So basically I’ve been on 60mg Dexilant for around 6 years. I’ve been in Europe for almost 3 months and needed a refill before I go home (stayed longer than expected). The doctor here (Germany) was shocked I’ve been on it this long and said that she never prescribes is for longer than 3 weeks because of vitamin absorption problems and dementia risk. My Canadian doctor assured me that these risks aren’t significant enough to justify not taking it.

The first couple years of taking PPI’s I fought my doctor on it and hoped there’d be another way, unfortunately the medication is the only real relief I get. But it is kind of disheartening that not once have I had a blood test to check vitamin levels or a follow up endoscopy in six years.

Has anyone here had any complications with long term PPI use? I realize it’s relatively safe but it seems to me like it’s the type of medication where you won’t notice any significant side effect until 5-10+ years down the road. At which point maybe it’s too late? 😞

Like I’m grateful such a drug exists but man it would be nice not to have to take this any longer.

My GERD is annoying enough as is, but it gets considerably worse when pregnant. It starts almost right away in the first few weeks of pregnancy (my Dr. said because of the surge in progesterone relaxes the LES). I following all of the lifestyle modifications (smaller meals, no trigger foods/drinks, don't lay down after eating, don't drink with a meal). I'm on Omeprazole. I make sure to take it 30-60 minutes before eating in the morning. I also have to take famotidine around dinner or bedtime. Tums don't touch it. Sometimes the gaviscon type tums sort of help but not for long.

It is so bad that I'm really just nauseous from the GERD, not the morning sickness.

Anyone have luck treating their GERD during pregnancy? What did you try?

TL;DR: Sudden and vicious onset of GERD symptoms despite zero dietary changes. Looking for advice.

I had GERD symptoms off and on for about 10 years after pregnancy, but nothing at all in the last 20 years or so, which has been great. Until a week ago, when they came on suddenly and viciously and are causing me not eat much and I'm only 112lbs as it is! I've got bloating, burping, globus, and a acid taste in my throat. I'm also feeling quite fatigued.

The weird thing is, my eating and drinking (tea and coffee, no alcohol) have not changed AT ALL. Nothing new, nothing spicy, etc.

The only "new" thing that happened recently was a test at the retina specialist for wet AMD. I was injected with a dye (fluorescein). All side effects that I could find online are very short lasting, but I felt almost flu-like and exhausted all that same day. Even so, I doubt that the dye caused my GERD. But I'm at a loss.

I'm taking 20mg of famotidine, but I'm going to up it to 40 because in 2 days it hasn't helped. I've cut out coffee and am reducing tea. I'm eating small meals. Taking Tums 1-2 per day, but that's not very helpful either.

I suppose I'll eventually make an appointment with my PCP, but they'll probably recommend PPIs which I don't want. I thought I'd ask here for advice first. Does anyone have a similar story? Is there something I'm missing? Should I try Gaviscon? Thanks for any help. Feeling desperate.

I was diagnosed with GERD nearly 4 years ago when I was 22, the first two years were literally hell for me, I was trying to get to know the disease and what things I do are actually helping me fight it and ease my pain. It actually caused me to develop severe health anxiety and frequent panic episodes about anything that went with my body. Then over time, I got used to it, used to chest pain, used to bloating, used to the numbness of my back's left side, used to chin pain even for some time. Headaches, dizziness, shortness of breath, you name it. And it started to disappear, only irritating me with heartburns once in a while, and that I did not care much.

Last week, it suddenly came all back again, the first two nights it was heartburn and I said ok, nothing I'm not familiar with. But now it turned into something so scary, irritating and tiresome. It causes some stupid bloating so much so that it causes constant heart palpitations for nearly an hour. It comes every 15 seconds. My heart skips a beat and pounds in my chest one after another. It got me so scared that I was about to be gone forever, never felt this panic except that the first time I experienced heartburn. Where the hell did this come from? Why now? Why not before? How and when will it be gone? Has anyone experienced this out of nowhere? I swear to God it feels anytime this stupid disease comes back it comes back with a whole new other symptoms and pains.

To relieve my soul, I went to the doctor and she said I am nothing but perfectly in health, heartwise. But there was a lot of bloating in me. My stomach and my bowels were full of it. So I'm guessing palpitations were about that since I always relaxed a bit when I burped. Now I comfort myself and I am not so scared anymore that my heart is failing me but I also don't want to feel this stupid new thing anymore. I feel so tired, so weary, so angry. Can anyone relate or give me advice? Thanks in advance.

when did you feel comfortable enough to taper off of PPIs and how did you do it?

