I've been suffering from reflux for the last month. The doctor put me on RAnitidine and OMeprasol but these aren't working. The reflux gets worse and for longer periods because my ordophagus is so sore. I've been back to the doctor ( seen two, in fact) but he doesn't want to change the medication. I was in such pain on holiday we had to call a doctor and she couldn't think of anything else. Last week I had heartburn for nearly two days, had to sit up for two nights and all the doc said was to take co codamol! I have cut out all possible triggers and surviving on porridge, sandwiches and ice cream because I am terrified of the heartburn returning, but still feel pain from my oesophagus . Can anyone help please?
Wat age group u belong to?
Depending on how long you have suffered it takes time at least for a month quite often for the medication to work.
You say you are eating sandwiches, what is in them? Ice cream could also be a trigger. What are you drinking, definitely no fizzy drinks
Usually reflux comes and go and is not typically constant unless you go long periods without eating. I often find eating little but often helps as well
Sounds like you need some advice on your diet. If you eat fatty foods or acidic foods you will make your reflux worse. Co-codamol makes things worse too! Raise the head end of your bed by at least 3 inches by putting blocks underneath (you can buy these, or use offcuts of wood, or bricks).. Stop eating icecream. Make sandwiches without butter! Sunflower spread or olive oil spread would be better. Don't eat chocolate, cheese, citrus fruits; eat lean meat, fish or eggs as your source of protein. All vegetables are OK. Try to cut back on alcohol if you partake, especially white wine, lager, beer, cider, or carbonated drinks.
Hilary,
Ranitidine is a acid reducer. Acid aids food digestion, so reducing acid in your stomach, may stop the reflux burning sensation, but your food will not be getting digested correctly, hence, more acid and other issues down the road. Ask anyone who has suffered reflux for many many years and they will tell you, drugs are not a cure for reflux, it is just a band aid, a short term relief. To get rid of reflux, you need to change your diet. A lot of people with reflux will tell you that it is not just junk, chocolate or spicy foods that cause it, grains for one will irritate reflux sufferers, sandwiches, the bread will contain refined sugar and other bad grains, ice cream is just junk. It is plain and simply your diet that is causing it. Change your diet and you will get rid of it within a week and you can come back off drugs. You need to eat vegetables (broccoli, kale, cauliflower, carrots, etc), preferrably steamed. Small amounts of fruit and some meat. That's it. That is all you need. 99% of the crap they sell in stores is exactly that, crap. It is junk laced with high amounts of refined sugar, salt, highly processed foods that have had the nutrients stripped. Refined sugar also has fiber stripped from it, another important factor in aiding digestion. Stay away from the crappy foods, and trust me, it will be gone in no time. For some of us it has taken many many years to realize this. We are giving you this information and hope you take heed, so you don't have to suffer the years of agony that most of us on here have had to endure. I suffered reflux on and off for 14 years. Trust me, if there is anyone who knows what causes reflux it is myself. Everyone is a lttle different in what they can eat, but ask anyone if they have ever gotten reflux from eating fruits and veg, and i guarantee 99.9% will say never.
Good luck. Hope you get healing quickly.
Hello hilary07569 sorry to hear about your condition..
I was also told i had acid reflux i was told not to eat spicey or oily foods.. I also got those medications you received and different types as well.. you are right it doesnt help i have been to the doctors So much o think they maybe tired of seeing me.. they said mines caused because the foods not going where it suppose to do So thats why i am filled with trap winds which causes the pain.. o did my own research and see that something can do about it than taking meds that does not work.
Sorry but I have to disagree with some of your comments. I regularly get reflux from eating acidic fruit products like oranges, so not all fruit is good.
Yes diet is very important, but if your body creates too much acid, which mine does, changing my diet won't help. I need the PPI to reduce the amount of acid my body generates. Recently I had a 48hr ph monitoring test done while on the PPI. Because those drugs are working, my levels were shown as normal.
So please, don't believe everything you read on the internet, just consider what is written and make your own choices. If it was as simple as changing your diet NICE would tell every doctor here in the UK that is what they should prescribe and not a PPI.
