Can You Cure Gastritis Permanently

A number of factors and conditions can hurt your stomach, causing inflammation of the stomach lining called gastritis (one of common digestive problems). Some effective treatment options are available to cope with. But sometimes it may return after treatment and become chronic. So can it be cured permanently?

With prompt treatment, you should be able to recover completely and the condition may never come back afterwards. But this is also dependent on what causes your gastritis!

In general, the disease is caused by one or some of the following things[1]:

1. H-pylori bacterial infection. Many people with the infection don’t develop gastritis. But some people are more sensitive to H-pylori infection, making gastritis more likely to occur. Bad lifestyle factors such as poor diet and smoking may worsen the risk.
2. Regular and long-term use of NSAIDs (aspirin and ibuprofen for examples) or other medications that can damage and inflame the stomach lining. Excessive NSAIDs use may impair a key substance that maintains the protective stomach lining.
3. Stressful events such as; after a major surgery, critical illness, burns, or bad injury. They can trigger acute gastritis.
4. Excessive use of alcohol. Alcohol is not only bad for the liver, but also for the lining of your stomach. Chronic excessive alcohol use can irritate and erode the lining, making it more susceptible to the bad effects of digestive juice (stomach acid and pepsin).
5. In rare cases, gastritis is a consequence of certain conditions such as; autoimmune diseases, sarcoidosis, HIV/AIDs and Crohn’s disease.

Acute gastritis, though it can strike abruptly, often relieves without causing serious problems. Even sometimes it heals on its own without treatment.

However, medical intervention is required if the condition doesn’t relieve with lifestyle measures. For instance, if it’s caused by H-pylori infection, antibiotics are necessary to kill the bacteria and promote healing.

Chronic gastritis is more difficult to treat since it’s more likely to return after treatment. It develops slowly over time. But if the exact cause is known, it’s quite possible to cure the disease. This is especially true if the underlying cause is reversible.

For example, if your chronic gastritis is caused by regular use of NSAIDs, eliminating these pain relievers along with gastritis medications should provide a complete recovery. If necessary, your doctor may suggest switching to another pain reliever that doesn’t provoke gastritis such as Tylenol [2].

However some people cannot completely stop NSAIDs because they need them to help control certain medical conditions. In such case, it’s recommended to use NSAIDs at lowest dose possible.

Permanent healing for gastritis may not be possible if the disease is caused by abnormality body immune system (also called autoimmune gastritis). Without known reason, the immune system attacks healthy stomach cells, including those that make up the stomach lining. This reaction can ruin the stomach’s protective barrier, causing gastritis more likely to form [3].

And as with most autoimmune disorders, there is currently no cure to fix this body’s immune system abnormality. The goal of treatment is to control the condition and prevent its complications. Therefore, it may require ongoing monitoring.

The risk of developing serious complications increases if chronic gastritis’s inflammation continues without treatment.

What’s more?