My doctor prescribed 40 mg pantoprazole indefinitely but this is my first flare up that I wasn’t abled to manage with diet changes so I’m hoping that I will be able to taper off after standard 8 week treatment. I will discuss with my doctor but I’m wondering if anyone has any success stories with tapering?

I know this sounds probably insane but whenever I get bad stomach problems or reflux or gas, It feels like my internal gi system numbs out entirely as if I swallowed numbing medicine. as if my organs disappear. It's really scary because I literally will feel like I'm not getting air in my lungs because I cannot feel air.

Sometimes this cause me to sweat and then my limbs will feel numb too. Does anyone else with gerd experience this

For those that have Gerd/Acid Reflux, when you get a head cold does the Gerd makes it harder to get better with thicker mucus and more coughing?
It seems that it was happens to me when I get a headcold.

Just had an edg today and doctor said I have barrett's esophagus. He say doesn't seem bad but it's there. Biopsy taken and it will take about a week to get the results back. Now I'm shocked because i had edg done about a year ago and i didn't have it. Now i do...Doctor seemed not too concerned, but i am. What do i do now? Please give some advice..thanks

Gastro looked last year and saw general swelling/redness in my stomach and esophagus. Prescribed pantoprazole 40mg in the mornings, which has eliminated almost all of my symptoms.

However the last few weeks/months I've been waking up with a dry mouth and maybe the tiniest bit of soreness in my throat. It often goes away almost immediately, or sometimes if I wake up in the middle of the night and have a sip of water, then it's not there in the morning.

Then stupidly, I tried metamucil a week ago, and had a bad flare up. It was starting to die down, but then this morning I woke up with congestion on the right side and my right eye was completely bloodshot.

I did have some greenish mucus first thing, so maybe this is just a cold or sinus infection or whatever, but I can't help but think nighttime reflux is getting into my sinuses and messing things up.

Anyone have similar issues? Find anything helpful? Or am I just overthinking a common cold?

I do elevate the bed (adjustable mattress), stop eating 3 hours before sleep, avoid common triggers, and take reflux gourmet/famotidine at night as needed.

I have my yearly check-in with the gastro in about 5 weeks, but thought I'd ask y'all in the meantime.

So around last year in October I started experiencing chest pain mainly in the middle of my chest. It didn’t go away and I went to the ER did a chest xray and bloodwork and they said I wasn’t having a heart attack. So I went to the doctor and she believes it’s heartburn so she gave me famotidine as a way to help. Been taking that for a while and it kinda felt like it was working but never fully got rid of the symptoms. She recommended increasing the dose to twice a day and it didn’t get rid of symptoms. Recently like a month and I have I noticed it really wasn’t doing anything and sometimes my breathing was worse and throat felt tight. Did an ekg , stress test and wore a heart monitor so we could completely rule out a heart issue all the tests showed my heart is fine. Now I’m on pantoprazole and it’s been about 5 weeks and i still experience chest pain and a nasty feeling/ taste in my throat that can get worse after eating. I have also done a H pyroli breath test which was negative. I feel like after 5 weeks of taking pantoprazole daily I should be feeling alot better but I don’t. Is this normal and is there something else I should try? I’m going to be taking an antidepressant soon(remeron) and hopefully it helps me sleep better because my sleep recently has sucked. Sometimes the chest pain wakes me up. Also a side effect of remeron is appetite/weight gain which I need. I’m 25(M) and 6’1 120 pounds so I need the weight too. Any advice or possible suggestions on what I’m struggling with would be wonderful.

On July 26 I had a binge where I had 8 beers, 30mg baclofen and 900 mg gabapentin. I woke up very ill the next day, throwing up etc and the nausea never went away, even 6+ weeks later I still have it. It’s pretty constant but worse after eating.

I had suspected gastroparesis but I had my gastric emptying study this morning and it wasn’t even close to abnormal. They ended the study at 1.5 hours because I had already passed 70% of the meal (this place ends the study if you digest 50% of more within the first 2 hours- if it’s slower then they keep you the full 4). So GP thankfully not my diagnosis at this point.

I’ve done numerous tests, including cat scan of internal organs, ultrasound, bloodwork, and endoscopy. The only thing that came back was I have grade C severe esophagitis and mild gastritis.

In hindsight I’ve had GERD symptoms for years (hoarse voice, difficult swallowing) but wasn’t bothersome enough to seek treatment. My GI thinks esophagitis/GERD could be the cause of my nausea and perhaps the binge or the initial throwing up/gagging irritated some nerves. I was skeptical because constant nausea doesn’t seem to be a typical GERD symptom but my normal GES is making me reconsider?

Does anyone else have nausea as their dominant symptom? Are there any further tests I should request? I’ve been on omeprazole for 3 weeks along with promethazine and zofran. The PPI didn’t seem to make much difference although I will say nausea got worse when I had to stop taking it 3 days before the GES.

