Pariet - anyone else used it?

Hi all,

It's been ages since I've posted, and I'll put an update in the Role Call, but in the meantime...

Has anyone tried Pariet as an alternative to Nexium? My doctor put me on it about 3 weeks ago, and I've had STUNNING results. No longer do I get chest pains. My reflux and bubbling gas has virtually dissapeared. And, brilliantly, my reaction to certain foods and alcohol... gone. I'm not claiming it's a cure all, but wow such a good reaction to it.

I did a search for it on here, and was surprised no results came up.

I have been taking pariet for years its mild and it works but the main thing is I cut out most dairy, that means all cheese ,pizza , sour cream , cottage cheese, dips , cream cheese etc .Without cutting most dairy other than 1% milk and a few necessary items for the calcium values I would still be in alot of pain . Nexium is the same thing and so is prevacid the difference is Nexium is usually 40mg , pariet and prevacid is 20mg or less .
Diet is the only thing which will take away your need for these drugs diet is essential and takes a tremendous amount of work infact I think its harder than quitting smoking but realisticly if your body is having to do battle with preventing thick gooey blood prevention through medication you are likely on your way to serious problems like heart disease . Its a long ugly road back to health from a heart attack and only half survive their first heart attack . be well and stay well

I was on Aciphex ("pariet" as they say in Canada) for about 2 years during which time it worked great with no major side effects that I noticed. It definitely gave me very vivid and strange dreams (a known side effect) though, which were kind of fun actually. For some unknown reason it stopped controlling my heartburn after that 2 year period. I then tried Protonix and Prevacid, and Prevacid seemed to work better so I have been on that ever since (about another 5 years).

Btw before I was on Aciphex I was on Nexium but I found that it did not help my heartburn that much, and the side effects I was experiencing were intolerable (constant headache, abdominal pains, runs, and it also gave me a weird purple rash). I only stayed on Nexium for about a week though, maybe it would have started working better if I stuck with it, and maybe the side effects would have diminished, but I was too afraid to stay on it.

Just this week I tried switching from brandname Prevacid to a less expensive generic sold in Canada (made by Cipla in India) but as of yesterday I am in heartburn hell again and going back to the brandname stuff, praying it can work again for me like it used to.

For unknown reasons it seems that some PPIs (IE: aciphex/pariet, prevacid, nexium, prilosec, protonix) work better for some people than others, and that over time their effectiveness can decrease such that what worked for you last month may not work anymore.

I'm really disappointed that the "indian" generic Prevacid doesn't seem to be working for me, like the real brand did. I was hoping to save some major $$. I wonder if just this particular generic flavor causes me problems or if the other generic Prevacids would do the same thing. A different generic version of Prevacid is supposed to come out in the USA in the next couple months and I was planning to go on that once it comes out.

Right, thanks Kitt.

I'm not up 100% on how the FDA works vs. other international drug agencies but I assumed (?) that there are some other international type bodies that approve generics like the one I tried? The generic I tried is approved for use in many other countries including for example the UK and Canada - but perhaps they do not test them as well though? I don't know. I figured it would work the same but it sure didn't for me.

I'm not a chemist but I'm guessing that PPIs are pretty complex molecules and assuming the molecules in this generic vs. the brand name are the "same" there must be something different about how my body absorbs this generic, how the molecules are put together in the capsule, something like that (?) that effects the drug "delivery"????.

Maybe it even has something to do with how PPIs work in general - I remember from switching between PPIs years ago that it seems like I had to stay on them at least 2 weeks to get them to work. Maybe I needed to give the generic more time for my body to adjust. I couldn't take it anymore though; the first 2 days I had no heartburn (but I did have the runs and abdominal pains - like when I tried Nexium years ago) but on the 3rd-4th day my heartburn started in. The 5th day it was horrible, like I was on no medicine. Switching back to the brand Prevacid I felt better within a couple hours and the heartburn was entirely gone the next day.

Now though - perplexingly - starting last night - the 3rd/4th day on brand Prevacid again my heartburn is back. I wonder if my body doesn't want to respond to Prevacid anymore, maybe I screwed myself by taking the generic, kicking off some kind of PPI "rebound" crap. I'm hoping that is not the case though but I don't know how much more of this I can take. I'm back to supplementing the morning PPI with Pepcid at night, plus chewing a lot of Rolaids, something I haven't had to do in years, praying for relief. I felt so good the last 5 years I forgot how agonizing all this can be.