GERD/acid reflux. feeling desparate :-(

[sunshine05]

I've had acid reflux since September, I was on omeprozole and now I'm on Lansoprazole. I've gone from 30mg to 15mg and I wasn't suffering on 30mg but now I'm waking up every morning with a burning throat. It's making me not want to eat at all and I'm already borderline underweight. I'm miserable. I don't want to go up to 30mg again as I feel like I'll never get off these damn pills if I don't reduce them. Anyone tried reducing their dosage? Does the rebound calm down after a while?

Any other ideas/diets? I'm tempted to try low carb diet to see if that helps. Nothing I eat seems to make it better. I'm trying to limit caffeine and only drink once a week though haven't had a drink since this throat burning at all. I also have IBS so avoid wheat and only have milk in my tea/coffee. I'm also taking apple cider vinegar but it doesn't seem to help much.

sod it. I've ordered Fast Tract Digestion off Amazon. £20 as I think it comes from the US. Oh well got to try something! I will keep taking the pills but I have to see if diet changes help otherwise I could be on this for years. I'll let you know how it goes.... if anyone is interested!

It's not what you want to hear but giving up the coffee is really what you need to do if you're suffering this badly .

Dame I know you're right but oh god this has coincided with the toddler deciding to wake up at 5.30 every morning. Then the 5 year old woke because of bad dreams and hubby is away. It's killing me and usually I'd cope by drinking coffee but now I can't.

I really am so depressed about it all.

Have you tried chewing gum yet?

I've taken your chewing-gum advice, Dame. It's really having an effect, so thank you.

Another thing I read on the internet and which seemed completely off the wall has, bizarrely, seemed to help a lot.....believe it or not, blowing up a balloon, slowly, a few times. It's probably one for the hiatus hernia sufferers amongst us.....I suppose it's really just a way of working the diaphragm. It feels a bit like rebalancing the pressure in your ears when you're on a flight.

sunshine, sorry you're suffering so much

I keep gum in every pocket and handbag now,it's magic

I sympathise op I think I have either gerd or a hiatus hernia haven't been for an endoscopy yet but I take omeprazole and peptac liquid when really bad.

I've had it for 6 years now had my first attack when DD was 2, really horrendous stomach pains in the middle like the pain you get when you're hungry a knawing pain and feeling sick, as though if I could be sick id feel better but couldn't be sick.

Started on lanso but it didn't work and then went on to domperidone which helped as I wasn't eating much by this point either. Then I went on to omeprazole which does help but if I'm having s particularly bad time t doesn't help.

Had a scan to check for gallstones and everything on with that and things in there. Had blood tests and nothing coming back. Had an X-ray but dr at hospital said you would see a hiatus hernia on an X-ray but there wasn't one so I don't know I'm managing

I haven't read the whole thread - but I can sympathise totally with you. I have flare ups of this resulting in pain between my ribs, chest pain and palpitations. I've had blood tests, gall bladder/tummy ultrasound and X-ray but nothing found.

The medication I found really helps is ranitidine - along with weekly back massage (I'm assuming it's related because since I started it it's eased significantly). Anyway i can't continue forever because of pennies but it may be worth you trying a few sessions?!

no I haven't tried gum yet. do you chew mint free? Just because I know mint makes my reflux worse (so I avoid peppermint tea etc)

I will have to wait till I go into town (once a week) to find some mint free stuff! I'll let you know once I've had a chew and see if it helps.

The book I ordered arrived today. It's a fair bit to read so may take a while to get through but I'll let you know if the diet helps when I've started it! I'm feeling fine atm. (apart from a lump that gets worse when I drink normal tea or coffee) so am taking the double dose for now- esp as it's dh's 40th this weekend and I want to enjoy myself goddamit even if it means not eating the right stuff!! thanks for the sympathy/support! really appreciate it.

I've read the book and i have to say it all makes a lot of sense. The guy is a scientist (microbiologist) so it's a bit sciency with diagrams of the chemical make up of food and formulas etc but all in all I understood it. It's about avoiding foods that cause fermentation in the gut and therefore gas and bloating that pushes up the stomach causing the reflux. Results show very high success rates. But damn I just did my tesco shop and now I have to go and get some more stuff! I'll report back after 1 week. At present my reflux seems to be getting worse (constant burning) and I've found out I've lost 4lbs. I'm now officially underweight so I have to get this under control!

I'm not sure if any of you are reading this thread anymore but thought I'd do one last post if it has died! I've been doing the low carb diet for nearly 2 weeks now and have noticed a huge improvement. I've managed to reduce my Lansoprazole from 30mg to 15mg a day. Before I was on 30mg and had a burning throat. The burning has mostly gone so it's definitely working. Before I got awful acid rebound from reducing my meds. Im hoping I can reduce them further to nothing soon. The diet isn't easy but I'm still getting to grips with it. And unfortunately finding it tricky with my IBS-D. A weird and amazing side effect is that it seems eliminating grains has dramatically reduced the pain I had in my shoulder. A surgeon had told me I'd have to have an operation, now it barely hurts at all and it's been chronically painful for over a year. Research does show a link between grains and joint inflammation....