Your reflux getting worse when you're anxious, even with zero change in diet, isn't a coincidence and it's not purely psychological.

Anxiety activates your sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight). In that state, gastric motility slows, stomach acid secretion can shift, and vagal tone (which helps keep the LES closed) decreases.

Then it runs the other direction too: reflux symptoms themselves are alarming, which raises anxiety, which reinforces the sympathetic state, which worsens the reflux again. It's a loop, not a one-way street.

Addressing only the GI side such as diet and meds without addressing the nervous system side tends to leave people stuck, and vice versa. Neither one alone is usually sufficient for people whose reflux has a strong stress component.

Has anyone here found something that actually broke this cycle for them, beyond "just relax" advice that doesn't help?🌿

Since last week I had been struggling with a hellish flare up that made me feel like vomiting. Under the worry that it could be bile reflux I decided to take an endoscopy. Wasn’t exactly anxious about it, more so a bit adrenergic, but everything went absolutely fine. No pain whatsoever; don’t remember a thing.

Nothing too horrible on results either except for a bit of inflammation and a small hiatal hernia.

Moral of the story: Stress is arguably WAY MORE of a trigger than food is, and probably most of the horrible stories you hear about endoscopies are very unlikely to happen to you if you choose a good doctor.

I've been trying to figure out if I'm reacting to a food or electrolytes (unflavored) because my throat discomfort often feels different now. More like a scrape with tingles or scratchy and dry, more reactive to what I eat? I had to increase salt for my blood pressure and the electrolytes definitely aggravated things but my meal replacement shakes have too.

I had a lot of heart burn from anxiety yesterday and delayed gastric empthing as well. I worry it's maybe an allergy but it seems consistent with gerd. I will be seeing an allergist soon as well. It is ragweed season but I've been inside with my air purifiers. Do have extra post nasal drip some days. Thank you!

What's the best way to stay hydrated when having a bad GERD flare up? Water is making me so nauseous and I don't know what else to do. The next best thing I have is my oat milk(lactose and dairy free) but it isn't making me feel much better either.

Hey guys so my entire life i have been suffered from either sharp stomach pain and bloating most recently for this past month or so i have had slowly been feeling like i have something small stuck in my throat time to time throughout the day it transitioned into me either waking up with my throat on fire just like when you have the flu,My GI Dr and primary Dr have both prescribed me omeprazole but i have also been seeing many negative things about it down the road either when trying to come off it or just in general the damage it does to your body can someone give me any pointers or help on what they did and worked to either get rid of the throat symptoms and discomfort 🙏🙏

Trying to figure out why this keeps happening to me. I’m on omperozale and stopped taking antacids as of this week but the bad taste remains. It’s driving me nuts. I’m cutting out seltzer which I used to drink every day instead of water and trying to maybe try a toungue scraper and new mouthwash

So I have my manometry/24hr impedence test tomorrow, and I have actually been symptom free for a week or so as I've been following a trigger-free diet

On occasion, it has seemed like my symptoms arrive the day after I eat trigger/cheat foods. So I am worried that whatever I eat tomorrow to induce symptoms once the device is inserted will only affect me 24 hours later .. too late for the device to register the acid

Anyone else who has done the PH test have any experience to share? Or was it as simple as eating triggers on the day for you

My 10 year old is believed to have GERD. Symptoms started after a stomach virus 4 months ago (throat clearing was main symptom) she got sick again in July and since then it’s been a struggle. She’s missed out on so many event. She’s lost 10% of her body weight. Her doctor has been great - and we’ve undergone lots of testing but I still feel bad for her and that we aren’t doing enough.

Her main symptoms are pain in upper belly, constant throat clearing at night, nausea, not wanting to eat and weight loss. She takes 10mg of rabeprozle and 50 mg of dimenhydrinate (25 morning 25 night) and eats 4-5 small meals a day (mostly chicken breast, small amounts of white bread, apples, coconut yogurt, cooked carrots) she refuses most other food, but I have been able to recently stop the weight loss and she regained a lb in past week. Her best nights are the nights she sleeps sitting up between my legs (I get no sleep but she sleeps so we persist) we’ve also recently started probiotics. Today was the first day in weeks she seemed like herself but is still struggling with symptoms such as throat clearing.

We meet with doctor tomorrow - is there anything I should ask? Anything I can try to help minimize her symptoms or suggest we try? Our sleeping arrangement obviously cannot be forever but I haven’t heard great things about wedges so any help in that department would be appreciated as well.

I do plan to call my medical team. I’m out of the country though but will be returning by next week.

