Question about my recurring heartburn
in [Heart Medication]
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From: jim.greener on 8 May 2008 20:39 I was diagnosed with Hatial Hernia in 2005 and since then I have been taking Nexium once a day. I was perfectly fine. I could eat anything , drink anything including beer with no heartburns at all. I avoided tomato. Other than that I was perfectly fine - until two weeks back. I got a new refill of Nexium and it stopped helping me. I have been suffering since then. My doc asked me to take Nexium twice a day.It got a little better for a week but keeeps coming back. I have it almost all the time. My wife thinks its all in my head. I don't know what the hell happened. My wife bought the organic milk around the same time. I used it for cereal. Don't know what happened? But somehow Nexium stopped working or something. Basically I am confused. I am hoping that it will be better in a few weeks. I started to take digestive enzimes. I also take apple cide venegar and a spoon of honey in water after dinner. Any thoughts? What should I do?
From: trigonometry1972 on 9 May 2008 07:19 On May 8, 5:39 pm, jim.gree...(a)gmail.com wrote: > I was diagnosed with Hatial Hernia in 2005 and since then I have been > taking Nexium once a day. I was perfectly fine. I could eat anything , > drink anything including beer with no heartburns at all. I avoided > tomato. Other than that I was perfectly fine - until two weeks back. I > got a new refill of Nexium and it stopped helping me. I have been > suffering since then. My doc asked me to take Nexium twice a day.It > got a little better for a week but keeeps coming back. I have it > almost all the time. My wife thinks its all in my head. > > I don't know what the hell happened. My wife bought the organic milk > around the same time. I used it for cereal. > Don't know what happened? But somehow Nexium stopped working or > something. > > Basically I am confused. I am hoping that it will be better in a few > weeks. > I started to take digestive enzimes. I also take apple cide venegar > and a spoon of honey in water after dinner. > > Any thoughts? What should I do? I have a list of thoughts. 1. Have you talked to an alternative medicine provider about the use of digestive enzymes? 2. What type of digestive enzymes are you taking? 3. It would be illogical to try cider vinegar and take PPI meds at the same time. 4. I oppose cider vinegar as it will worsen GERD symptoms by sweeping away the protective mucus layer that lines the esophagus. If you decide to take betaine HCL to increase stomach acidity to promote stomach motility and prevent reflux after talking to an alternative medicine provider understand the capsules get the acid pass the esophagus and into the stomach. Also always take them during the meal and NOT after. It is really nice to swallow an number of boluses of solid food to make sure the caps aren't hanging up in the esophagus. 5. It may be in head but not how the wife means it. There likely is a neurotransmitter aspect to GERD. 6. Always remember PPI meds only change the nature of reflux they do not stop it. Nor are all the changes to the refluxate for the better. Alkaline or mildly acid refluxate can contain dissolved bile salt which are irritating to the esophagus lining. It maybe this effect that has caused much of the esophageal cancer rise since the advent of H-2 acid reducers and the PPI meds, IMO. 7. Are you sleeping on an incline? I recommend 12 inches of incline minimum not the commonly used 6 inches. Don't use pillow wedges to do it. Figure out something else for yourself. I likely have written about what I do and it should be in the archive. 8. Yahoo has a heartburn/GERD/reflux group that is still active. It also has an archive. 9. If you have a pH monitor placed down your esophagus make sure it is a newer unit that also checks for alkaline reflux. 10. Occassionally when I am getting a cold the lower end of the esophagus has been sore. I am including back when I used the meds in this comment.
From: jim.greener on 9 May 2008 08:39 Thanks for the reply. I will stop drinking cider vinegar because I agree with you that cide v and nexium seem to contradict each other.
