Supplements for Gastritis: What Actually Supports Your Stomach Lining

Your stomach lining is a living barrier that renews itself continuously, and it is built to handle digestive acid without breaking down. When that barrier weakens, the burning and gnawing that follow can take over your day. This guide covers what human research actually shows about supplements for gastritis: which ones carry real trial data, which are preliminary, and which are popular but unproven.

Why Your Stomach Lining Is Built to Take a Beating

Your stomach does not resist acid with a hard shell. It resists acid with a layered defense system that works in real time, and every layer has a job.

The first layer is mucus. Sticky and continuous, it coats the stomach wall and keeps acid and digestive enzymes away from the cells beneath it. Mixed into that mucus is bicarbonate, which neutralizes acid right at the surface.

The second layer is the epithelium. These surface cells sit shoulder to shoulder, sealed at their edges so nothing slips between them, and they are replaced continuously as old ones wear out.

The third layer is blood flow. Blood brings oxygen and nutrients to the mucosa and carries waste away. When blood flow drops, the lining has less material to work with.

Prostaglandins hold the system together. These local signaling molecules help keep mucus and bicarbonate production up and blood flow steady. Think of them as the maintenance crew. When a medication blocks prostaglandins, all three defense layers weaken at the same time.

> A healthy gastric mucosa is not a wall that acid fails to break. It is a balance the body keeps restoring, hour by hour.

That balance is the whole story. Supplements get studied for stomach lining support because researchers think they might help the body hold that balance. Whether they actually do is a separate question, and it is the question the rest of this article answers.

What Actually Causes the Lining to Break Down

Most cases trace back to one of five pathways. Knowing which one applies to you changes what is worth doing.

• NSAIDs and other prostaglandin blockers. Ibuprofen, naproxen, aspirin, and similar drugs reduce prostaglandin production, which weakens mucus, bicarbonate, and blood flow at once. This is the pathway most people recognize in their own routine.
• H. pylori infection. This bacterium lives inside the mucus layer, where acid struggles to reach it, and it keeps the surrounding lining inflamed.
• Alcohol. Alcohol irritates the mucosa directly, and frequent drinking leaves little recovery time between exposures.
• Chronic stress and cortisol. Sustained stress keeps cortisol elevated. A proposed mechanism is that this reduces blood flow to the stomach over time, though that pathway is less firmly established than the NSAID one.
• Autoimmune atrophic gastritis. Here the immune system targets the stomach's own acid-producing cells, so the stomach secretes less acid and less intrinsic factor over time.

H. pylori deserves the numbers, because it is far more common than most people assume. A 2017 systematic review and meta-analysis covering 184 studies in 62 countries estimated that approximately 4.4 billion people worldwide carried H. pylori in 2015 (1).

Prevalence swings widely by region. Pooled prevalence ran from 24.4% in Oceania to 70.1% in Africa, and between individual countries it ranged from 18.9% in Switzerland to 87.7% in Nigeria.

> Approximately 4.4 billion people worldwide were estimated to carry H. pylori in 2015 (1).

The Supplements With Real Human Evidence

Two interventions in this space have randomized human trials that tested a mucosal or gastric endpoint at a printed dose. That is a low bar, and most of what you read online does not clear it.

Zinc Carnosine

The strongest single trial is a 2022 randomized controlled study of 92 people who tested positive for H. pylori (2). Researchers added zinc carnosine at 75 mg twice daily to a 10-day modified bismuth quadruple therapy that also included bismuth subcitrate at 240 mg twice daily, and compared that regimen with a standard 14-day triple therapy. The measured outcome was a repeat 13C-urea breath test four weeks after treatment ended.

Read the framing closely, because it matters. Zinc carnosine was studied as one part of an eradication regimen, not as a standalone supplement. The trial does not tell us what zinc carnosine does on its own.

