Best Way to Take Nexium

I have been on 20mg Nexium daily for 5 years and I found that it makes me have IBS/ bowel inflammation and pain. It also lowers my mood. The stomach pain has become greater over the last year so I decided to take the Nexium once every 2-3 days instead. This has worked well and my side effects have been reduced by 90%. I found out that on taking a Nexium tablet, it stays in your system for 72 hours (3 days) therefore if you take 20mg every day, you really have 60mg in your body at any one time and it is probably due to that amount that the body tells you about it i.e. stomach pain. I cannot survive without Nexium as I have GERD due to a faulty lower valve. On Nexium I can eat/drink everything apart from very acidic things and wine. I sleep with bed head raised and wedge pillow and dont eat/drink after 9 at night. I am now happier than I have been in a while.  To note: If you have oesophagitis, you should take Nexium as prescribed until the symptoms have gone and then reduce dose to 20mg once every 2-3 days.  Hope it helps.

I have never found that it runs out by the end of the day as the tablet is a slow release and stays in your system for 72 hours.  If you are eating a lot of acidic food or acid making food in the evening or drinking acidic / fizzy drinks like wine, or pop, you may still get some reflux symptoms.  It may be that you need to be on 40mg rather than 20mg, if you are not on it already. Also, if you are suffering from a bout of oesophagitis, it can take up to a month for that to settle down even with Nexium because the oesophagus is inflammed and sore and needs time to heal.

The best thing that I did to help my symptoms was to raise my bed head by 6 inches and use a wedge pillow on the matress as well.  I got my wedge pillow from a company in America.  It cost £100 to get it shipped to the uk but it was so worth it.  The company is Medslant.  I have a wonderful nights sleep with no acid burning/reflux in the night. It also reassures me that my oesophagus is not being damaged by acid in the night. The only down side is that I do slip down the bed by morning, but I can cope with that.  Also allow 2 hours after the last food you eat before you go to bed.