Garlic tea for gastritis and acid reflux chest pain

I’ve suffered from severe gastritis and GORD related stomach pains since I was a child, and whenever medicine failed to provide relief, I knew there was one thing that would help – My Ma’s garlic tea.

I know what you’re thinking. ‘Ughhhhh, garlic tea?! no thanks.’

But before you move along, just hear me out.

Research shows that garlic offers many health benefits, and has antimicrobial and antifungal properties. 

But as a child I didn’t care about alternative health remedies. I just trusted what my Ma prescribed and the fact that it actually worked!

From a young age I was plagued by frequent pains that would hit my stomach – sometimes the fiery kind behind my breast bone, other times the gnawing kind that made me feel like my insides were aggressively being chipped away at. I felt like I’d throw up my food right after eating, with the sour taste of acid coming up my throat when I burped.  Doctor after doctor said it was acid reflux, then Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GORD or GERD), and eventually in my late twenties after an endoscopy I was diagnosed with gastritis.

Ma knows best

Antacids and other medication have rarely offered me any pain relief, and I would reel from the excruciating pain and curl up in a ball in the wee hours of the morning on the sofa, until my Ma would find me and offer to take me to hospital. I always said no. That’s when she’d go straight to the kitchen to make me garlic tea.

At first, getting me to drink it was a task (who wants to drink garlic?)  but she lightly flavored it with a little sugar, milk and love to improve the taste.

“Just one more sip,” she would say, “one more sip,” every time. I was nine years old…16 years old… 20 years old, and my loving Ma was always off to the kitchen brewing this tea which I learnt to appreciate.

Over the years I’ve been prescribed many different types of medication to manage my condition and the recurring stomach and chest pains. When the pain is severe, medication rarely works, I wriggle in discomfort, unable to sleep and my chest feels sore for days afterwards, to the point that I have no appetite and struggle to eat.

I really wanted to share this with you because I know that unfortunately, many people with fibromyalgia struggle with all sorts of digestive issues, including gastritis, acid reflux and irritable bowel syndrome.

I’m due for another endoscopy soon, but I am hugely, hugely grateful for my Ma’s garlic tea. As soon as I get an inkling of that pain coming on, I head straight for the garlic.

It comforts me to know that although my precious Ma is no longer on this earthly plain, she gave me so much, including a remedy that is still helping me massively, when modern medicine doesn’t ease my pain.

although my precious Ma is no longer on this earthly plain, she gave me so much, including a remedy that is still helping me massively, when modern medicine doesn't ease my pain. Click To Tweet

How to make Ma’s garlic tea

Ingredients

Two to three large cloves of garlic smashed and peeled
Two to three cups of water
Coconut milk to taste

Method

Boil garlic pegs in water for 10 minutes
Coconut milk to taste

Gentle hugs 🙂 x

Photo by Michele Blackwell