I think I know the answer to the age question. I read somewhere that the older you get, your stomach lining gets kind of thinner so you're more likely to develop gastritis. What your doc probably meant is that it's kind of natural for your stomach lining to be irritated at your age. but of course a proper gastritis needs treating.
As to the term 'gastritis', my sister who's a doc told me that really often an irritation of the stomach lining (it just gets kind of red and sore) is called gastritis though it is not really a proper inflammation which is the actual gastritis. But many people call it gastritis, like the common cold is called 'the flu' by many people.
As to what to eat, that's difficult. I read somewhere that eating more protein helps because your stomach might produce excessive acid because it empties to0 quickly. You need to keep your stomach busy (a bit like your colon) for it to be healthy. You also should try not to get too hungry (also bad for IBS) and avoid sweets (and peppermint tea!!).
Otherwise it's probably best to use medication which can be very effective and has hardly any side effects, like ranitidine or a proton-pump-blocker. Your stomach lining will heal within days in the absence of excess acid!!
I have developed 'an irritated stomach lining' (gastritis is really a far more effective word for it even if inaccurate) several times in the course of bad IBS attacks because I was trying to eat nothing as I was hoping this would calm down my colon. My stomach didn't like that at all and the acid actually made the IBS worse. In both cases I was then treated with acid blockers and both my stomach and my IBS got better (this didn't help the process of diagnosis though...)
These days I suffer from heartburn a lot, almost every night (it runs in the family, too). In the olden pre-IBS days I used to treat it very successfully by eating raw carrots, an apple or chewing hazelnuts. My dad used to find drinking milk helpful! Sadly, none of this agrees with the IBS diet. I notice that when I eat just carbohydrates for supper (i.e. just rice with carrot) it gets quite unbearable, so I make myself eat some cold turkey breast with it to make it a bit 'heavier'. I also drink quite a lot of water in the evening which helps a bit. When it gets too bad, I resort to my little wonder pills (proton-pump-blocker, Omeprazol) which gives me 48 hours of peace....
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Perhaps a few answers....
