Heartburn/Indigestion Help

[local]

Ok, medical science has failed me so I am looking for other opinions. About 10 years ago I started getting heartburn almost daily. My doctor prescribed Omeprazole and after a couple weeks we settled on 40mg/day. I would still get the occasional heartburn and what I now assume is indigestion. Over time the frequency of this has increased to where for the last year I get what I assume is indigestion daily if not multiple times a day and occasional heartburn.

About 18 months ago I got tired of dealing with it and brought this up to my doctor who recommended an endoscopy. $800 and a short nap later I am told there was nothing found at all. So, disgruntled about an $800 nap I just lived with it until recently. Two weeks ago I had to go back to my doctor to do a consult on my ongoing medication and again I told him about my problem.

Now, 10 years after being prescribed the Omeprazole apparently there is more evidence coming out about the negative side effects of taking these kinds of heartburn relievers so he would rather I get off them. He inquired about my endoscopy and I told him the results were negative. He then started thinking that maybe my problem was never too much acid but instead not enough. Not having enough acid was causing my stomach to churn more than usual and would splash some acid into my esophagus causing heartburn. The meds I am on reduce the acid to a point where that usually doesn't happen but since there is even less acid my stomach churns even more and is causing indigestion.

He offered up a suggestion to try taking some digestive enzymes to help my stomach process and settle down the churning. What he said made sense to me so I did just that. The first week I took my Omeprazole and the enzymes and it was kinda ok at first but after a couple days my indigestion was back to full force. The second week I pulled back on the Omeprazole while still taking the enzymes and I had the same results.

As I write this I have had almost constant indigestion and heartburn for the last three days. If it subsides a little and I so much as drink water it comes back within a minute. I feel like I am completely stuffed and full of air but cannot get it out. Every once in a while I will have a nice deep burp that gives instant relief but it only lasts a minute or two. What I eat seems to be irrelevant as even just drinking a glass of water will cause it. This has been my life almost every day for the last two years at least.

I don't know anyone in real life that has even a fraction of the problems that I do so I am hoping that someone here can give some suggestions.

Cliffs:
Been on Omeprazole 40mg/day for 10 years.
Heartburn mostly under control.
Indigestion steadily getting worse, daily now.
Taking digestive enzymes had little to no effect.
Symptoms can be brought on by as little as a glass of water.

 

[Kyle]

Damn, sorry man...that sounds like hell. In college I had about 9 months of constant nausea and indigestion- never got an answer to what it was. It finally resolved itself.

A number of years ago I was getting every day indigestion/nausea and Omeprazole knocked it out. I weaned off the omeprazole after about a year and the symptoms did not come back. Wish I had some suggestions- I know how much it sucks to feel horrible every day and can't imagine going 10 years with it. Omeprazole worked wonders for me but as you said it's now looking like taking that long term might not be a good idea.

 

[ItsAlive]

I'm not an M.D. or anything, but I suffered from acid reflux/indigestion/heartburn for the better part of my 20's and early 30's. Now in my mid 30's I have it under control and I don't take medication or anything. Here are a few tips and things that have helped me combat it.

1. Never eat or drink dairy in combination with dense proteins like meat or eggs and soy. Red meat is probably the worst one. Steak and hamburgers hurt me the worst. So, I avoid milkshakes with any meal, and save the ice cream until hours after my meal to ensure its been digested first. Your stomach needs acid to break down these dense foods and the dairy will counter act the acid making your stomach alkaline which is really bad for digesting dense food. This will make your stomach overproduce acid to compensate and then you acid reflux.

2. Take smaller bites and chew longer. This is hard to get in the habit of unless you are focusing on it every time you eat. The more dense the bites of food are in your stomach the more acid is needed to break them down. Taking smaller bites and chewing makes sure that they are more easily broken down in your stomach.

3. You may be lactose intolerant. Approximately 75% of the world's population is lactose intolerant. Please note that lactose intolerance doesn't directly cause acid reflux or indigestion, but it can exacerbate pre-existing conditions. Try avoiding dairy altogether for awhile and see if it helps. There are lots of good alternatives to dairy products.

I used to get severe acid reflux and heartburn to the point of agony. One way I would quickly settle or stop it almost entirely is to drink a large gulp of pickle juice. The vinegar will raise the acidity level in your stomach and cause your stomach to stop producing so much acid. You don't need to drink too much, and more is not necessarily better, but I found it to help when I was in dire need of relief. None of the over the counter medications helped me, and Tums/Rolaids actually worsened the problem.

I hope you get some relief from this, I know what its like to deal with what you are going through and its terrible. Sometimes I would just not eat for fear of feeling completely disabled from it.

