Why you should not take PPIs

I have a very personal experience of the ill effects of PPI and I am now a firm believer there is no other solution to acid reflux but maintaining a good diet and not touching a PPI again.

I went with a stomach ache to a doctor and was put on a PPI for no apparent reason. Me being completely ignorant of what I am taking started have side effect like burning throat, burning back and upper abdomen ache. These are very rare side effects of PPI which not many get. And then followed all usual symtoms of what is being called 'GERD'

ALL I BELIEVED AT THAT POINT IS: A DOCTOR CAN'T GO WRONG
But I was terribly wrong and I realized that it was the medicine that created these


SO WHY DO PEOPLE GET ACID REFLUX: (This is just my understanding and I am a firm believer that experience is 100 times better than any book knowledge)
Is it because the LES is malfunctioning. I don't think that is the truth and I have done some research on it. Look at references at the end of this page. The transient LES relaxation counts are same for people with reflux and without reflux. See ref1 below. And this is the reason why people still get heartburns after NISSEN

The truth is ACID imbalance in the gastric juice that leaves the food unprocessed and gastric juice unused. So this causes the contents to flow up when the LES relaxes. If you can bring your ACID-ALKALINE balance level to nominal then you will start feeling better. And taking PPIs does not help us in anyway. Because it reduces stomach acid to 10% of what is needed and do you think our body is so so so so so FOOLISH to produce that level of acid. No we need acid and reducing it will PPIs is the worst thing. This is why taking PPIs don't help with the

HOW TO ACHIEVE ACID-ALKALINE balance:
Eat healthy and exercise. Its that simple



ONE MORE REASON TO THROW PPI:
Personally even after knowing that PPI is causing all my side effects and acid reflux, I couldn't stop taking the medicine because of the REBOUND effect which exists for sure.

WHAT HELPED:
STOPPING PPI, EATING HEALTHY AND SOME DGL

MY CURRENT STATUS:
I stopped PPI 2 months back and have had severe to minimal reflux up until 15 days back. I can't say I am symptom free but I feel I am 97% alright now and I have lost all my anxiety and 100% confident that I will be fully alright if I give it some time by eating healthy. I have reduced my DGL dose to 1 400mg before sleep every day.

Reference:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/3-simple-steps-to-elimina_b_649609.html
http://www.nature.com/ajg/journal/v96/n9/full/ajg2001648a.html

For the entire post look at:http://www.medhelp.org/posts/GERD-Acid-Reflux/Why-you-should-not-take-PPIs/show/1733624

Edit: email removed as it is not revelent to the public post.  If you have a personal email please post it in your profile.  Thank you.

Post Edited By Moderator (stkitt) : 5/11/2012 4:21:57 PM (GMT-6)

Thanks for your suggestion. But have people ever wondered why they take PPIs all life. My doctors suggested the same for me. There are estimates that 34% of people in the US who are affected by GERD and need PPI (same as what my doctors told me and what any internet search will tell).

Do you think so many people in the world are incapable of leading a healthy life without medications??
But I totally agree with you that what works for one does work for others. But all that I am saying is we can live w/o the medication and this is causing more adverse effect to our digestive tract. And just because it gives symptom relief doesn't mean one, that is the right way to lead life.

We are all born to heal naturally. (Might not be true to some ailments which affect less than 1% of population)

With all due respect, this is a good reason why folks should not use the internet as their sole source of medical information.

Dr. Mark Hyman is an author of several books as well as a newsletter on "fringe" alternative therapies (like..."Lose Weight With Chocolate!"), and, therefore, has agendas.  Also, the study linked in the OP is a small study, with only 10 patients and 10 controls.

Clearly, medical science has more to learn about reflux, and GERD.  This is not debated.  But one can not make a blanket statement such as you did, on a forum such as this, and not expect to be challenged.  I wish I could take PPIs, but I can not because of headaches, and suffer.  They help millions of people live normal lives.  Are they mis-prescribed?  To be sure, but so are many other medications.

To say that all one has to do to avoid reflux is to "...eat healthy and exercise.  It's that simple," is an insult to all here who have faithfully lived healthy lives for years, and still have symptoms.  I'm glad that you have found your solution, for now.  But with so few details on your history, it's difficult to make any assumptions.

I'm not a fan of PPIs but that's because I cannot tolerate them. Many of us on this forum have expressed the opinion that if we could take a PPI and have 100% symptom relief we would probably just take it and be happy!

The doctors who prescribe PPIs do not have some wicked hidden agenda to get us all hooked - they are also making the best of a bad job. If anyone ever invents a better medication that makes the acid magically stay down in the stomach where it can do little harm, I'm sure the doctors would be happy to prescribe it. Meanwhile they can only choose from what's available, and for the majority of people that's enough to let them get on with life.

We are all doing what we can to make life liveable and if that happens to involve using a PPI then I for one won't be criticising.

MMM

I agree with much of what has been posted already. 

My personal experience is that I feel better now taking the H2 blocker Zantec than I did when I was taking the PPI's for probably nine months.  I feel that the near-complete acid blocking was not what I needed, i felt like food sat forever in my stomach.  The side effects of the PPI's were not acceptable to me.  MY GI doc discouraged taking the h2 blocker, but I worked with my primary doc to do this.  The rebound coming off the PPI was discouraging, but I hung in there.  I have always eaten healthy and exercised, but I need medication to help my body manage my GERD/LPR symptoms.  I also now continue to benefit from the guidance of the Koufman diet, designed for people with this condition.

Ok I apologize to all who think I have been insulting. I know that there are many people out there who take PPIs when it is not required and it can compound our problems by holding us in a vicious circle. I got a bit emotional as it made my life worse for the past 6 months and thought my experience would help at least 1 or 2 ppl but looks like I am hurting more ppl than helping. All the best for all you ppl to recover soon and if I have recovered then others can recover too. I just started to trust my body more than any medications now. Sorry again.

Seancz I suspect you did not set out to insult anyone and we welcome you here.  I am glad  the members feel safe in sharing their experiences and opinions and I hope you continue to do well using diet to control your GERD.  For the people that PPIs do not work for,  I personally feel they need to try anything that makes sense to them.  Keep us updated as to how you are progressing if you like...........and post anytime with questions or just sharing.   Kindly, Kitt