Chronic Acid Reflux.

[NONG CHOK]

Hi there,  I did drink a lot be beer and never really took care of my diet in my younger years. Now I'm 80 years old, reduced my weight by 20 kg's and still walk 90 minutes daily. Over the last 5 years I've developed chronic acid reflux. I'm very careful what I eat and reduced my beer intake to a few every day. I've been to several hospitals and many doctors but I've never improved. I take Omeprazole 20mg daily with no success. Any suggestion of any other treatment or OTC medicine. Thanks.

[BritManToo]

Assuming it is acid reflux and not gallstones which both share the same symptoms.

https://www.healthcentral.com/article/how-are-acid-reflux-and-the-gallbladder-related

[OneMoreFarang]

8 minutes ago, NONG CHOK said:

and still walk 90 minutes daily

Forget about that walking and just drink beer - just like everybody else.

Everything will be fine. ???? 

[Gaccha]

11 minutes ago, NONG CHOK said:

reduced my weight by 20 kg's

The issue is not how much weight you have lost, but whether you are now at an acceptable weight. You should aim to be straight down the middle of the BMI chart. 

[brianthainess]

I just use anti-acid  'milk' from 7/11 one make is Almag, about 70b there is another a bit more expensive, but Almag works for me.

[ozimoron]

2 minutes ago, Gaccha said:

The issue is not how much weight you have lost, but whether you are now at an acceptable weight. You should aim to be straight down the middle of the BMI chart. 

This. I used to suffer from chronic reflux for many years until I got told I had symptoms of insulin resistance by a GP. I changed my diet (including reducing beer to 3 or 4 a month, usually on the same day) and lost some weight but it wasn't until I hit the middle of the BMI and lost more weight that reflux symptoms finally disappeared. Exercise helped too.

[prakhonchai nick]

I used to take Omeprazole daily (and it seemed to work) but my heart specialist said no more and put me on Prevacid. Expensive, but half a tablet every 3 days works well

[ThaiPauly]

I too suffer badly from GERD

 

When it was bad a few weeks ago I saw a GI doctor at Chiang Mai Ram and he prescribed me Gasmotin twice a day before meals , breakfast and dinner, and Vociniti 10mg ( Vonoprazan) once a day before breakfast.

 

My symptoms have significantly  improved, if I do get a flare a gulp of  White Rabbit anti acid drink, but that's hardly occurred since I started taking the medication.

I was having trouble EVERY morning before

 

Good luck  GERD sucks 

[Lacessit]

There are some things you can do to minimize or eliminate acid reflux. Without medication. As another poster has said, get the weight to within normal BMI range.

 

My strategies have been as follows:

 

1/ I do not go to bed until at least three hours after eating.

2/ I have a regular low-carb diet and exercise routine I mostly stick to. I treat myself occasionally with ice-cream, or bangers and mash.

3/ I avoid over-eating. My alcohol intake is limited to one or two Sangsoms a week.

4/ I drink plenty of water.

6/ Ensure your head is elevated above your feet in bed.

7/ Keep a glass or bottle of water by the bed. Drink a mouthful of water if any reflux occurs.

8/ About half an hour before going to bed, I drink half a teaspoon of baking soda dissolved in a glass of water.

 

I was on Somac ( pantoprazole ) for many years. I have not needed the medication for about four years. Like you, I am 80 yo.

[Baht Simpson]

25 minutes ago, NONG CHOK said:

Hi there,  I did drink a lot be beer and never really took care of my diet in my younger years. Now I'm 80 years old, reduced my weight by 20 kg's and still walk 90 minutes daily. Over the last 5 years I've developed chronic acid reflux. I'm very careful what I eat and reduced my beer intake to a few every day. I've been to several hospitals and many doctors but I've never improved. I take Omeprazole 20mg daily with no success. Any suggestion of any other treatment or OTC medicine. Thanks.

Sorry Nong, I don't mean to be too judgemental but if you're 80 and drinking a few beers every day you're never giving your body a chance to recover from the alcohol consumption.  However old you are you should give your body a break from the alcohol every few days. 

 

As we age metabolism naturally slows down.  I've found that not drinking too much, taking a break from alcohol every two days and not eating after 8pm has helped my acid reflux considerably. I take one omeprazole at night. 

 

Exercise is good. 

[Felton Jarvis]

Miracid works for me. I struggle with acid reflux, especially when I eat anything spicy.

[ozimoron]

I found that white bread was the worst thing to eat for promoting acid reflux.

[Gaccha]

10 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

Ensure your head is elevated above your feet in bed.

A particularly effective strategy is to lie on your left side.

 

[jvs]

Skip the beer for a few days and see if it makes a difference.