 

[pcgeek11]

Teaspoon or two of baking soda in a glass of cold water.

 

[local]

I'm not an M.D. or anything, but I suffered from acid reflux/indigestion/heartburn for the better part of my 20's and early 30's. Now in my mid 30's I have it under control and I don't take medication or anything. Here are a few tips and things that have helped me combat it.

1. Never eat or drink dairy in combination with dense proteins like meat or eggs and soy. Red meat is probably the worst one. Steak and hamburgers hurt me the worst. So, I avoid milkshakes with any meal, and save the ice cream until hours after my meal to ensure its been digested first. Your stomach needs acid to break down these dense foods and the dairy will counter act the acid making your stomach alkaline which is really bad for digesting dense food. This will make your stomach overproduce acid to compensate and then you acid reflux.

2. Take smaller bites and chew longer. This is hard to get in the habit of unless you are focusing on it every time you eat. The more dense the bites of food are in your stomach the more acid is needed to break them down. Taking smaller bites and chewing makes sure that they are more easily broken down in your stomach.

3. You may be lactose intolerant. Approximately 75% of the world's population is lactose intolerant. Please note that lactose intolerance doesn't directly cause acid reflux or indigestion, but it can exacerbate pre-existing conditions. Try avoiding dairy altogether for awhile and see if it helps. There are lots of good alternatives to dairy products.

I used to get severe acid reflux and heartburn to the point of agony. One way I would quickly settle or stop it almost entirely is to drink a large gulp of pickle juice. The vinegar will raise the acidity level in your stomach and cause your stomach to stop producing so much acid. You don't need to drink too much, and more is not necessarily better, but I found it to help when I was in dire need of relief. None of the over the counter medications helped me, and Tums/Rolaids actually worsened the problem.

I hope you get some relief from this, I know what its like to deal with what you are going through and its terrible. Sometimes I would just not eat for fear of feeling completely disabled from it.

With the exception of ice cream every once in a while I don't eat much dairy, cheese on a cheeseburger type stuff and pizza being the worst. I have known I was lactose intolerant since I was 10 and haven't drank milk since. It didn't make me physically sick but I looked like I was.

I have made a conscious effort to more thoroughly chew my food but I honestly don't know how much it is making a difference as I didn't exactly swallow big chunks before. Either way I try to be aware of it.

Pickles have been a life saver for me this last week. I just can't bring myself to drink the juice directly but even just eating a pickle provides instant relief for about 15 minutes.

Yesterday I had lunch at 11am. I didn't overeat and only drank water as usual. By 12:30pm I knew I was going to have a bad afternoon. I spent the next 4 hours fighting back acid reflux and feeling like I was full of compressed air. The reflux died off around 5pm but the pressure and heartburn remained. those stuck around until about 8pm then slowly dissipated by 10pm. So in all it took about 9.5 hours for lunch to go away.

 

[ItsAlive]

Another thing to avoid which might cause it to act up is hydrogenated oils, vegetable, canola, palm, soybean oils and margarine, and anything fried in these oils. I know its alot to take off the list, but large amounts of these oils can suppress stomach acid making your stomach produce more acid to compensate again. Pizza used to be a killer for me too, especially delivery places. There would be oil just sitting on top and if I ate it, would seem like I was regurgitating that oil back up for several hours afterward. Try limiting these foods and see if it helps.

Cheese from a fast food joint, is most likely made with soybean oil, not milk.

 

[Ken g6]

I'm on Omeprazole too and trying to get off it. I started at 40mg/day like you, but I weaned myself down to 20mg every 16 hours, then 20mg/day, and I'm trying taking half a tablet every other morning, with a full tablet other mornings. Although I think weaning oneself off heartburn medication only works if the initial dose is sufficient to get rid of your heartburn.

It sounds like you have a separate daytime reflux problem too. You might try drinking seltzer water. It's acidic from the CO2, and it helps you burp. My Dad swears by carbonated drinks for that purpose.

 

[local]

Another thing to avoid which might cause it to act up is hydrogenated oils, vegetable, canola, palm, soybean oils and margarine, and anything fried in these oils. I know its alot to take off the list, but large amounts of these oils can suppress stomach acid making your stomach produce more acid to compensate again. Pizza used to be a killer for me too, especially delivery places. There would be oil just sitting on top and if I ate it, would seem like I was regurgitating that oil back up for several hours afterward. Try limiting these foods and see if it helps.

Cheese from a fast food joint, is most likely made with soybean oil, not milk.

