PPI's cause more harm than good...

Hi,

I just joined this forum to search for clues about my constant burping.  You see, I had many of the same GERD symptoms you folks describe.  After being in the hospital three times and being dismissed with "you've got acute GERD, go home, take antacid, here's some ppi's to try, stop eating spicy food, become a hermit, and watch your diet", I basically had lost my normal life.  For the next 8 months I had increasing GERD attacks that got so bad I would go through chest labour for 16 hours.  But all 4 doctors I had seen said the same thing--watch your diet and take PPI's or antacids.  Finally I saw another doctor who said the combination of my describing my symptoms as "attacks" and the "pain having radiated to my back" led her to believe it may be gall bladder trouble.  A quick ultrasound and blood test confirmed I had massive gall stones, an inflamed gall bladder, and blood abnormalities.  My life had become pretty much useless at that point, so the next attack I went straight to the hospital, this time armed with the test results.  So after two days of more ultrasounds and blood tests, they removed my gall bladder.  They also had to do an ERCP to uplug the bile duct.  I am happy to say the attacks are gone and I have my life back again.  But I do have continuing burping symptoms and sometimes a little gas pressure in my chest, almost like mild GERD.  Now my doctors are telling me to watch my diet.  Where have I heard this before?  I also had urgent stools after the gall bladder was out, but the Questran seems to have bound up the excess bile acid in my intestines OK.

Anyway, I just wanted to pipe in here that the gall bladder forums have many long term gerd sufferers that eventually find gall bladder trouble, and sometimes like me these are successful and sometimes not.  But for me it was definately worth getting that checked with a simple ultrasound.  I got my life back.  Now if I cam just figure out what is causing the burping.  Maybe it is diet related, but I know that PPI's are not the answer (tried it again), anti-gas remedies don't work, and diet doesn't seem to correlate.  Now they are saying I am swallowing air.  Hmmm, funny, I never did that before the onset of this condition.

Good luck to us all!

Jbara, I've read that HCL can cause stomach distress if you've been on PPIs for some time.  The idea is that long-term acid suppression can cause atrophy of the lining of the stomach, so even if you have a low-acid condition to begin with, it might be best to heal your stomach first, before taking the HCL.  Of course, it's possible that HCL is simply wrong for you.

I am on Day Nine without PPIs.  I tried several times before but always went back to the Prevacid because the rebound was so awful and so scary. This time I prepared by starting a low-carb diet about three weeks before.  Then I tapered off slowly, taking Prevacid every other day, then every couple of days, and so on. I'm not sure, but I think on some of the off days I may have taken OTC Zantac.  I'm taking Zantac now, one or two a day, plus Nighttime Maalox at bedtime.  My druggist says this is a good way to get through the PPI withdrawl.  I also take Swedish bitters and digestive enzymes at every meal, try not to eat too much at once, and take DGL (licorice tablets) occasionally. 

I've had occasional discomfort in the past week but nothing, nothing like previous times I tried to quit. I'm also burping much, much less than when I was on Prevacid.   I also continue to avoid coffee, alcohol, chocolate, tomato products, use a pillow wedge, etc. etc.  I feel better than I have in months, so I'm not taking any chances.  I think what helped most was the low-carb diet.  I eat lots of veggies and some low-carb fruit, so my diet is much better than it was in my bad old carboholic days.

Hope this helps somebody!

Seagal

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Post Edited By Moderator (~Jennifer~) : 3/25/2006 6:00:40 PM (GMT-7)