OT: Acid Reflux

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Apr 23, 2003
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Surely someone else here suffers from acid reflux. I'm hoping you may be able to share some helps. I have been on several meds and they make the nausea so bad that I can't take them anymore. I'm on a diet of yogurt, oatmeal and my special freshly ground whole wheat and honey(from the beehive) bread. It's the only thing that isn't making me totally sick. I don't eat after 5PM so haven't raised the head of the bed, nighttime isn't my worst time, daytime is. Cant' eat veggies and meat is getting to the same point.

Any help? Or suggestions on meds to ask the doc for? I have an appt. Friday, if I can last that long.....well i'm sure i will, just..... :confused:

Thanks, guys.
 
Sorry to hear about the reflux problem Mamav :( . I've had it. It sucks! The Doc at the VA gave me Raditidine for it. That seemed to take care of it. At least I haven't had any problems with it lately :) . They also suggested that I elevate the head of the bed slightly so that I'd sleep at an incline.
Hope you feel better soon!
Mike
 
Try some otc stuff, Tagamet works awesome for me, even when I was getting alcohol induced heartburn..... :barf:
 
The doctor thought I had acid reflux for years. I ate special food, elevated the bed, ate pounds of antacids. It kept getting worse. One night, I started passing black stools. Allot....thought it was from pepto bismal or I had the flu. At 5:00 in the morning I passed out walking to the bathroom. My wife called her father and he came and got me and took me to the emergency room. I had bled 3 pints of blood into my small intestine. Blood pressure was 90 over 40. Had 30-50 nickel size bleeding ulcers in my stomach. I had an H Pilori bacterial infection in my stomach. The gastro-endocrinologist said I probably had it for years. He said my stomach was producing alot of excess acid and it all came to a head when I took a bunch of Ibuproffen for a fever. (stay away from that stuff if you have stomach problems). Was on 16 pill a day antibiotic regimen for two weeks and now I take one Nexcium every morning. New man and no diet restrictions at all.

May be something for you to check out.

Otto
 
Thanks guys. I've tried all thes meds with no luck, yes things are worse. I will chat with the dr about seeing if it's more Otto, since i've tried all the eating stuff and pills and etc. Any other prescription meds anyone has tried?
 
If you smoke stop it. If you're overweight drop a couple of pounds. Avoid dairy products , caffeine, alcohol, acidic foods & carbonated drinks. Eat smaller but more frequent meals. Notice when you have the reflux problem & avoid what you ate or drank prior to the reflux problem. When all else fails or at least until the problem is under control resort to otc meds such as Tagamet, Zantac etc. I personally don't like meds. I don't want to depend on them & I believe they only treat the symptom not the problem. Of course this is a general statement some meds are necessary for some people to live & function. BTW I've lived with an ulcer for a number of years. Hope this helps. Oh yeah have you seen a doctor? Many problems can have simular symptoms.
 
I'm on a couple meds and they seem to assist acid reflux along.

I try to hold my breath. Another thing, not scientific, and my wife laughs her head off about this, but eating a dark chocolate milky way bar helps. She laughs because she just gains weight when she does this. I believe in my milky way bar. It helped last night. Don't know if reg chocolate helps as much.

Also, Some brands of cough drops help nausea.


munk
 
mamav said:
Surely someone else here suffers from acid reflux. I'm hoping you may be able to share some helps. I have been on several meds and they make the nausea so bad that I can't take them anymore. I'm on a diet of yogurt, oatmeal and my special freshly ground whole wheat and honey(from the beehive) bread. It's the only thing that isn't making me totally sick. I don't eat after 5PM so haven't raised the head of the bed, nighttime isn't my worst time, daytime is. Cant' eat veggies and meat is getting to the same point.

Any help? Or suggestions on meds to ask the doc for? I have an appt. Friday, if I can last that long.....well i'm sure i will, just..... :confused:

Thanks, guys.

I had it pretty bad, but quitting smoking years ago did help. Then I put on weight and it got to be a nightly problem. Dr. then prescribed Prevacid which was like magic. It worked beautifully, and I only took it every three days rather than daily and it still worked great. Trouble is, and it may just be me (?) but I put on wieght like crazy with the stuff. I mean 6-10 pounds in just a couple of weeks.

I cut it out completely, lost the weight, and just determined to not eat past 7 or 8 pm., cut out large helpings and spicy stuff, and just eat more sensibly all day and that has made a huge difference for me. I hate taking any kind of drugs anyway, so much prefer to solve the problems myself if I can.

Every once in a while I'll eat something that will bring it back, but usually just an alka-seltzer will help in those instances.

Don't know if this will work for you or not, but I can recommend the Prevacid if it's just killing you and you have to have some relief.

