Please Help

Hi, I'm new here and would be really grateful if someone could help me with these questions. Apologies for the long post.

I recently got diagnosed with GERD that suddenly came on about 3 months ago.

I'm from the UK but live in Tokyo and the doctors here tend be dismissive of and show little interest and understanding of GERD. They did an upper GI endoscope, told me I had GERD and an inflamed esophagus gave me a year's worth of H2 blockers and sent me packing with no advice at all.

My questions are these:

1) Although I do get heartburn nearly all day every day, it's better and night and mostly gone in the morning. Why is this? Most of what I read on GERD says it should get worse at night / in the morning.

2) I've tried cutting out carbs for a couple of weeks but this didn't seem to make much difference. Has anyone had success treating chronic continuos GERD with diet changes, what did you do and how long did it take before you noticed a difference?

3) As my esophagus is inflamed now, should I take prescriptions meds until it is healed and then consider alternative treatments? Or just just get off the meds now? Many sites say that prescription meds cause the condition to get worse despite quelling the symptoms. This seems like a catch 22 situation and I have no idea what to do.

4) I know the theory of too little acid is popular and I've tried taking HCL pepsin supplement but it gave me diarrhoea even in 100mg doses. Tried bitters and apple cider vinegar too but I gave up after two days as they just seemed to make the inflammation in my esophagus worse. I really don't want to be reliant on prescription meds for the rest of my life. What else can I try to cure my condition?

Thanks for reading!

Thanks Maria. They don't do those tests here for some reason. Maybe I should head home to get them done. Japan is considered an advanced country in many ways but certainly not for health care. The doc got upset with me for suggesting he do further tests and said there were none and to go and take my meds!

No hernia from the endoscopy.

Thanks again.

Simon

Hi Maria

I'd go private and I am interested to know about your clinic. It sounds good. I may try to organise a trip back in Feb.

Much appreciated.

Simon

Maria

It was a gastro which makes his lack of understanding of GERD more worrying. I've also searched around Tokyo for a gastro that can look for underlying causes and it seems that's not something they consider in Japan. I guess that's how it was a few decades ago in the UK too?

Simon

Hi Maria

Very good of you to pass this information on, thank you. Just had a look at The Functional Gut Clinic's website and I can see they are much better than what's available here.

Yes, you're right, I'll have to find out how to get a referral. I have an idea or two.

Again, thanks for taking the time to share this information. I hope I don't need surgery but if things progress that far I'll get in contact again here if you don't mind.

I hope your operation was a success and you've made a full recovery.

All the best for 2014!

Simon