A 2026 systematic review adds context from a different angle (3). It pooled 22 studies, 21 of them randomized trials, on natural products and probiotics for NSAID-induced small intestinal injury. In that review, indomethacin-induced intestinal hyperpermeability was reduced in the studies of lactoferrin, zinc carnosine, and fish protein hydrolysate. The authors rated the evidence generally low or very low and called their findings hypothesis-generating. Take that at face value rather than reading past it.

Sulforaphane From Broccoli Sprouts

The other solid human trial tested food. In a 2009 randomized study, 48 people infected with H. pylori ate 70 g of broccoli sprouts per day, supplying 420 µmol of sulforaphane precursor, for 8 weeks (4). The placebo group ate the same weight of alfalfa sprouts, which contain no sulforaphane.

The broccoli sprout group showed decreases in urease on the urea breath test, in H. pylori stool antigen, and in serum pepsinogens I and II. The first two track H. pylori colonization, and the pepsinogens are markers of gastric inflammation.

Now the caveat, because it is the most important sentence in this section. Those values returned to their original levels two months after the sprouts stopped. The changes tracked the food while it was being eaten, not a permanent shift. The same study's mouse arm found less bacterial colonization and less corpus inflammation, and that effect was absent in nrf2-knockout mice, which points toward Nrf2-dependent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory proteins.

Side by side, the two trials tested different things. One used 75 mg of zinc carnosine twice daily inside a 10-day regimen. The other used 70 g of broccoli sprouts daily for 8 weeks. Neither tested a supplement taken by itself for stomach lining support.

The Supplements With Only Preliminary Evidence

Everything below has either a small human study or a plausible mechanism. None of it has evidence strong enough to promise you an outcome.

• Mastic gum. A 2026 randomized, single-blind pilot study tested mastic gum as an adjunct to standard bismuth quadruple therapy for H. pylori eradication (5). A pilot is a first look, not a verdict, so file this under preliminary and nothing more.
• Probiotics. A 2026 randomized controlled trial combined probiotics with vonoprazan-amoxicillin dual therapy for H. pylori eradication, using Bacillus subtilis dual viable bacteria capsules (6). The rationale was restoring gut bacteria that treatment disrupts. Effects in this field are strain-specific and outcome-dependent, so the result belongs to that strain and that regimen, not to probiotics as a category.
• Curcumin, catechins, and quercetin. A 2025 review reported consistent suppression of H. pylori virulence pathways and gastric inflammation across clinical and preclinical studies of these plant compounds (7). That is a consistent signal, not a standard dose. The review reports no standardized dose for this use, so there is no number to give you.

Notice what these have in common. Every one was studied alongside eradication therapy or as a laboratory finding, never as a replacement for medical treatment.

The Popular Ones the Evidence Does Not Support

This section exists because you deserve to know where the evidence stops. Plenty of pages will list a remedy and move on. Here is the honest version.

DGL (Deglycyrrhizinated Licorice)

DGL appears on almost every natural remedy list for stomach complaints, and it has a long history of traditional use. The modern human evidence is not there.

The studies that surfaced in this review are preclinical. One is a 2024 rat study of licorice flavonoid in ethanol-induced gastric injury (8). The other is a 2025 systems biology and experimental analysis of Glycyrrhiza glabra mechanisms (9). No modern human randomized controlled trial for DGL surfaced in this review. That does not make DGL worthless or unsafe. It means nobody has run the human trial that would let us tell you what it does in people, and we will not borrow strength from the zinc carnosine data to make it look stronger than it is. If you want to try DGL, that is a conversation to have with your doctor, and you should walk in knowing what the evidence does and does not show.

Aloe Vera

Aloe vera shows up on nearly every natural remedy list too. No qualifying human trial surfaced in the targeted search for this review. Popularity is not evidence.

Glutamine

Glutamine is often recommended for intestinal permeability, which is why it shows up on these lists. No human randomized trial on the gastric mucosa surfaced for this review. The general barrier research exists. The specific claim people make about it does not have a human trial behind it.

> A short list of supplements with real trials beats a long list of maybe. Ask what was measured, in whom, at what dose, and for how long.