So anyway if anyone is really suffering from Reflux/Gerd/Silent reflux I can really recommend this book. PPI's didn't help me but this did!

That's excellent new, sunshine! There is so much anecdotal evidence that LCHF stops acid reflux, and hopefully, you'll be able to ditch the PPIs completely soon. Persevere with LCHF, it will get easier, and you may find that you'll never want to go back to carbs.

Good luck!

That's really good to hear, sunshine - hope you're feeling less stressed generally. I'll look into that diet too. Thanks for the tip

Hmm, well update since my last post. The low carb was going really well in terms of my acid reflux symptoms but I was losing too much weight so I had to stop and go back to my previous diet. I was also struggling with my ibs-d flaring up - due to too much fat maybe?

Not sure where to go from here. I did manage to reduce my medication to 2x15mg tablets and emptying half of one into the bin. But the last few days of festive eating and drinking means I'll have to up it tomorrow as I've been feeling sick all day. I'm gutted. If I had a few stone I could afford to lose then I'd persevere with the diet but I'm underweight and just can't seem to keep the weight on with low carb. Anyways, I'll start again maybe with reducing carbs in the new year and maybe try and keep some just to stop the weight falling off too much. Merry Xmas!!

Haven't RTFT sorry, but a low carb diet did help a lot with my GERD, I was able to stop taking Omeprazole.

I'm sorry I totally missed your post. Can you add lots more fat to your diet?

IsMyVoodooWorking I tried adding more fat and my IBS flared up :-( I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. Since I wrote my last post I've come off the PPI's but only because I got a stomach bug at Xmas and was throwing up for 2 days so I thought it was a good chance to go cold turkey. Only problem is now I seem to have constant indigestion and am taking Gaviscon at every meal. I REALLY don't want to start taking the PPI's again. They make me feel weird and nauseous too. I've been eating tons (some not so healthy) the past few days just trying to put on weight and I think that's not helping with the burning. I'm at a loss. Feeling depressed and defeated. I know the doc will just tell me to go back on the pills again and I can't do the FTD diet as I lose too much weight so what the hell do I do?

I know this is an old thread but am going to my doctors tomorrow as have had what feels like reflux all week. In my early 40's and have only ever had this in pregnancy,
Just wondered how you are getting on op?

Did you ever find a solution to this? Im going through the same.

Did you resolve the issues OP

Hi, if anyone reads this- sorry didn't see the new messages! Well I can't believe I've had reflux on and off since 2016 🙄. It's not great at the moment -sore throat, indigestion after most meals. But I'm not taking ppi's I refuse to as I know how bad they are. I'm taking a few supplements and am planning to change my diet to SCD as I have since been diagnosed with IBD (Microscopic colitis) so I think my whole digestive tract is just f*cked

Did you ever have an endoscopy? I take 20mg off esomeprazole twice a day and have done for a few years. I also have ibd, hiatus hernia and possible Barretts oesophagus. I don’t think it’s a good idea personally to be unmedicated due to the damage the acid will cause internally. I have tried a few different meds, don’t have dairy, no caffeine but nothing has made a difference.

Have you tried stopping garlic onions tomatoes and any spicy foods?
I had the worst acid reflux for so many years and had two gastroscopies, first one showed I had candida in my oesophagus which cleared up by taking the medication prescribed, it also showed mild gastritis.
For the gastritis I gave up the above and anything containing yeast and gradually the burping, sore throat and pain in chest when reflux was bad all went away including that horrible acid taste in mouth each morning.
Maybe try what I did if you haven't already, it's horrible I had it for donkey years.
I have it very occasionally now about the same as anyone else I suppose

I had the option to have an endoscopy but chickened out as it would have been a colonoscopy too and that was bad enough. Yeah I get what you're saying but I found ppi's made me so nauseous I couldn't eat so I was in a worse place! (Plus there's now research to show they can weaken bones, cause kidney damage, increase risk of c diff. infection etc) I'm graduating as a nutritional therapist soon and so have some tools to try- first of all I'm going to try taking HCL and pepsin to increase my stomach acid as that's one of the main causes- low stomach acid, along with bloating from my IBD so if I get that under control my symptoms decrease. I also take marshmallow root which sooths/coats my stomach lining

@sunshine05 - I’ve had reflux/Gerd since last summer post-covid. Have had quite a few tests inc camera in both ends (had other digestive issues which have resolved), plus been on ppis most of the time. GP wants to do h-pylori test again so I need to come off ppi for 2 weeks beforehand and if no h-pylori I’ll try H2 blockers.
I’ve been on the acid watcher diet since Oct w a few blips (am only human!), have lost about 7lbs I didn’t really need to lose cos of eating so restrictively and feel very ‘stuck’ as nothing been found, my diet is so boring and PPIs don’t help enough really esp knowing of the side effects.
I would def recommend an endoscopy as then you at least know it’s all ok structurally. I was totally sedated for mine, don’t remember a thing. Unf they couldn’t see my whole stomach or duodenum due to my slow emptying but at least I know my oesophagus wasn’t inflamed.