Yeah, isn't that 98% of food in the US these days? Also most cheeseburgers I eat are made by me with real cheese. Same with pizza we make our own with real cheese. Although I do have one food that has never failed me, Totino's Party Pizzas. Not once have one of those ever messed me up. Granted there isn't a whole lot of "food" in them.

I'm on Omeprazole too and trying to get off it. I started at 40mg/day like you, but I weaned myself down to 20mg every 16 hours, then 20mg/day, and I'm trying taking half a tablet every other morning, with a full tablet other mornings. Although I think weaning oneself off heartburn medication only works if the initial dose is sufficient to get rid of your heartburn.

It sounds like you have a separate daytime reflux problem too. You might try drinking seltzer water. It's acidic from the CO2, and it helps you burp. My Dad swears by carbonated drinks for that purpose.

Carbonated drinks are a no go. It feels like the gas can never escape and it just builds pressure and causes pain. Even beer messes me up until I have enough then it is like a valve opens and my stomach gurgles for half an hour but I feel great, beer is the only thing I have found that causes this release though.

I thought I had a hiatal hernia it fits every description of what I'm going through but the endoscopy I had was negative on that as well.

 

[Adam595]

I've suffered acid reflux since I was about 15. Maybe because I drank loads of diet coke. At least 1 500ml bottle a day, often more (I prefered the taste of diet over regular). I'm 30 now and I have the acid reflux under control. Main things I've found to avoid: soda, beer, carby foods. Having said that I still eat them in moderation. The best treatment for me turned out not to be calcuim sups or those anti heartburn/acid reflux products you can buy but just plain old green vegetables. I make a smoothie every day with celery and cucumber as the main ingredient (sometimes I add a little lettuce) and I add some apple, banana and maybe some grapes for sweetness. Don't get me wrong, calcuim, anti heartburn/acid reflux products and cider vineger can (and did) help but for me they didn't help as much as smoothies. Also, if you do make veg smoothies, check that the fruit you add is alkaline. Once I added blurberries for sweetness and it did not work well, I got acid reflux almost straight after. They are quite acidic as it turns out edit: Actually according to the internet grapes, apples and bananas are acidic but I guess that the celery/cucumber/lettuce cancels it out. I always add the least amount of fruit to get it palatable.

 

[Dg16218]

Are you still experiencing these symptoms? Sent you a message about this.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

I know this is an old thread that got bumped, but I'd like to provide some insight.

I had super bad heartburn for a while, did the Omeprazole/Tums route, learned a lot, and finally fixed it by losing weight. Here's a few facts to help folks out.

1) Stomach acid isn't bad.

There's literally zero reason 99.9% of people should take Omeprazole/a proton pump inhibitor. Zollinger-Ellison Syndrome (overproduction of stomach acid) affects very, very few people, and if left untreated is fatal.

As most know, stomach acid is used to break down food in the stomach. If you neutralize acid in your stomach, you are going to end up with a lot more issues, primarily increased amounts of gas from food fermenting in the intestines. That exacerbates point 2.

2) Cause of 'heartburn' aka acid reflux

Acid in the stomach is being pushed through the sphincter at the roof of the stomach/base of the esophagus, leaking into the throat. Physics dictates that if there's too much pressure on the stomach, it's gotta push the incompressible liquid somewhere, which means up through the weaker sphincter. Causes of this are being overweight, or having too much volume taken up internally by gas. If you get heartburn from drinking water several hours after eating as I did for a while, your problem is probably carrying too much weight. Bear in mind that 'too much weight' in this context means too much stomach fat pressing inward due to gravity and skin layer tautness against your stomach and internal organs, and forcing liquid up through the esophageal sphincter. It doesn't mean you're 500lbs. If you only have it while eating, it's probably from foods building up gas in your intestines, made worse if you're eating too much at once (forcing food into the intestines early) or taking a proton pump inhibitor (ensuring food doesn't get processed before making it to the intestine). Things that generate gas are usually going to be sugary stuff first and foremost. Fruit, anything with a bunch of tomatoes, sodas, milk, bread, are prime candidates. Cruciferous vegetables are another big target, so don't eat piles of broccoli for instance. There's a pretty exhaustive list that I pay close attention to now, despite the fact I've lost a lot of weight, because if I eat a big plate of pasta with tomato sauce and two pieces of garlic bread with a glass of wine, I'm going to be pretty jacked up for a few hours.

Additionally, anything that's alkaline in nature if combined with gas-forming foods it can exacerbate the issue, as it'll increase the ph level of your stomach acids. You'd need to eat quite a bit of basic food to have an extreme effect, but if you're someone who snacks on peanuts all day that will be a contributing factor.

 

[Muse]

I've had similar problems in the past, not as long term and persistent. I think in my case there were emotional issues attendant to the physical symptoms.

