Re: Have you taken any acid suppression medicines?

Hubs suffers badly, but we are not keen on drugs, so he takes Gaviston, he has to take something unfortunately .......

Re: Have you taken any acid suppression medicines?

I also take omeprazole without problems. Such a joy to not wake at night choking on acid. The brand name Prilosec is sold OTC here. It's been a blessing.

Re: Have you taken any acid suppression medicines?

I've been on omeprazole for many years, couldn't do without them. Never had any side affects just relief from pain.

Re: Have you taken any acid suppression medicines?

Thanks for the replies everyone

I am very much against the use of acid-surpression medicines unless in life-threatning situations. The industry is one of the largest in the pharmaceutical industry, worth billions - that should probably tell us something!

Our bodies produce acid for a very good reason. Two, in fact. The first is to help digest food (in particular, proteins) the second is to kill any microbes ingested with food.

Both are essential - by stopping acid production your body can't properly assimilate minerals such as magnesium, and as some proteins are partially digested, can cause intolerances or other problems. Pathogenic microbes that would usually be killed by the acid, are also free to infect or colonise parts of the bowel that they never otherwise would - and once they do that they are very hard to clear. Interfering with this mechanism then, is very dangerous imo.

The funny thing is, as we age our bodies actually produce less acid - yet the older generation are a significant size of the market!

They are addictive

By suppressing acid your body attempts to produce even more (because it desperately needs it!) it does this through a variety of mechanism such as with the gastrin hormone. So when you try to stop or reduce your dosage, you get a (sometimes massive) rebound effect - which can end up making you much worse! No wonder the industry is worth billions - we get trapped!

So what can you do?

As it happens, a lot. You can first try to figure out what the root cause is. But obviously it's not easy as waving a magic wand and getting an answer. So going on a general cleansing diet may be a good idea.

You should then try to repair your mucous lining. Which you can do by taking natural supplements, such as liquorice (get DGL if you suffer with blood pressure problems). D-limonene, mastic gum, and L glutamine. There's lots more you can do, but that is a good start. After two months of this, you can probably start weaning off - if you're on PPIs, go to H2Anatagonists (such as ranitidine) then slowly wean off then completely.

If anyone fancies trying it and has any questions or wants help, just let me know!

I have been considering writing a healing diet - wonder if anyone here would be interested?

Re: Have you taken any acid suppression medicines?

Hi Azz, I am 80 years of age and enjoy good health, with the help of various tablets. Just 2 things bother me and if you could help with those I would be grateful. One is that my sense of balance is not what it was and the second is that my walking gait is also not as fluent as it was.........any suggestions ?

Re: Have you taken any acid suppression medicines?

Hi Alan,

If I were in your situation, I would certainly do a cleanse, and try to revert to a clean, natural and species-approriate diet. Optimum health is highly dependant on an optimum diet - our bodies need correct nourishment.

Taking PPIs for a long time, may lead to a body crying out for proper nourishment - because PPIs interfere with proper digestion, which leads to problems that spiral.

There are no quick fixes unfortunately - it takes time to 'mess up' our bodies, and so it takes a little while for them to heal. But it can be done.

Both of your symptoms could be related to liver related issues or insufficient 'good' fats (in truth both are connected). The diet I am considering devising tackles both.

Shall I sign you up?

As a quick fix, have you tried anything like cod liver oil or Omega three oils? Or better still, salmon with steamed veg at least 4 times a week for a month?

Re: Have you taken any acid suppression medicines?

I got quite cross that my GP said she'd refer me to a dietician, all they'd do it tell me to eat all the things I'd like to eat if I could, veg salad etc!
I'm thinking of adding an hour onto the time I take omeprazole each day to see if I can get off them.

Re: Have you taken any acid suppression medicines?

They stay in your system for about 24 hours, so it won't really make much difference tbh.

You may be better off switching to the equivalent dose of Ranitidine (go for the Zantac brand) which might be 150mg twice a day. You can then reduce each tablet to 3/4, then go to one full at night time (none in the morning), then start reducing the nightly one. But you would need to rebuild your mucous lining..

Re: Have you taken any acid suppression medicines?

Thanks Azz, I do eat a healthy diet as I grow loads of fruit and vegetables. It could be that there's a deficiency of fish oil in my diet so I'll get some Omega 3 tablets. I do get the full range of blood tests annually and so far all is good.

Re: Have you taken any acid suppression medicines?

Tried that Azz, still too much acid! I take Ranitidine anyway.