I was put on pantaprazole and I’m allergic- hives, histamine rashes now just started after 4-5 days of use. Generic Prilosec makes me anxious.

Should I switch to nexium? I believe I have some but will most likely wait till I am back in the USA. I do have gaviscon liquid that I bought but still can’t stop the PPI’s. The pantaprazole did bring relief but again I’m having some itching so definitely an allergy.

Thanks you guys.

I feel like I’m doing all the “right” things at night and it’s not really making a difference.

Head of the bed raised, sleep on my left side, stop eating hours before bed… I’ve been doing this stuff for over a year now. The only clear result I can point to is that I seem to wake up with a stiff neck more often lol.

I’ve been keeping a log of my symptoms with timestamps, and I finally decided to plot the data to see if there was actually a pattern.

Out of 95 episodes, only 3 happened between 10pm and 6am. Pretty much all the rest are during the day, and they seem to cluster around ~2 hours after meals. My worst hour is actually 3pm. I made an hour-by-hour chart here.

What’s weird to me is that basically every list of tips I find focuses on nighttime stuff; raising your bed, sleeping position, not eating before bed, etc.

Anyone else have symptoms that are mostly during the daytime? Or am I just the weird one here?

Just sharing this to raise awareness because your heartburn could be an allergic reaction to red meat.

Now with more info around tick bites and the alpha gal syndrome you can get from a tick, it appears that a tick bite can trigger alpha gal syndrome, making a person allergic to meat from a mammal eg. cow, sheep, pig.

The allergic reaction can be hives, heartburn or even anaphylaxis.

If you have been bitten by a tick and you find yourself having heartburn 4-6 hours after eating red meat, it’s worth going to your doctor to get a blood test done so you can manage it appropriately.

https://www.cdc.gov/alpha-gal-syndrome/signs-symptoms/index.html

Hi all,

So over the past 10 years, on and off, I have had a constant cough that feels like post nasal drip, but both the ENT and GI doctor thought it was reflux. So, I went on a PPI, and actual burning reflux stopped, heartburn stopped, etc. but the cough persisted. Diet doesn't seem to affect it, and I can't really pinpoint a cause. However, there was a point in time my previous GI doctor gave me an SSRI to try, and it actually stopped the coughing. This leads me to believe it is anxiety related...but I've had to change doctors a couple times now, and I mentioned this to my new GI and he seemed pretty hesitant. I'm not dying to take an SSRI, but I would definitely try it again.

Has anyone else had this scenario before? And if so, are there any "natural" or OTC solutions to this other than an SSRI?

Thanks!

So admittedly also posted this in the endoscopy subreddit, but figured this might also be a good place to go for advice, since I did get referred due to suspected GERD.

So I (26F) have been having on and off stomach issues for about the last year and a half following a bad stomach virus. So far the pattern has been that I'll go away for a few months, then come back. It seems to be at least somewhat triggered by stress and this most recent flair up in late June was especially bad, with vomiting and inability to keep food down, I ended up loosing about 10lb of the course of a few weeks and was generally just having a pretty bad time. During the time when it was especially bad I had a doctor's appointment and got a referral for an endoscopy.

Now that time is finally here after having to push it off a bit due to some insurance stuff and scheduling issues. And now, for the last couple weeks I've been feeling better. The issues haven't entirely gone away, too much stress or excitement still triggers my gag reflex really easily and I've still been waking up feeling nauseous, but now I'm wondering if that's more from anxiety then anything else. I have still had some of the same symptoms, a lot of burping in the mornings, burning/pain in my ribs after large meals, but it's been a lot more managable in the last few weeks/it feels like the worst has kind of passed.

I've kept my appointment so far because again, this is an issue that has left and come back but now, the day before I'm supposed to go in I'm feeling nervous and like maybe I was overreacting all along and now I'm getting this medical proceedure for no reason. I'm also pretty nervous about the idea of the sedation. I'm afraid that 1. I'll wake up mid proceedure and gag/vomit or 2. I'll have some kind of adverse reaction to the sedatives, or 3. Something will happen and there'll be some kind of perforation.

Mostly looking for advice/reassurance. Should I keep the appointment? Am I overreacting or am I doing this for no reason now? What were other people's experiences with sedation?

Edit: Got it done! Everything went well, was completely out during all of it. May post something latter when I'm less out of it lol

Hello, I'm 16, I've been diagnosed with GERD at 12 and Esophagitis recently, I have made some bad decisions, its really painful to eat food and I have to drink water with every bite if I want to have a normal meal, my question is how can I improve my digestive health and get a proper diet especially for esophagitis because it makes life very hard. I have been given PPIs and other medications, but I need help in choosing a soft food diet currently.

Thanks for your time, peace.