From: Vanny on 10 May 2008 03:35 I suggest that you do more reading around the subject: http://www.google.de/search?hl=de&q=GERD+Lifestyle+changes&meta= You appear to be doing/ingesting/inbibing many things that are going to exacerbate your condition. Milk increases the acid content of the stomach and promotes reflux. Substitute soya and rice milk (a mixture - tastes better than soya milk on its own). It also sounds as though your hernia has got worse and/or your LES has weakened considerably and it probably is time to get a referral to a gastroenterologist instead of relying on your primary care doctor to dot the Is and cross all the Ts. An operation to address the hernia and/or fundoplication might be the suggested route. http://www.google.de/search?hl=de&q=Fundoplication&meta= Of course if your BMI (body mass index) http://www.google.de/search?as_q=body+mass+index&hl=de&num=10&btnG=Google-Suche&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=lang_en&cr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=&as_rights=&safe=images is not between the recommended 21 to 25 you should do something about that immediately. The lifestyle changes will naturally steer you onto the path of healthy living. If you smoke - give up and stop drinking alcohol and increase you sport's programme to half an hour per day or 3 rigorous and separate hours per week. My personal observation (and by no means to be taken as statistically or clinically significant), as a long-term GERD patient, is that it appears more difficult for men to implement the GERD lifestyle changes than women and thus men suffer more. Most likely, because the women tend to be able to cook and look after themselves better and implement the lifestyle changes as part of their normal routine. So, I suggest that you start cooking for yourself and your wife and then you know what is in your food. Garlic, onions, tomatoes, red meat, spices including pepper, etc., are amongst the most common cooked foods to be avoided for GERD sufferers. Unmarried/unpartnered men tend to rely more on fast foods/TV dinners, which are absolute no-nos for GERD sufferers in particular because of their high sugar, spice, fat and red meat content. Vanny <jim.greener(a)gmail.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag news:1026fe9f-40ee-4635-8d2b-d875b8119538(a)56g2000hsm.googlegroups.com... >I was diagnosed with Hatial Hernia in 2005 and since then I have been > taking Nexium once a day. I was perfectly fine. I could eat anything , > drink anything including beer with no heartburns at all. I avoided > tomato. Other than that I was perfectly fine - until two weeks back. I > got a new refill of Nexium and it stopped helping me. I have been > suffering since then. My doc asked me to take Nexium twice a day.It > got a little better for a week but keeeps coming back. I have it > almost all the time. My wife thinks its all in my head. > > I don't know what the hell happened. My wife bought the organic milk > around the same time. I used it for cereal. > Don't know what happened? But somehow Nexium stopped working or > something. > > Basically I am confused. I am hoping that it will be better in a few > weeks. > I started to take digestive enzimes. I also take apple cide venegar > and a spoon of honey in water after dinner. > > Any thoughts? What should I do?
From: christophe on 10 Jun 2008 19:28
On May 9, 10:39 am, jim.gree...(a)gmail.com wrote: > I was diagnosed with Hatial Hernia in 2005 and since then I have been > taking Nexium once a day. I was perfectly fine. I could eat anything , > drink anything including beer with no heartburns at all. I avoided > tomato. Other than that I was perfectly fine - until two weeks back. I > got a new refill of Nexium and it stopped helping me. I have been > suffering since then. My doc asked me to take Nexium twice a day.It > got a little better for a week but keeeps coming back. I have it > almost all the time. My wife thinks its all in my head. > > I don't know what the hell happened. My wife bought the organic milk > around the same time. I used it for cereal. > Don't know what happened? But somehow Nexium stopped working or > something. > > Basically I am confused. I am hoping that it will be better in a few > weeks. > I started to take digestive enzimes. I also take apple cide venegar > and a spoon of honey in water after dinner. > > Any thoughts? What should I do? I belong to the pro surgery group so please bear that in mind when you read my comments. Vanny is definitely right on one point, namely, that you need to have a good BMI score before surgery. However, I don't think that there is any need to be as low as 20-25. A BMI of 27 is fine. The biggest risk for failure of surgery seems to be herniation. Obviously, you need to do more tests no matter what course of action you decide to follow: (1) an endoscopy to determine tissue damage; (2) manometry to see if there are any motility problems; and (3) impedance testing which will give a fairly accurate indication of acid and liquid reflux. The hard part of doing all these tests is that you need to be off the PPIs for at least 3 days to get meaningful feedback. IMO, take money out of the equation and I think every gerd patient should have the tests before starting medication. The PPIs can be very dangerous drugs and they also very costly. |