HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

what do you take for reflux/heartburn

Support Forums
>
Crohn's Disease
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 9/10/2012 12:23 PM (GMT 0)
Going for my endoscopy next week (last test to try to figure out my chest pain).  One thing we were trying was some reflux meds to see if that would stop the minor heart burn I had sometimes with the chest pain.  The stuff I am on is not doing anything - Omeprazole.  A long time ago, I was given Protonix when they thought I had an ulcer (was stress and went away when I got a new job, but the protonix worked until the new job).  Tums used to be enough to kill the burn, but now everything burns and no OTC is doing it for me.

I am going to wait for the results of the scope, but wanted ideas for other heartburn/reflux meds to mention to my very open minded GI.

ps - I still the chest pain is not CD related, but rather due to early stage of peri menopause.  Thios scope is the last thing I am doing before I write it off to that.

Posted 9/10/2012 1:21 PM (GMT 0)
How much omeprazole do you take? I take it as well. When I first started I was at 20 mg/day but that didn't work very well, so now I take 40 mg/day and that made a big difference. I still have to be careful to not lay down after I eat, especially with milk products (which is slightly random, since milk calms reflux for most people!).
Posted 9/10/2012 1:29 PM (GMT 0)
scifigal - milk can increase belly gas if you're lactose intolerant, so you might try using lactase with your dairy meals or choosing lactose-free milk products.

HabsHockeyFan - many people with reflux and heartburn find that they have to try different proton pump inhibitors before they figure out which one works. You can try to increase the dose of the omperazole like scifigal suggested, or switch to Prevacid, for example. My daughter couldn't get relief from any of the OTC ones, either, nor from Nexium - she ended up on Dexilant, which is a newer and quite powerful ppi.
Posted 9/10/2012 3:12 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks for the advice, kazbern! I actually tried soy milk and products for an entire year and it didn't seem to make really a difference at all, which was sad because it mean I missed out on a year of milk (I wasn't the biggest fan of the taste of soy, almond, or rice milk). It's not an all-the-time thing, though. It's only if I have a lot and then I lie down right away. I've learned that a cheese sandwich with a glass of milk is totally fine for lunch but a really dumb idea for a bedtime snack. :)
Posted 9/10/2012 3:50 PM (GMT 0)
I take nexium and it works well.
Posted 9/10/2012 3:50 PM (GMT 0)
I have tried Prevacid, Protonix, Nexium, Prilosec, Aciphex, Zantac and Zegerid.

I am currently on the Zegerid 40/1100 and it is awesome!  Works better than any of the others, for me at least.

Posted 9/11/2012 5:05 PM (GMT 0)
It is not a bad idea to see if your acid reflux symptoms are triggered by food. I am one of the lucky ones who can relieve heartburn by cutting back on caffeine and chocolate. Food triggers are a well known cause of acid reflux.

The problem with Proton Pump Inhibitors is that they perform as promised. Inhibiting stomach acid can induce Small Bowel Bacterial Overgrowth for some people. Not to mention that other bad bugs in your stomach and intestine such as C Diff and H. Pylori can run unchecked without enough stomach acid. PPIs also inhibit the absorption of calcium, iron and B12.

On the other hand chronic heartburn can have its own serious consequences long term. So you MUST find a way to stop it. I just recommend first trying to see if you have food triggers that can be avoided.
Posted 9/11/2012 5:13 PM (GMT 0)
Yes, Babe makes a good point. Most of the ppis on the market say you should not take indefinitely - on the other hand, plenty of them can show you reams of data for people who've used them consistently for years.

I used Nexium for a few years after my esophageal stricture. It kind of worked. I grew frustrated because I still had a lot of upper GI pain (but no returned stricture) and eventually stopped using it. I modified my diet to restrict (even further) my intake of red wine, tea and chocolate (main culprits). Then the whole thing with my daughter started.

She had tried Prilosec, with moderate success, and then moved on to Prevacid. It didn't work at all for her, but being a penny pinching mom I felt bad about leaving most of an unused package of meds laying around. I tried it. Voila! No more upper GI pain. I took it for a while and then found that I could stop without the pain returning. I haven't felt the need to use a ppi in a couple of years now. I can drink tea and wine without upper GI pain. Hot peppers are still a no-no. :-)
Posted 9/11/2012 5:41 PM (GMT 0)
Good points Babe and Kaz.  However, I am finding that it is everything I eat that is causing heartburn.  It started with red wine over a year ago as the biggest note, but then I realized it was getting worse and worse.  Now I have heartburn with water sometimes and pretty much always with everything else.  I have had many years where spicier things (and I mean not very spicy in most eyes think Doritos original) have caused the feeling of swelling in the throat and then shrimp started causing the same thing.  Of course the constant heartburn was not as noticable to me when the doc asked months ago...I was ignoring then.

The worst of the feelings seemed to be the same timing as my chest pain issues (tested and no familial heart issues)which also started being the worst when I started missing periods (nope not pregnant and never will be) which all got worse with my allergies and I have not gone without a cough in over 2 years.  Oh crap it is jsut a stupid thing after a stupid thing and I am tired of it -- I am ready to say---I am getting old and that is just all it is so suffer through it.  I eat such a limited world of food already, I am not looking forward to limiting it even more, but if I get no definite answers I say scrap it all and go wiht even less eating (hey I may lose some more weight!).

Yup I realize this may be a much bigger issue with my esophagus and I am not thinking about that until after I get through the endocopy this month.  If this is a bigger issue, then I am assuming we won't even discuss the ppi options.  I just needed to know the overall concensus on which ones have worked for others - especially since I noticed that protonix was so quick to work in 1994, but omeprazole is doing nothing for me in the last 3 months.

Posted 9/12/2012 12:04 AM (GMT 0)
Beer.... seriously... the yeast from beer helps me with heart burn :P
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply