Digestion issues

[Treeoflife21]

Has anyone found a way to get rid of gerd? Or at least to control the symptoms?

Omeprazole 20 mg for me - after endoscopy diagnosed paraesophageal hernia - you have my sympathies

Not cured but a combination of intermittent fasting, small meals, peppermint tablets, lansoprazole, no alcohol, reasonably healthy diet (I don't eat lots of sugars/processed foods). This all helps.

Avoiding trigger foods (which will be different for everyone), sleeping with a wedge pillow, no late meals, smaller meals, not eating unless sitting down, and Omeprazole 20mg as needed. Also losing weight (obviously, if overweight in the first place - for me it gets worse over a certain weight). Not cured but managing it at the moment, though I’m awaiting Biopsie results to see if it’s not only GERD caused by hiatus hernia for me, but also EOE.

I’m on 40mg

@Treeoflife21 I'm not sure if this is any help but have you spoken to your doctor about changing to a different PPI? I know Emoprazole didn't do anything for me but Omeprazole helped - there are another couple or so.

Lots of salads & fruit.
Reduce anything which sets up an inflammatory or acidic response in the body. Google for ideas.
No pastry or chocolate.
Cut down on processed food.
Eat supper earlier.
Omeprazole
No Ibuprofen!

Im just coming out of an exhausting week of it. Broken nights wakened by mouthful of burning acid. Nausea during day. Uneasy gut. Sore throat from acidic burn.
Absolute nightmare.

I agree with pps, ask the doctor for omeprazole, and if possible, avoid acidic foods; you're probably doing this already. My mum suffers from a lot of issues with her digestive system, and I did as well when I was younger. For some reason, having dc1 cured it, I have no idea why, but I'd suffered from it all of my life previously🤔 I'm not saying having a child is the answer.

Raise the end of your bed on books

no eating 4 hours before bed

water only to drink

cut out all junk food

do the above for 8 weeks to control symptoms and then start to introduce things and see how you get on.

I haven't been doing it long enough to determine fully but I got one of these https://www.iqoro.com/get-rid-of-your-gerdland-ggla/?gaddsource=1&gbraid=0AAAAADCsgkqEAAG4dCZYxy7JjSk4pqFN

And I've also been taking the Wild Dose https://wild-dose.com/?srsltid=AfmBOorJcxiuFMVrKa0ACE7d5nl-MfPERxYm1gbzuFSmLnhfojrX3gg_ Both fairly recent so I can't tell if they'll be long term solutions, but I've had a lot more better days

I found reducing oestrogen in my hrt helped with mine. Oestrogen relaxes the lower oesophigial splincter.

There are two properly researched diets that can help manage symptoms
The Acid Watcher Diet by Dr Aviv
Dropping Acid Diet by Dr Kaufman
I do the former, although it only manages symptoms, I haven't found total relief from GORD.
I've had loads of tests - I 'may' have an HH but it didn't show on EGD or manometry, but one GI thinks I probably do have one from the EGD photos I showed him (he wants do conduct another gastroscopy, but I'd have to pay out of pocket so I haven't said yes yet and I've had two clear EGDs in past 2 years).

Other ways to manage symptoms other than diet:
Don't eat or drink anything other than water 3-4 hours before bed
Sleep with top half of bed raised or use a wedge if you can
Drink alkaline water
Take Gaviscon Advance before bed/ after meals

i've just ordered an IQoro - I feel it might help ahd I can afford £150 more than I can afford £1000 for more tests privately. I'm also having a colonoscopy soon on the NHS for some lower gut issues so they might be impacting on upper GI tract.

Peppermint is really bad for reflux! Who told you to take mint tables?

I was thinking that myself

I’m on 40mg Omeprazole and Peptac Iiquid

A few things help me so try and do as much as I can.
I’ve not had any investigations to formally diagnose though but was prescribed/ fobbed off with omeprazile but it really didn’t agree with me and wanted to see if could address through lifestyle.

-avoid my trigger foods . the main ones for me seem to be alcohol( particularly spirits and beer), spicy food and chilli pepper, orange or other juice, fizzy drinks. I think the spicy food in particular has a negative impact on my whole digestive system.
-eating regularly ( no fasting unlike pp) and not getting too full, not eating late at night.

The weirdest thing for me is the trigger foods don't seem to affect me. I can eat spicy food, acidic fruit, alcohol. However raw onions, lots of garlic, and heavy tomato based sauces can impact me when I'm having a flare up. In fact spicy food I find easier to eat.

Thanks for letting me know about the peppermint, I eat a lot of mints as they help with the nausea. I've stopped since reading that and hopefully that will help.

Anybody get these oesophageal spasms? What do you do for them? I friend told me to gulp down milk which really helps most of the time but sometimes I can go through loads before it’ll calm down. Omg I thought I was dying when I started taking them

Can I please ask those people who experience nausea, when does it happen? I've suffered from hiatus hernia and GERD before and went on a very strict diet which seemed to cure it. However, just recently I've started feeling nauseous when I first wake up and then at various times during the day. If I eat something the nausea goes away after I've finished eating but I can sometimes feel nauseous whilst I'm eating certain foods. I've also got the usual heartburn etc symptoms but this is the first time I've ever experienced the nausea.

I had a private gastro consultant this week and actually weirdly he told me to take peppermint and drink peppermint tea. I asked about this making acid reflux worse and he said it's person dependent and to experiment with it. As improving digestion can improve reflux. So I'm not sure what to do now.

He also said he thinks h pylori causes a lot of reflux, nausea, upper stomach bloating so he suspects I have that (again). Just waiting for my tests to come back

Does GERD cause severe bloating? I am bloated all the time and look 6 months pregnant, have heartburn on and off but not triggered by any food. Would love to know how to make it go away!

@BobMunkhouse have you seen your GP? You need to get your ovaries checked/scanned if you have persistent bloating. I mean it could be digestive issues, but your ovaries need to be ruled out first. My friend looked 6 months pregnant but had large ovarian cyst.