Hello, I was given omeprazole as part of a treatment for helicobacter about a year ago, but my gp recommended I stay on the tablets at 20mg per day for the foreseeable future. She believed I had gastritis but I have not had an endoscopy or formal diagnosis. Anyway, despite the omeprazole, I have been having daily nausea and regular chest, stomach and bowel pains as well as something like ibs.
I decided to do an experiment became I find it very odd that the ibs became an issue when I started omeprazole, so I reduced my dose to 10mg for a couple of weeks and the nausea pretty much disappeared and my stomach and bowels are much better. Sadly this has come as a cost though because I have been getting sore throats a lot of the time from acid I guess. I never really had this issue before I started taking these tablets so I belive it id a rebound effect rather than a genuine problem resurfacing. I will talk to my Dr soon because I don't want to be damaging my oesophagus but am worried she will just tell me to take 20mg forever because that's easiest for her. I have tried ranatidine but it made me feel absolutely dreadful so I vowed never to take it again. Has anyone else had these kind of issues with omeprazole? The more I read about it, the more I see how overprescribed it is, and how difficult people find it coming off them. Considering I took it on the first place to help with gastritis caused nausea, I'm jot happy to keep taking something that causes me such an unpleasant queasiness. I took a 20mf tablet last night because the sore throat thing was getting bad and sure enough, this morning I feel nauseous. Ugh. I wish I'd tried harder to stop these after my 8 weeks were up.
Take the omeprazole first thing in the morning 20 mins before food. Once you have eaten, the nausea should disappear.
I don't think it works so well on top of food
20mg omeprazole is a low maintenance dose that should ensure acidity is kept low. This is important if you have reflux as it will make it less damaging. The fact you have experienced acid sore throats shows you do get reflux. Reflux is not a symptom of the rebound effect, acid hypersecretion is. But you normally wouldn't expect to get rebound from stopping a small dose.
(I was on omeprazole for 15 years, the last few of which on 80mg a day before I had reflux reduction surgery.)
Omeprazole should be taken every day. It is not an on-demand drug.
It's best taken half an hour before breakfast. The food will ensure it has reached the duodenum for absorbtion rather than remaining in the stomach where, despite the enteric coating, it can dissolve prematurely and cause nausea.
Thankyou both for your replies. In the past I have tried taking omeprazole either an hour before breakfast or last thing at night and both ways result in almost constant nausea / queasiness.
Barretts - I do see your point about the sore throat being a sign of reflux, you are right, but it is very strange that I never had this problem before I took omeprazole - I was precribed it for gastritis, not reflux.
it's such a shame because aside from the sore throat I have been feeling so much better taking only 10mg 
. Oh well, I expect I will be back to the basal chronic nasuea and abdominal pains without sore throat in a couple of days of 20mg. It is my understanding that this drug should not be prescibed for long-term use unless you have quite specific problems as the long-term safety has not been well studied.
For me, I take mine about 2 hours after breakfast. And, like many of you, I want to be off it, but at the same time, being off it so far has made me feel terrible, and I simply can't eat anything without burning. Just haven't figured out what to do as yet.
Long term safety has been proven. The drug has been around for 30 years and used by millions worldwide.
However, it's also true it is often used inappropriately and too many people take too much when they don't actually need it.
If you need to take it for more than a few weeks, you should do so with the monitoring of a doctor.
Sorry you are in a similar boat Julie - I just spoke to my GP who has decided to give me sublingual lanzoprazole instead in the hope that it will give me less GI problems. I can't say I'm thrilled at the prospect but I will give it a go for a couple of weeks and see how I feel. If it causes worse nausea / pain/ constipation then I'm going to be very sad, it has been so nice these past two weeks having some appetite and not having my fissures aggrevated...
thanks Barretts, My GP is quite happy to just keep doling out the tablets if that counts as monitoring?
I've read a lot of research articles that mention the possible long-term effects on taking PPI's and I'm just worried that I might be one of the many people who actually shouldn't really be taking them..though my ouchy burny throat rather argues against that.
Go to the www BarrettsWessex org uk website and use its search facility to find the page "PPI dangers" to review the concerns.
It's a sub page found from the left navigation pne below Treatment / Drugs
hmm, thats an interesting summary of the literature. The key seems to be weighing up the risks against the gains, but as in my case I don't actually know what the problem is, its difficult to do that. I'll ask my GP about getting a referral at some point if possible because I don't want to be taking tablets for the rest of my life because she *thinks* I might have a condition. Having said that, the last time I asked I was told I would have to take 40mg omeprazole plus ranitidine daily for several weeks with no improved symptoms before I could be referred (and I have a very bad reaction to ranitidine so I guess referral under those rules is out of hte question..) I'm going to guess from your name and the link that you had barretts oesophegus before you had surgery, so that's pretty serious stuff, I'm glad that PPIs helped you until you had surgery.
I have another question! If this sore throat is from reflux, how long after controlling stomach acid production will it go away? I'm wondering if maybe I just coincidentally got a throat infection, but I'll take the ppi at normal strength to see if it fixes it, just curious to know how long it takes.
If anyone can tell me how you discriminate between a reflux sore throat and an infection then that would be great. Im suspicious because this soreness is there all of the time, not just intermittently. Eating/drinking or taking gaviscon seems to only give mild relief for a few mins.
Barretts you seem like a knowledgeable guy, I think you said in someone else's post that ppi's are equally effective effective at the same dose...having taken 20mg omeprazole and now being given 15 of lansoprazole I'm finding it difficult to work out from the literature on this subject whether this is equivalent to 10 or 20mg of omeprazole? Or is it intermediate? Despite the nausea I'm sticking out omeprazole at 20 until my throat stops hurting then I'll try lansoprazole. Any idea how long it should take you heal the throat?
I have now been off omeprazole for months, having gradually tapered off and filling in the gaps with gaviscon double action. I had a clear endoscopy (except for fundic polyps caused by longterm omeprazole use) and I no longer have reflux symptoms or need acid controlling drugs after following a low FODMAP diet under dietetic supervision. It turns out I have fructose malabsorption, (confirmed by a hydrogen breath test) and if I avoid high fructose or foods with a high fructose to glucose ratio, then my upper GI stays happy.
I too am having issues. I was diagnosed with an ulcer and thinking of the wall due to the ulcer. I had absolutely no stomach symptoms. They found blood and decided I was bleeding internally. Found the ulcer from Ibupropen use for back pain. Went on the Omeprazole and lately been having excess belching, and having trouble getting food down. It feels like it is stuck. So I stopped it yesterday and so far no chest symptoms.
I also have had violent headaches and stuffy head along with teeth pain. I feel these are all effects of this drug. I will be calling the doc and inform them of my decision.
Wish you good luck and feel better.
My dr had me on Omeprazole 20 mg for along time I recently found out just how bad it is for my health If you can wean yourself off of it do it as soon as possible. I started taking a ginger capsule with 8 oz of warm lemon water with alittle honey so far I have not had any problems with my stomach. The pill caused my stomach to swell this past year, I am hoping once it all gets out of my system the swelling will go down.
I don't think your symptoms sound normal for taking this medication. I took first Prevacid, then generic omeprazole for probably 18 years, never really had an issue. I have occasional IBS, but stress is my trigger for that. I always have taken supplements to insure I get plenty of magnesium, and multi vitamins, and my vitamin levels were always fine. I am not on rantinidine, 150 mg twice a day, generally, but I still have 10 mg of omeprazole, that I keep on hand, because occasionally I get more acidy and just need to take it for a few days to settle it down.