In stead of taking medicine you can grind a few raw potatoes in the blender

and add some water if it is not liquid enough,take a few sips every hour and see if this works for you.

[Mike Teavee]

20 minutes ago, Felton Jarvis said:

Miracid works for me. I struggle with acid reflux, especially when I eat anything spicy.

Over the years I’ve found myself taking more & more beers of my drinking list as they seem to cause bad reflux the next day (San Miguel Lights is probably the worse but just recently Singha has been causing me grief).

Generally, Miracid (1 tablet in the morning) works for me but I keep a box of Gaviston Tablets (find they work better than the pouches) handy in case it flares up. 

[grain]

Re beer intake: I'm in my mid-70s, I have some rules for drinking. Never start before 6pm. Don't drink every night, always alternate - 1 night on, next night off. About twice a year I have a whole week off, just to give my body a rest. 

[xylophone]

1 hour ago, NONG CHOK said:

Hi there,  I did drink a lot be beer and never really took care of my diet in my younger years. Now I'm 80 years old, reduced my weight by 20 kg's and still walk 90 minutes daily. Over the last 5 years I've developed chronic acid reflux. I'm very careful what I eat and reduced my beer intake to a few every day. I've been to several hospitals and many doctors but I've never improved. I take Omeprazole 20mg daily with no success. Any suggestion of any other treatment or OTC medicine. Thanks.

There's always something new to learn, and I have just seen that Vonoprazan is a fairly new drug to help with reflux, one that I'd never heard of before.

 

I suffered from reflux for a few years until it got to the Barretts oesophagus stage, which my doctor was very worried about, so he did put me on omeprazole 40 mg twice a day and that did the trick, as well as getting some sleep aid with a low strength sleeping tablet for a short while.

 

Mainly though the secret to my success was getting out of the rat race and moving here, because stress was a major concern for me.

 

Nexium was launched as a "successor" to omeprazole and it was very expensive at the time, and there were concerns because whereas omeprazole was the standard treatment, the manufacturers of Nexium basically added another molecule to omeprazole, so it became esomeprazole – – and there were suggestions that this slight change didn't make much difference??

 

So to the OP, try doubling the omeprazole dose in the morning and/or take the 20 mg twice a day, and as my doctor informed me, I could go up to 40 mg twice a day, which I did. Also, lansoprazole sometimes seemed to work better for some folks than others, so that may be worth a try and it is the main ingredient in Prevacid, which can be easily obtained here.

 

I don't need to take it any more, and I did find a natural "cure" which really seemed to help, namely, "d-limonene" and actually cleared up my Barretts oesophagus according to my NZ doctor when he did a gastroscopy on my last visit.

 

Good luck dealing with this awful affliction, and there is some good information on this thread.
 

[scubascuba3]

43 minutes ago, ozimoron said:

I found that white bread was the worst thing to eat for promoting acid reflux.

Not for me, and I eat lots, food intolerance maybe?

 

In the past i took 20mg Omeprazole, didn't do anything noticeable. 40mg now we're talking, symptoms (gastritis) went away after a while, Dr in UK agreed to up dose to 40. Diet is the major reason so change that.

 

I don't need omeprazole any more but good for short time

[ozimoron]

18 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

Not for me, and I eat lots, food intolerance maybe?

 

In the past i took 20mg Omeprazole, didn't do anything noticeable. 40mg now we're talking, symptoms (gastritis) went away after a while, Dr in UK agreed to up dose to 40. Diet is the major reason so change that.

 

I don't need omeprazole any more but good for short time

I don't have any food intolerance or allergies. I only know that when I used to suffer from chronic acid reflux, white bread usually triggered it more than anything else. I just thought that little anecdote might help the OP track down the triggers for his chronic reflux.

[KhunLA]

Is it everyday, daily, or day & night, or just when trying to sleep.

 

If just when trying to sleep, it could be a hiatal hernia, which I have, and found when scoped.  Ask if wanting it fixed, and seems to be an easy fix, though I did give it a pass, as just knowing it's there, is easy enough to work around it.

 

For this with an occasion upset stomach, simple fix, 1 - 2 tsp or tbsp of baking soda, mixed with warm water, and you'll burp away your discomfort.  Inexpensive & works better & quicker than anything else ... IMHO

[Celsius]

I have experience with this. You need to do endoscopy at like this very moment to get the correct diagnosis. In my case I have hiatal hernia and acid never goes away. It gets managed with gaviscon advance mostly.

 

Your drinking is causing you anxiety issues. Having beer just sometimes won't cut it. Same for junk food. Your acid reflux will get 100 times worse if you get any form of anxiety. This is why it is actually very important to have endoscopy. I had it along with a CT scan and since there was nothing besides hernia and some gallstones I sleep better at night and my acid has gone from 8 out of 10 to 1 out of 10,

 

2 hours ago, NONG CHOK said:

I'm very careful what I eat and reduced my beer intake to a few every day.