The H. pylori Question

Here is the most important thing to understand about H. pylori: eradicating it is an antibiotics job.

Eradication regimens are built from antibiotics combined with bismuth and acid suppression. A 2025 review on therapeutic advances documents rising global antibiotic resistance and the shift toward bismuth-based and vonoprazan-based quadruple regimens (7). Supplements do not substitute for any of that.

Look back at the trials in this article and the pattern is consistent. Zinc carnosine was added to a quadruple regimen. Mastic gum was added to bismuth quadruple therapy. Probiotics were added to dual therapy. Every supplement with human data was studied as an adjunct alongside eradication therapy, never as a replacement for it. Non-antibiotic approaches remain an active research area precisely because resistance is a real problem, not because a supplement has taken the place of antibiotics (10).

Testing matters for a second reason. Atrophic gastritis reduces the stomach's secretion of acid and intrinsic factor over time, and that combination leads to vitamin B12 deficiency. A 2026 cohort study followed 213 people with corpus atrophic gastritis and vitamin B12 deficiency for more than 12 months, the population in which that deficiency is documented (11).

That is a deficiency your doctor can measure and manage, and it is one more reason to get a proper diagnosis instead of guessing. The schedules studied in that cohort were intramuscular cyanocobalamin injections: 5000 µg every 5 days for three doses, then every three months or every two months. Those are clinical injection schedules, not supplement doses, and oral products are not equivalent to them.

A 2026 evidence summary on chronic atrophic gastritis follow-up gathered 32 evidence points across 8 domains, including H. pylori eradication management and endoscopic surveillance (12). This is a condition that needs medical follow-up, not a supplement aisle.

What to Change in Your Diet and Habits

No supplement can outrun a habit that keeps irritating your stomach. Diet and daily habits are the cheapest levers you have, and they work alongside medical care rather than instead of it. Start with what is directly in front of you.

Remove the irritants first.

• If you take NSAIDs regularly, ask your doctor whether a different option fits your situation.
• If you drink alcohol, cutting back gives the mucosa time to recover between exposures.
• If you smoke, stopping supports the blood flow the mucosa depends on.

Change how you eat, not just what you eat.

• Eat smaller meals more often instead of one or two large ones.
• Eat slowly, and stop before you feel stuffed.
• Leave about three hours between your last meal and lying down for the night.

Track your own triggers. People commonly report coffee, spicy food, citrus, and tomato as triggers, but this varies a great deal from person to person. Keep a short log of what you ate and how you felt, then drop the two or three items that line up with your worst days.

Treat sleep and stress as part of the diet. Sustained stress is one of the proposed contributors here, so protecting your sleep and building one reliable stress outlet into your week is not soft advice. It addresses a contributor, not the cause.

When to See a Doctor

Talk to a doctor before you start experimenting with supplements for gastritis. See one promptly if you notice any of the following:

• Vomiting blood, or vomit that looks like coffee grounds
• Black, tarry stools
• Sudden, severe, or worsening pain
• Trouble swallowing, or food that feels stuck on the way down
• Unexplained weight loss
• Persistent vomiting
• Feeling full after only a few bites
• Signs of anemia, such as fatigue, shortness of breath, or pale skin

Also see a doctor if symptoms last more than a week or two, or if they keep returning after they settle. Chronic gastritis and atrophic gastritis need medical follow-up, including testing and in some cases surveillance over time (12).

This article is education, not a diagnosis. Nothing here replaces a conversation with your own physician about your own case.

If you and your doctor decide a supplement is worth trying, these are the ones we carry that fit this topic, and you can browse the full Digestion - Gastrointestinal collection for more.

