Posted 4/20/2015 6:55 PM (GMT 0)
curiouser,
I've had GERD for the past 10+ years and was on PPI's for almost 8 years then got off them just by changing my diet. Right now I am down to just 1 pepcid ac a day and that works for me, but hoping to get off that as well. I had a lot of gas and bloating when coming off the PPI's after each meal and found out that gas is produced as a byproduct of bacteria in your lower GI tract. I ended up taking probiotics 2-3 times a day and this helped me a lot. It did take a couple weeks for the effects to be noticed though. I also drink alkaline water by adding Alkazone drops to my filtered water and that helps with the throat.
Also note that NSAIDS are known to cause ulcers with long term use and can cause other problems. It's a good thing to stop taking anything with NSAIDS if you can, they are really not good for the body.
The reason why I decided to get off of PPI's is because the body needs stomach acid in order to properly break down foods for digestion. When taking PPI's it can reduce your stomach acid to nearly nothing which can result in your body not getting enough of the nutrients it needs which can cause other problems down the road. It could take many years before you start to notice anything. Towards the end before I got off PPI's it didn't matter how much sleep I got, I was always feeling tired. I'd also still feel full after eating protein heavy meals sometimes 5+ hours after I ate because the food wasn't digesting properly. It's been a little more than 1 1/2 years after I have stopped PPI's and things for me are much better. If I were you I'd try to find out what the underlying issue is and fix that. I'm 32 right now so I've had these problems since my early 20's as well. As to the diet that I follow now is mostly a Paleo diet with mostly vegetables, some meat, and some fruit.