70 but very fit and healthy, play golf and tennis, swim, go to gym, no health probs til now
I can sympathize completely with you. Ive been suffering for 8 months now and am on Omeprazole, ranitidine and Sucralfate(an unlicensed drug). I changed the foods that i eat and still suffer badly. The concoction of drugs have helped although you do need to give them a good 2-3 months i would say to really get them into your system. I am of the opinion that mine is hormone related because i have bad endemetriosis on my bowel so never know whether my pain is due to that or my hiatus hernia that showed up when i had an endoscopy. Try to give the pills longer to work or even ask your doctor for Sucralfate (another name for them is Antepsin) and i hope you soon get some relief. At the height of my pain i couldnt even swallow water without being in agony but that has eased. Good luck
Hi Hilary
if it's worse stop taking them go back to doctor or if not happy change your doctor read drug paperwork it will proberly tell you this try going to a pharmacist for advise .
other things you could try are pinenut oil gels eat a apple when acid starts this gives acid something to do other than burn you don't do ice cream dairy prods make it worse licorice is good hope you improve soon .
regards Trev.
Oh do not take any asprin or ibuprofen. Really bad idea
you need to get a endosopy ( camra down throat) to see what's going on throwing tablets at you is not the way ask for this treatment try not to worry it only adds to the acid
Yes. Having suffered acid reflux and upper respiratory problems which nobody put together I had to push for help and finally got a provisional diagnosis of GERD and LPR on Tuesday. I saw an ENT consultant as well as a specialist LPR nurse who was brilliant. I've taken saliva samples for a pepsin test today (pepsin is an enzyme in your stomach, if it makes it up into your throat it causes upper respiratory problems). Google PepTest. The nurse gave me dietary advice including avoiding acidic fruits so NO oranges, lemons, limes, also no apples or pineapples. Lower animal fat and reduce caffeine intake and carbonated drinks.
So no milk or yoghurt? Think i saw somewhere else that yoghurt was good for reflux. Its so confusing! Seeing gastroenterologist tomorrow, hope he can help.
wknight,
You are of course entitled to disagree.
On the fruit comment, i did however say, "Small amounts of fruit" and "Everyone is a little different in what they can eat". I wasn't saying this is the gospel of how to cure reflux. Of course everyone is different. My advice is always from personal experience, just a guide line to help people. I just looked at all the research done, and all the personal testimonies of people that have cured themselves and the biggest and most notable thing that made the most difference in those testimonies, and there have been hundreds, not including books i have read, was stop eating refined and processed foods and go back to eating natural, fresh foods like vegetables, nuts n seeds, some fruit and some meat. This is what i followed, this is what helped me.
This isn't some willy nilly advice i have thrown together because i read a website, as you hinted, i personally suffered this for 14 years on and off. I was diagnosed with GERD, i've had the endoscopy, the xrays of my esophagus, drank the barium etc, i've taken every pill/ppi's Dr's threw at me all to no avail.
Your body doesn't just increase acid production for the fun of it, there is always a reason. There is always action and reaction, cause and effect. I'm not saying drugs can't help, they did for me to a point, i'm saying drugs are not focusing on the action that caused it, they are focusing on the reaction, the effect. The cause was bad diet. Not bad diet for one month, but bad diet over years and years. It also doesn't fix itself over night either, it can take months, but it can be fixed.
I was on PPI's, i never thought i'd come off them. Even when i thought i was eating healthy, when i digged a little deeper into the ingredients, they were not, i also stopped jumping on the buzzword bandwagon of Organic, GMO free, gluten free, dairy free etc, i went back to basics, and that is when i noticed my reflux started to diminish. Some peoples problems are they want to eat cookies and pizza and junk food, so they go and buy some organic cookies, or a rice crust, organic pizza and think they are eating healthy. It is still processed, and in my opinion, not healthy. At least while someone has reflux, i would not be eating these types of foods. This is one of the big reasons people say they eat healthy, but they still suffer. They haven't given up that organic ice cream, pizza or cookies.
The other thing to note is, when you have full blown GERD/reflux you will notice that certain foods will still give you reflux. Heck, when i had it, even a salad gave me reflux at times. But gradually the more healthier foods i ate, the more natural i went back to, over time the reflux subsided, it was at that point that those foods that used to give me reflux, did not anymore.
