Quiting Nexium cold turkey!!!!

Yaye Niki !!! I'm happy you're doing ok without the drugs!!! Remember it can take a few weeks though to get through the rebound. What day are you on? I'm on day 15. I'm gonna go chec out those enzimes all the same though. Keep up the good work! See i had alnmost no rebound the first few days. The following week it was a little wors and now everything has calmed down. Let's just say i havn't efven taken any tums in at least a few days. I'm trying to not expect anythig cause you never know what the body will do. I'm just taking it one meal at a time and one day at a time.

Great news Niki!
Don't feel bad........I think we all do the same thing..........as soon as we start to feel better, we turn to the "bad" good stuff!

I developed acid reflux after being on a medication for pain and inflamation of rheumatoid. Nexium and prilosec were not working. After searching on the net, I found where this guy said to try apple cider vinegar three or four times daily. He said, "I challenge you to try it." Then I read where it helped other people with reflux and GERD. I thought okay, I certainly will at least try it. My mom had suffered so badly with this, and now I had it. I did get some immediate relief. In a few weeks, the reflux was gone. I have never had any more episodes of the foods coming back up in my throat or any heartburn. I have not taken any prilosec or anything. I need no antiacids or any stomach medication. I also got off of the medication that I believed caused this. Perhaps this is why I was cured. I will never know. I found a recipe on the net to mix the apple cider vinegar with honey and juice. It was advised in several places to be sure to rinse your mouth with water or use a baking soda rinse after the cider vinegar. This strong of acid can damage the enamel on your teeth when you drink it regularly. I don't know what all it could do to your stomach either???? I don't know what I think of this apple cider vinegar as there are claims that it is good for all sorts of things like diabetes II and weight loss. Also, I don't know if just anyone could handle the acid. The best I remember the recipe was 2/3 apple cider vinegar and 2/3 cups of honey in 2 quarts of apple juice and 1 quart of red grape juice. All that makes almost a gallon. :) Please, I am not suggesting this for anyone. I was just sharing what I experienced. I bet this could be a bad idea for some people, bit I think it worked for me.

Hi All!
Niki, i got 2 fillings replaced two days ago (13th of feb) (lower back left teeth.) I have 3 more apointements to go to, on the 23rd and the 28th (i have to call for my last appointement). I wanted to have them all done at the same time but my dentist said it would be too hard on my jaw muscle. Boy was he right! My jaw feels like someone punched it, lol. Wow does it look great!!! It looks like i never even had anything there. I truely believe that it does have something to do with my problem, it all started when i got the darn things put in!

Lets see Niki, you are on day 11 right? How are you feeling?

I too heard about the apple cider vinegar but i just want to take it one step at a time. I first quit the Nexium and now i'm going for the fillings.
I probably will try the enzimes right after that. If all doesn't work i will get the vinegar. But i am more than sure that i am on the right track right now. I havn't taken any tums in about a week!!!

Hey, i'm going on 3 weeks now and i am as happy as can be. I just want to see what realy caused all this crap in my life!

Take care Niki! See you in a few.
And bless you all!!!!!!
Jarah
XxX

Well hello to you all! I just came back from the dentists a few hour ago and my mouth is still frozen lol. He did the bottom right ones instead of the top. I think i'll wait a bit for the next appointement cause and my jaw hurts like heck lol. I am doing sooooo great!!!!!! I.m so happy right now. I hope all will stay that way Niki are you still doing good?

I am so happy that you're doing great!!!!!!! Just keep in mind that there might be days that you will still get heartburn, keep an eye out on what you eat and stay strong! I know for me it just keeps getting better and better! Talk to you soon Niki.

Hi Nancy. I'm sorry that you are not feeling well I was just wondering if you were really watching out for what you eat. Did you cut of all sugars? I know i had a hard time with liquids. I slowed down on drinking water milk and juices for a bit cause it made it wors. When ever my heartburn was just too bad, i would not even eat much to not feed the acids any more and i also made sure that i took some tums. Look i'm not saying to not drink or eat i'm just saying that that is what i did to help out in the worst days. Milk is really bad for heartburn. It feels good going down but actually causes you to have more acidity in your stomach. My prayers are with you Nancy. I think of you guys alot. You and Niki actually come up in my dinner conversations with my familly lol. I give them the news on how you guys are doing This is not an easy battle, just last night i had some heartburn cause of what i ate, well, i guess i won't eat that again for a while lol. Any hoo gots ta go and keep you chin up, any time you feel like talking just pop in, i'm hear on a daily bassis.

Take care Nancy
Jarah
XxX

This is an interesting read. Keep us updated how things go! There's no way I want to be on Nexium ongoing, especially not the length of time I hear some people are on it, and if some solutions / guidance come out from this? Excellent!

Brian..I'm 25 and can sympathize with you...I was on Protonix 40 MG 1 month and Nexium 40 MG 3 monthes and came off cold turkey a month ago. My rebound was still bothering me after 4 weeks so I have tried Zantac...it has helped a little but makes me extremely drowsy so I'm going to have to get off of it...I may end up back on Nexium in the next couple days. All I can say is wean very slowly...that's what I'll probably having to end up doing after getting pain free again.  I was originally put on this medicine for what was suspected as acute gastritis, my endoscopy after 4 weeks of Nexium showed everything fine and I felt better.  However, before Nexium I was on Protonix which didn't seem to work, I came off and rebounded hard.  Exact same with Nexium..gave me GERD I never had before.

