Question about Omeprazole and reflux

[pollypie675]

Hi there

I was prescribed omeprazole a few months back for suspected reflux after experiencing sternum pain. Initially it seemed to work which was wonderful. However just before Xmas the feeling came back along with being able to feel my food travelling down my oesophagus.
I spoke to the doctor who advised increasing to two tablets a day to see if that helped. I did this and again the sternum pain went away, although I was still aware of food travelling down.

I then went back down to one tablet a day as instructed and have been fine until this week.

I'm planning on heading back to the doctors next week, but for anyone who takes omeprazole, is it more effective to take the 2 tablets together in the morning or to take 1 morning and 1 evening?

I'm 37 and female, don't drink or smoke and am not overweight (if anything I'm underweight and have been trying to increase calorie intake which I'm wondering if that hasn't helped) so I'm struggling to think of any ways to help myself.

I took it on and off & now I’m on a different ppi as it became less effective. Take one in morning and one evening on empty stomach. Don’t eat for 30 mins after.

I found taking one before bed and one at mid morning best for me. What does are you on? I was on 80mg/day initially and have tapered down to 20mg (which I still take before bed-it seems like not eating overnight makes my reflux much worse)

You should also take a B12 supplement, because omprezalone stops you absorbing it as well. I took my at tea time.

I had reflux for years and years. I saw a different GP who suggested a check for H pylori which involved providing a stool sample. It came back positive!

Treatment was triple therapy of 2 antibiotics and omeprazole for 2 weeks. Its worth asking for it to be checked- because I've never had issues since!

Thank you! I haven't been doing the not eating for 30 minutes after taking it, so fingers crossed that makes a difference

I'm on 40mg. 2 x 20mg a day.

Oh ok, thank you. I'll make sure by I speak to my doctor about B12

Oh wow. Interesting. We're there any other symptoms of the h pylori?

Omeprazole seems to be the default medication for any gastro issues. Like pp I was prescribed it before paying for a private blood test (GP said it couldn't be h.pylori, but it was)
Also worth bearing in mind that LOW stomach acid can cause the exact same symptoms as high stomach acid and ppis will only make that worse.
I'd get everything else ruled out first. H.pylori, a hiatus hernia, gallbladder, etc all pretty much can have the sand symptoms.

Thank you @PAFMO

Are all those things diagnosed by blood test?

My h.pylori was. (Though if I remember correctly that's not as reliable as a stool test) It's really really common (something like 60% of the human race carry it but without symptoms)

My lovely gallbladder sludge and stones was diagnosed with an ultrasound.

There's a very non scientific way of checking stomach acid- drink a glass of very fizzy water very quickly. Time how long it takes you to burp. If it's more than (I think) a minute, your stomach acid is low.

When I had h.pylori, the first round of 3 (unpleasant) antibiotics didn't get rid of it so I had a second round a couple of months later which did. With the second ones, the GP said if that didn't work he'd just keep me on omeprazole long term instead. He didn't like omeprazole and other ppis because he said ultimately needing your stomach acid sorted isn't usually the cause but a symptom of the cause so best to rule out other things before diagnosing "gastritis" which is a bit of a blanket option But it did, thankfully.

Good luck!

(For both HP and my gallbladder I find peppermint tea and capsules invaluable)

Thank you. I actually had an abdominal ultrasound last summer and it was clear so hopefully my gallbladder is ok. Interesting about the other things though. I'll definitely ask my GP about them. I have private medical insurance though my husbands work so can use that if needed.... although it's quite new and so they might question pre existing even though it's a medical history disregarded policy.

Good luck! It's such an irritating thing isn't it!

It really is.... although I can live with it I guess. It's more the worry that it's actually something more sinister that's getting to me.