What We Recommend

References

1. Hooi JKY, Lai WY, Ng WK, Suen MMY, Underwood FE, Tanyingoh D, Malfertheiner P, Graham DY, Wong VWS, Wu JCY, Chan FKL, Sung JJY, Kaplan GG, Ng SC. "Global Prevalence of Helicobacter pylori Infection: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis." Gastroenterology, 2017. PMID 28456631. DOI 10.1053/j.gastro.2017.04.022
2. Ibrahim N, El Said H, Choukair A. "Zinc carnosine-based modified bismuth quadruple therapy vs standard triple therapy for Helicobacter pylori eradication: A randomized controlled study." World Journal of Clinical Cases, 2022. PMID 35071521. DOI 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i1.227
3. Hwang JH, Choi YK. "Protective Effects of Natural Products, Functional Foods, and Probiotics on NSAID-Induced Small Intestinal Injury: A Systematic Review with Mechanistic Considerations of Oxidative Stress and Microbiome Modulation." Antioxidants (Basel), 2026. PMID 42510634. DOI 10.3390/antiox15070903
4. Yanaka A, Fahey JW, Fukumoto A, Nakayama M, Inoue S, Zhang S, Tauchi M, Suzuki H, Hyodo I, Yamamoto M. "Dietary sulforaphane-rich broccoli sprouts reduce colonization and attenuate gastritis in Helicobacter pylori-infected mice and humans." Cancer Prevention Research, 2009. PMID 19349290. DOI 10.1158/1940-6207.capr-08-0192
5. Tulsian V, Kant R, Patnaik I, Khapre M, Meena K, Routhu B. "Mastic gum as an adjunct therapy to standard bismuth quadruple therapy for Helicobacter pylori eradication: A randomized single-blind pilot study." Indian Journal of Gastroenterology, 2026. PMID 41832367. DOI 10.1007/s12664-026-01968-8
6. Fan Y, Wang H, Yang Q, Niu C, Zhao J, Fei C, Wang X, Gao J, Zhang Z. "Vonoprazan-amoxicillin dual therapy combined with probiotics for Helicobacter pylori eradication: a prospective, multicenter, randomized controlled trial." BMC Gastroenterology, 2026. PMID 41998531. DOI 10.1186/s12876-026-04820-7
7. Suresh V, Sreekumar A, Kumar A, Sadasivan S, Biswas R, Biswas L. "Therapeutic advances and future directions in Helicobacter pylori eradication." Frontiers in Microbiology, 2025. PMID 41415806. DOI 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1652943
8. Guo Y, Wu Y, Huang T, Huang D, Zeng Q, Wang Z, Hu Y, Liang P, Chen H, Zheng Z, Liang T, Zhai D, Jiang C, Liu L, Zhu H, Liu Q. "Licorice flavonoid ameliorates ethanol-induced gastric ulcer in rats by suppressing apoptosis via PI3K/AKT signaling pathway." Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 2024. PMID 38301986. DOI 10.1016/j.jep.2024.117739
9. Matte S, Wanjari M, Nalban N, Tamboli M, Jamadagni P, Bagde V, Kolhe R, Gurav A. "Pharmacological mechanisms of Glycyrrhiza glabra in peptic ulcer: a systems biology and experimental approach." In Silico Pharmacology, 2025. PMID 41113164. DOI 10.1007/s40203-025-00429-y
10. Shadvar N, et al. "A review for non-antibiotic treatment of Helicobacter pylori: new insight." Frontiers in Microbiology, 2024. PMID 38774508. DOI 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1379209
11. Schiavone FP, Pivetta G, Scalamonti S, Pompili M, Magnante M, Esposito G, Annibale B, Lahner E. "Intramuscular Cyanocobalamin Treatment in Patients with Corpus Atrophic Gastritis and Vitamin B12 Deficiency: Efficacy and Predictors of Increased Requirement-A Monocentric Longitudinal Real-Life Cohort Study." Nutrients, 2026. PMID 41599884. DOI 10.3390/nu18020271
12. Li S, Zhao L, Zhang X, Yao Y, Guo Y, Ruan W. "Follow-Up Management in Patients with Chronic Atrophic Gastritis: An Evidence-Based Summary." Patient Preference and Adherence, 2026. PMID 42605303. DOI 10.2147/ppa.s623616

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