When i was diagnosed with GERD, not one single Dr asked me about my diet. The Dr's have become spokesmen for the pharmaceutical companies, so yes they will focus on giving you drugs rather than telling you to change your diet. Everytime you go to the Dr, it is money in their pocket. Everytime you are given drugs, it's money in their pocket. It sounds like a conspiracy, because it is. The whole food industry is in it for the money, plain and simple. Crappier and crappier food to make a few quid and they don't care about your health, not one bit. If they cared about peoples health they wouldn't be throwing hydrogenated oils into food, they wouldn't be stripping fiber from sugar (refined) and throwing into kids cereals. 99% of food in the supermarket is garbage, and until people realize that this forum will always be filled with people suffering and giving money to the phamaceutical companies because they believe the only way to better health is with their drugs. Anyway, i hope you and everyone who comes looking for advice finds this post. Have a great day.
Acidophilus, probiotic, :-someone found relief after 7 years.
H.C.I, 'With pepsin' :-someone found relief after 20 years.
Milk Thistle complex tablets or tincture.
Ingredients:
Contains the tinctures of fresh Cynara scolymus* (Artichoke) leaves 46%, Silybum marianum (Milk Thistle) dried fruit 32%, fresh Taraxacum officinalis* (Dandelion) herb and root 12%, Peumus boldus (Boldo) dried leaf 7% and fresh Mentha piperita* (Peppermint) leaves 3%.
-Alcohol content: 62% v/v in tincture
* Organically grown.
- I took Milk thistle complex tablets, mostly one a day for three days at a time, as this worked for weeks, then months of relief for me after 5 years of stomach problems and Gerd. I haven't needed them for years. But took the odd left over pill after social drinking. I originally got mine from a local Super drug store but they don't stock the same one now. Saying that after about four years of not taking them I am feeling a bit acidly
Meant to say 'acidy'. Might try taking them - Milk Thistle Complex -again if it gets any worse. But I still drink socially. (might have to stop or cut down) But try to eat healthily.
Ricardo what you say does make sense to me so I will try and alter my diet. You call them cookies but over here in the. UK we call them biscuits and I am guilty of constantly vesting them so I will try not to do that now.
As you know changing your diet can be difficult but I am going to try. Ted
Hello! I'm new to this site but I am a scientist (biology) with a Ph.D and 25 years professional experience working in my chosen specialism. So I know how to select and follow advice, and what's bad advice. I was lucky to see a LPR specialist nurse on Tuesday along with the ENT consultant that I should have seen in February - but sadly got the ENT registrar. She was not at all interested in the acid reflux issue and although I had told her that my allergic rhinitis has been with me all my life (and my referral letter also mentioned this and the fact that my symptoms were not related to my allergies), she still sent me off for allergy tests (I already had that done 35 yrs ago) and prescibed antihistamines and steroid nasal spray to relieve 'allergic rhinitis'. Nevertheless I knew this was ridiculous and following from a horrendeous upper GI endoscopy where I had been left waiting for 4hrs whilst all the mucous gathered in my throat (so I felt like I was drowning), made worse by the throat spray that meant I felt as though I couldn't swallow for 45mins, I sent in a formal complaint. Amazing how doing this gets some action! Albeit I was messed about again with my new appointments. Eventually, having described my symptoms by email to the local hospital's patient advice and liason service I got to see the ENT consultant and the LPR nurse. The consultant knew immediately that most of my symptoms were down to acid and pepsin coming up from my stomach, into my throat, and upper airways...So now I have to adjust my diet, take Gaviscon Advance 4x a day, etc etc pending a follow-up and also a response to my complaint by May 8th. I've sent off samples for pepsin testing ('PepTest' ) pepsin is an enzyme in your stomach - if it gets up into your throat it starts damaging your vocal cords and larynx. Should get results next week. I've bought lots of new foods and am experimenting with them. However, I;ve just searched for books on diets for LPR and there are plenty out there. So I'm going to give that a go.
Natural fat free yoghurt is good others with additives and citric fruits not so good
You could try the Dropping Acid diet to calm down your throat. Not that hard to follow. Lass seems to be a world expert (Jamie Kaufman). Use some of her ideas.