 

 

No, I don't think you are careful at all.

[KhunLA]

7 minutes ago, Celsius said:

No, I don't think you are careful at all.

????

[Sheryl]

That there is no improvement with omepraxole casts some doubt as to whether problem is GERD at all. May be something else, or you may have a hiatal hernia.

 

You need to se a good GI specialist.

 

And as others mentioned:

- do not lie down for 2-3 hours after eating

- elevate the head of your bed

- eat small amounts at a time (avoid overfilling stomach). Multiple small meals are better than 3 large ones.

 

And:

- avoid or minimize caffeine (coffee, te and chocolate)

- if you smoke, stop. 

 

Should also invedtigate whether any other medication you are taking might be responsible. Some medications have this side effect. 

 

 

[Tropicalevo]

9 hours ago, Lacessit said:

6/ Ensure your head is elevated above your feet in bed.

I raised the head of the bed by about 3 inches.

No more acid reflux.

Drinking water before bed helps as well.

[Trentham]

I had reflux for over a year and was given the usual drugs. A year later I changed my doctor and he sent me for a scan - pancreatic cancer. I have had a partial pancreatectomy and splenectomy and am still here 13 years later and no reflux since. I too am 80 in another 2 weeks. PLEASE get scanned.

[KhunLA]

20 minutes ago, Trentham said:

A year later I changed my doctor and he sent me for a scan - pancreatic cancer. I have had a partial pancreatectomy and splenectomy and am still here 13 years later and no reflux since. I too am 80 in another 2 weeks. PLEASE get scanned.

Thanks for posting, as that's one cancer that scares the hell of me.  Couple friends were not so lucky after diagnosis

[Surasak]

Omeprazole is about as much use a boobs on a fish.

Try Lansoprazole/Prevacid@15mg 30 minutes before your last meal of the day 6:30to7:00pm, BUT do not DRINK alcohol after this!

The recommended time is before breakfast but this I find is wrong in that the reflux usually occurs at night. If 15mg doesn't work then move up to 30mg.

Tomatoes, cucumber and other acidic veg and fruits are your worst enemy.

 Keep a bottle of the attached by the bed, it works wonders.

[Tazmo]

There’s a lot of good advice given here.

As a previous sufferer I would echo most of the advice from those experienced advisors!

If your reflux is a symptom then you need to have it diagnosed. Just like headaches, a symptom, but there are 100 causes! So if you know the causative factor then you can get the appropriate treatment.

if you only want to treat the symptom then you got all the necessary information.

 I used gaviscon and tried different beers, nothing worked so I quit alcohol and only have Heineken 0% whenever I fancy it.

Some Foods also bothered me, some breads, pizzas, meat etc. So I went vegetarian. 
No further problems.

My last meal is early evening, 5ish.

Now after spicy food I might have some plant based milk.

Different things will work for different people, depends on your values and beliefs to some extent. Old habits are hard to break but I decided that I didn’t want to be a slave to alcohol! And I think of how better I feel without it. That’s after several decades of loving it, 50+. Cheers!

[Kwaibill]

On 7/9/2023 at 1:13 PM, NONG CHOK said:

Hi there,  I did drink a lot be beer and never really took care of my diet in my younger years. Now I'm 80 years old, reduced my weight by 20 kg's and still walk 90 minutes daily. Over the last 5 years I've developed chronic acid reflux. I'm very careful what I eat and reduced my beer intake to a few every day. I've been to several hospitals and many doctors but I've never improved. I take Omeprazole 20mg daily with no success. Any suggestion of any other treatment or OTC medicine. Thanks.

I have been prescribed Omeprazole also, but it was not always effective. I think in part because my gall bladder is removed. I happened on an article suggesting sleep on your left side to minimize GERD, due to the configure of our digestive system. Seems to work, though a bit tough to change sleep position after so many years. 

[hotchilli]

On 7/9/2023 at 1:13 PM, NONG CHOK said:

Hi there,  I did drink a lot be beer and never really took care of my diet in my younger years. Now I'm 80 years old, reduced my weight by 20 kg's and still walk 90 minutes daily. Over the last 5 years I've developed chronic acid reflux. I'm very careful what I eat and reduced my beer intake to a few every day. I've been to several hospitals and many doctors but I've never improved. I take Omeprazole 20mg daily with no success. Any suggestion of any other treatment or OTC medicine. Thanks.

Open Youtube and search for a video.
Dr Sten Ekberg,, RE: Acid reflux