I just read, semi-skimming some of this thread, not realizing it's mostly from 2017... which doesn't bother me, actually. I've dug up some old threads, much older in fact.

The pizza, cheeseburgers... well, if you're lactose intolerant those would seem to me to be maybe not smart. Depends how intolerant you are. People can be semi-intolerant.

You can get over lactose intolerance, I believe, based on my research, at least to some degree.

I was on omeprazole at one point. Tums and similar too.

I had an episode that lasted for months until around 6 months ago. I started for the first time ever taking probiotics over the summer. I think those once a day capsules might have helped me get over it.

Of course, I think exercise can really help with problems that are involved with anxiety, and obviously the problems you are having are causing you anxiety, which only exacerbates your symptoms.

As you probably know, it's not a good idea to eat very much anywhere close to bedtime. I sometimes forget this and get reminded not long after going to sleep!

I've had at least 3 periods in my life when I had these types of problems. Over this very last summer I was considering an endoscopy. I had an EKG. Then a stress test EKG, both negative. I seem to be pretty OK now!

Hope you get much better and soon!

 

[pcgeek11]

Another more serious note are some effects of long term acid reflux , GERD etc is idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).

Not something to be taken lightly. My brother has it from years of GERD and acid reflux.

 

[local]

I've about given up. Tried to cut back on the Omeprazole recently and that was a no go. Even without eating or drinking anything for the day I'm pretty sure I was melting from the inside out.

 

[Muse]

I've about given up. Tried to cut back on the Omeprazole recently and that was a no go. Even without eating or drinking anything for the day I'm pretty sure I was melting from the inside out.

Maybe a different doctor? Set of doctors? Do NOT give up!

 

[local]

Maybe a different doctor? Set of doctors? Do NOT give up!

I did go to another DR a little over a year ago. Several hundred more dollars spent with zero change. Dr says cannot find anything then stopped responding.

 

[TheVrolok]

Another more serious note are some effects of long term acid reflux , GERD etc is idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).

Not something to be taken lightly. My brother has it from years of GERD and acid reflux.

Be careful. There is a fairly strong association between the two, but it may not be causal. There is certainly some speculation that chronic micro aspiration and subclinical pneumonitis may be causative, but I don't believe that's borne out in the literature yet.

 

[TheVrolok]

I've about given up. Tried to cut back on the Omeprazole recently and that was a no go. Even without eating or drinking anything for the day I'm pretty sure I was melting from the inside out.

Could consider a trial of twice daily omeprazole (before breakfast / before dinner) and an H2RA (famotadine 40 mg) at bedtime.

Have you been tested for H pylori?

Given those symptoms, I would imagine you've had an EGD?

 

[Muse]

I did go to another DR a little over a year ago. Several hundred more dollars spent with zero change. Dr says cannot find anything then stopped responding.

Then try another doctor. One who's smart, expert in this area, with an open mind and intuition. A real human, who can smile!

 

[local]

Could consider a trial of twice daily omeprazole (before breakfast / before dinner) and an H2RA (famotadine 40 mg) at bedtime.

Have you been tested for H pylori?

Given those symptoms, I would imagine you've had an EGD?

My 40 mg perscription ran out so I am doing 20 mg twice a day now. I can sometimes run on just 20 mg but since it is a delayed results drug it is hard to gauge.

Yes, it was negative.

Yes, also fine.

Then try another doctor. One who's smart, expert in this area, with an open mind and intuition. A real human, who can smile!

The two I have been to are supposedly the super awesome guys in the area, I don't believe it. But I do believe there is a limit to the amount of money I am going to spend when the results keep coming back negative.

 

[Muse]

The two I have been to are supposedly the super awesome guys in the area, I don't believe it. But I do believe there is a limit to the amount of money I am going to spend when the results keep coming back negative.

Well, don't give up hope of finding a doctor who's great... for you! I don't know how you'd find that, don't know your situation.

 

[Ichinisan]

I basically suffered exactly as OP described - until I started taking omeprazole.

 

[Muse]

I basically suffered exactly as OP described - until I started taking omeprazole.

I took it for a spell, in late 2004. I still have some in my freezer, but haven't taken any since 2005 at the latest!

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

I've about given up. Tried to cut back on the Omeprazole recently and that was a no go. Even without eating or drinking anything for the day I'm pretty sure I was melting from the inside out.

What's your weight/height? If you don't mind me asking... referencing my above post.

 

[local]

What's your weight/height? If you don't mind me asking... referencing my above post.

5'-10" 190-195 depending on the time of day. Too much, I need to get back down to the 170s.