Post Edited (tiger06) : 7/7/2009 5:59:01 PM (GMT-6)

Steinpo007

Good Morning and welcome to HealingWell and the GERD/Heartburn Forum.

If I read correctly you were put on the Prilosec for 30 days and then just stopped taking medication at all.  I do believe that weaning off of the PPIs works better in controlling the rebound then going cold turkey off of the RX med.

If your Doctor recommended Prelief I would certainly consider trying it.  Give yourself permission to use this med to help you.

Again a warm welcome,

Kitt

 

I would check with your physician to see if you should go back to the Nexium or refill the Prilosec or perhaps another med.  There are several threads on the boards re going off of the PPIs.

Here is a link for you, just click on it:

https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=45&m=1489135

Kitt

Lixxy,

I appreciate your issues with Nexium.  I was on Nexium for 5 years and I have just succesfully gone off Nexium but it took me three months.   And the three months were not fun.  I started on Nexium 5 years ago because nothing else worked for me.  Honestly Nexium truly saved my life because my stomach was horrible at that time.  Too much stress issues.   Looking back on it I should have tried to stop the Nexium after a year but everytime I tried to stop it I had the rebound effect and just went back on the Nexium.

Nexium does have a rebound effect.  So my doctor told me to take Prilosec to slowly reduce my dosage.  My regular dosage of Nexium was one time per day 40mg prescription.   I took Prilosec OTC one time per day but in the beginning I needed to also take two Pepcid AC.  No matter what... it was bad for 1 month.  Then it slowly started to get better.  I then could stop the Pepcid AC after another month.   Then after that I tried getting off the Prilosec.  I had to go back on it for another week after I tried to get off everything but it still took another couple weeks.  But I was able to finally stop it completely and I have been off Nexium now for 4 months and off the Prilosec for three weeks.

I have had endoscopies, and Upper GI testing and except for the first endoscopy which only showed minor irritation I have never had a true definition of a GERD issue where the test showed reflux.

I really found that my last year of taking the Nexium seemed to take a toll on my health.  I feel like I did not digest things like I should have.   Maybe my gastrin levels were screwed up... but my mistake on not being more proactive in working with my doctor.  Once a year I just had him refill my prescription for Nexium.

So I wish you the best.  I would give it a good shot and try knowing that a few weeks or month or so will be tough but it is the best knowing that you don't need any medicine anymore.

I have been on Nexium for NINE years. I think that's the longest of anyone on this site from what I've read so far. How did that even happen? Well, some really lazy docs from what I can tell. First off, I had no idea this was a short term drug. I thought it was prescribed for a life time. That really pisses me off. I found out recently during a routine physical, I was anemic. Hugely so. My Ferritin level is at 4 (acceptable range is 8-250). They say your hair starts to fall out below 70, although I haven't experienced that. With some research, I found out that people with little to no stomach acid (that would be us PPI users)....can have huge B-12 deficits (amongst other important vitamins and minerals) and amemia is also common. I was floored. So my decision to quit Nexium cold turkey was an easy one, but I knew it was going to be very rough. In the past I had never been able to go a single day without miserable reflux. I did a lot of research before I stopped using my Nexium. I am now on "day two." The first day was HORRIBLE. I have been using raw honey (this is hugely helpful and one of the better homeopathic remedies I found). I am also using cider vinegar. Also....this is a great one....red apples. Some say Red Delicious are the best, but I have found that Figi Apples work fine as well. I have heard apple pectin mixed with a small amount of grape juice can work too....I am also following up all meals with enzymes. The brand my health food co-op absolutely put their life on the line for was from Enzymedica called "Acid Soothe." It was also suggested I take magnesium supps because I have been having migraines, heart palpitations and dizziness (all related most likely to the anemia). I tried to take some Mag along with Iron, but it's just too much. My system literally exploded last night....I just couldn't tolerate all of the remedies..and had terrible heartburn at bedtime to boot (took a Tum which helped).....so I've decided for now, just eat a very low carb diet (I eat a very high fat/high protein diet anyway....all of you out there....watch the movie "Fat Head" and it will change your life....absolutely outstanding! Be thin and healthy for life!).....Anyway, I am going to eat properly, eat my honey and cider, apples if I need to...and worry about the iron and mag supplementing later. My system is surely in shock right now. But today was twice as good as yesterday, so I am encouraged. I also took someone's advice on here and put a heating pad (they used a water bottle) on my tummy tonight...the heat really did help. Let's hope tonight goes well when I lay down to sleep. I feel really good about my decision to get "pharma" out of my life....I am just sad and angry my docs didn't do anything about this long ago. It's a travesty if you ask me. I guess at the end of the day, we are all consumers and have to protect ourselves and do our own research. Good luck to everyone out there trying to get off of PPIs. It is IMPERATIVE that you do it. Your body simply cannot sustain itself long-term without the vitamins and minerals that are being robbed daily without that stomach acid the PPIs are stealing from us! Any amount of initial discomfort is worth it.

Wendy