a sign of atrophic gastritis. Blood tests may be used too. You have to be careful when taking HCL if you have gastritis. The first thing you want to know is what is causing it. Adding HCL can cause your gastritis to worsen if you are not careful.

I certainly agree with Dan about taking HCL--- it is an Acid and can certainly make things worse!!

Gastritis is inflammation of the stomach lining and can be caused by alot of things but H Pylori bacteria usually causes ulcers-- Dr. Barry Marshall that discovered this bacteria says it's causes about 85% of the pepic ulcers.

Didn't you have The Fundo surgery to prevent stomach acid from coming up the esophagus-- Why do you need HCL??

Harry

Hi - thanks for the replies - yes I had the fundo (stopped the reflux but now have major digestion problems that have appeared 4 months after the surgery). I do not blame the fundo for the digestion problems as I was fine for the first 4 months. I started having the major stomach issues after taking NSAIDS in cream formular for my hand (external cream). I then tested Pos for h-pylori. I have a hard time digesting -escpecially milk/wheat/etc... had all the tests done with NO food allergies according to the allergy tests.

So I am trying to figure out the cause of the gastritis and the digestion problems. Wondering if my use of PPI's has damaged the acid secretion of my stomach (atrophic gastritis question) - and also lead to the h-pylori infection because of the low-acid environment, thus my interest in HCL. So I guess if I try and help my digestive problems with HCL I could also irritate my gastritis...

Any ideas ?

There are always Ideas-- here are some!!

The treatment to get rid of H pylori bacteria is to take 2 antibiotics and a PPI for a week or so and then remain on the PPI for some period. It was discovered that the antibiotic work better in a low acid environment (Italian research). This cure can cause gastritis in some people -- it did for me. Strong antibiotics do that to me.


Digestion can be improved with digestive enzymes. I take digestive enzymes with every meal and they donot contain HCL!!

Alot of people are not allergic to dairy products but are intolerant to them becuase the enzyme that is in raw milk that digests milk sugar--lactose is destroyed during the pasteurization process. The enzyme is lactaid. You can get lactose reduced milk or take Lactaid to help when eating dairy products. Also, yogurt and Kefir is well tolerated because the lactose is use up during the culturin process.

I wish you well---Harry

I agree, HCL is important but not the only ingredient in the digestive process. You can have enough acid to break the food down but inadequate enzymes will cause you malabsorbtion in key materials (protein, amino acids ...). If you have a lactose problem, research it on the web. You will find that there is a ranking of dairy products that range from good to bad if you are having lactose problems. Like Harry said, yogurt (which is probably thought of as a big dairy product), doesn't affect lactose intolerant people as much because of Harry's explanation. The thing to also remember is that there is no sure answer to which or how much, especially digestive enzyme supplements (if that's the problem), is needed because there haven't been large enough studies to help. A lot of times it's trial and error. However, with HCL, trial can cause bad problems so be careful. Take care!