I recently had similar symptoms, originally my illness was a quiet reflux that impacted me on the throat (mostly at nights), I went to the GI and was diagnosed with non erosive reflux, First I was on 40mg Omeprazole and after 30 days I started to develop digestion issues to the point that everytime that I gave 2 bites to the meal I started feeling indigested and with a lot of belching, later I was afraid to eat because I felt that I couldn't swallow when all the belching was present, I lost 20 pounds and even that I was overweight I didn't have intention to get slim, also my reflux was not quiet anymore for the next hour or 2 after my raquitique meals I normally suffered violent reflux events and some nausea, after having a barium test that went fine my GI changed to pantoprazole 20mg (morning) + 20mg (night), to be honest, this change was positive, the eating time got better but the burping normally used to start 5 or 10 minutes after start eating so even that it was a relieve the fact that I could eat but the digestion and reflux issues were still there (altough less than with 40 mg omeprazole).
So after the medication change and the positive effects, I was dubious about
my illness, I was feeling worst than when I started and with different symptoms so the only suspect were the PPIs that I was have been taking for 3 months, so after doing some research what I did 3 days ago is that I reduced my dose to only one 20mg pill in the morning and I feel much better now, the burping is almost gone and the reflux events are not that frequent.
Why I reduced my dose? well there is a condition called Achlorhydria that basically means "not enough acid in the stomach" and Achlorhydria can be triggered by PPIs of course, and even that it's still too early to sing my praises, I think that my recent problems are related and makes sense, the stomach needs acid, if there's no acid you will have bad digestion and bad digestion causes cramps, regurgitation and allergies to food, probably that's why my reflux got noisy and violent, my stomach couldn't handled it.
So Why I didn't go cold turkey with PPIs, because there is a high probability of acid production rebound and also my plan is to get a PH Test soon, the test recommendation is to wean off the PPIs for 7 days before taking the test but I am not in hurry I prefer to normalize my acid production and have the test done, I have a small sliding hiatal hernia so my reflux is confirmed no question, what doctors don't do is to find the root cause of the reflux, not all the reflux are acid and not all the acid reflux are triggered by excess of acid production in the stomach, so before accepting the PPIs we may ask if our refluxes are caused by excessive acid production or by low acid production (both conditions create similar symptoms) or to find the right cause, if you have low acid production at first you may had bad digestion so PPIs will make your condition worse. Hiatal Hernias are mechanical faciliatators for reflux but it's not normal that your stomach is spelling acids or bile towards your esophagus unless you are laid off on your bed and by simple gravity you get the heartburn.
Post Edited (Ricardo) : 7/27/2013 8:53:55 PM (GMT-6)