Good luck and regards,

Norm
 
With what Norm said- my wife and I both noticed in our mid thirties we could no longer eat Pizza or Italian food at night. Lunch was better. Early dinner- say five- was OK, but none of the 7 or 8 PM. Woke up every time with acid.


munk
 
Gin, try some ginger tea. Don't laugh, it's what Barb's Ob-Gyn recommends her pregnant patients for morning sickness. I had a really eroded esophagus from acid reflux a couple or so years back and my Dr put me on Aciphex.
I was on it for a couple of months and then went to a gastroentologist for a test, the one where they run a tube down your throat and look at things.
He found evidence of healed erosion but everything looked good and all healed up so no new medical procedures was necessary.

I take 10 mg Compazine for my nausea but it doesn't always help. I don't think it's related to the acid reflux but to the Methotrexate I have to inject every Saturday evening for the Stills Disease.
Methotrexate is a chemotherapy drug that's administed in low dosages for rhumatiod arthritis patients either in pill or injectable form. But even the low dosage is starting to make me nauseaous now. I'm still sick today from the shot Saturday night as it sometimes affects me for two days instead of just one.
The Compazine suppositories work much better than the pills but are prohibitively expensive for us except when I get really, really, sick sometimes.

As for the ginger tea I drink it myself sometimes, probably ought to try some this morning since the Compazine doesn't seem to be working all that well this morning.
You need to be careful with the amount of ginger you put in the hot water as a full teaspoon can be way too hot to handle, I generally use about a third of a regular household teaspoon instead of one of the accurate measureing spoons.
It's fine to sweeten it with the sweetener of your choice.:)

I hope you get some help soon! I know just how damned miserable it can be when you can't eat anything for getting sick and yet are still hungry. I imagine that Bill knows as well too.:(
 
Bread sounds great, the discomfort sounds terrible! Hope you can get it fixed. Best well wishes fer ye, Gin!

Keith
 
I've had acid reflux since I was about 18. I tried every medication that they could throw at me; pepcid, tagament, zantac, aciphex, nexium and prilosec. The only ones that actually did anything for me were prilosec and nexium (same stuff inside). I buy the off the shelf kind and take 2 because it's cheaper than what my insurance charges for the Rx.

Keep up the diet and try the prilosec for 2 weeks or so, if that doesn't fix it (you'll have to keep taking it though even if it does) it'll definately be a doctor situation.

Neko2
 
The Nabisco Ginger snaps helped me.

Also I sprinkle some powdered ginger (from grocery store spice rack)into my tea.

I also keep a box of bicarbonate of soda close by and if I get that acid reflux feeling I down a full teaspoon+ with water(cold or hot doesn't matter) and wait to see what happens.

If I get a gigantic burp or three then I know I'll be good to go for the next 8 hours.

Pepcid also works taken just prior to the meal.
 
Ask your Doc about a proton pump inhibitor like Omeprazole 20 mg once a day, domperidone may help if there is associated nausea or vomiting.
Try and reduce the causative factors of acid peptic disease as applies: spicy food, smoking, lack of sleep, stress, alcohol, drugs inducing it, irregular eating habits etc.
Yaj.
 
I had acid reflux and was prescribed Aciphex 20mg. If I'm out of Aciphex I use Prilosec OTC (over the counter). Both work great for me.
 
Wow....never knew there were so many people with this.

I had reflux for years - just figured it was part of life. One day, I woke up (finally) and realized that I could exert some control over it. Took years, but my diet has changed and I know not only what foods give me reflux, but what combination of foods do it too. Example, if I have a tuna fish sandwich for lunch, no spicy foods for dinner, no sweets and no cucumbers. It sounds strange and it took so long to get it all figured out, but I think I almost have it.

I still overeat now and then. I still eat late. I still have bad days.....but not everyday, and they're fewer and farther between.

Organizing your food into proper sequences can also help prevent reflux...ie., proteins in the morning, no sweets after lunch and a small dinner (or 2) filled with vegetables.

The next thing on my list is portion sizes....that is the only thing now that causes reflux - overeating (aside from the ocassional rule-breaking now and then...:o)


I agree with "natural remedy" ideas....it's ok to supplement with medicine, but make sure you're doing everything else right first.



(Koolaid gives me reflux, by the way....:()
 
Only one left to mention, Protonix. Same class as the rest. I have used pure Aloe Vera juice and had some hel0p along with the meds. Just mix the Aoe Vera with a non-acidic juice or drink it straight. Checkin for H. Pylori is amandatory, and I would be suprised if your physician has not already done so. But, ask to be sure, stranger things have happened.
 
New ideas will be immediately put into place. Thanks so much. I had a nabisco ginger snap this afternoon and it seemed to help a little. Things will get better. Thanks so much.
 
I echo the proton pump inhibitors.

Also raise the head of your bed regardless of what time you eat, trust me it helps.

Also try to cut out trigger foods such as onions, tomatos, fatty and fried foods, dairy products and spicy foods.

Whatever you do, do not drink coffee, tea, any alcohol or any carbonated bevarage. No citrus fruit either.

Do drink lots of water. In fat make water what you drink 90% of the time, it helps a lot...

And most of all, exercise and lose weight.
 
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