Proton pump inhibitors for Gastritis

[Tito]

Justy,
Do you have hot water tanks in your home? It sometimes happens that dead insects or small rodents end up in the water, and then people drink that water.

 

[svetoslav80]

PPI's result in undigested food in your bowels. This is know to exacerbate, if not to cause, increased intestinal permeability.

I just experienced that. For one month. In the beginning I had the feeling that I need to go to the WC 5 minutes after a meal. And my bowels are rumbling. What pisses me off is that my doc refuses to admit that this is caused by the PPIs which I took for 40 days (though I took 4 times smaller dose than perscribed!). I'm slowly recovering though, and feeling much better already.

 

[mermaid]

Justy, so sorry to hear of how your gut problems have continued with the PPIs. One thing I seem to remember is that if you do come off them you have to do it slowly (when you do).

I really struggled with the whole acid thing and when and if I should take Betaine HCL and when I shouldn't. I am however now down to just one betaine capsule a day with my main meal.

At the moment I seem to have all of my food intolerances under control (fingers crossed) - and you know that my journey has been long too, though we are ALL different I know. I have a lot of restrictions, but I am resigned to them all now.

I have recently started a new probiotic called Prescript-Assist which seems to target in a different kind of way.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16117982

 

[Victronix]

Justy,

Your symptoms and prescriptions sound exactly like what I went through for years, including pneumonia!

What happened to me was that the long term unidentifiable stomach issue suddenly went away after the antibiotic I took for the pneumonia (10 days of, I believe, doxicycline?). But that stomach problem STARTED with an antibiotic (Flagyl) and the prilosec and imeprizole really wrecked me and probably created the overgrowth that the antibiotic then dealt with . . . years later, after suffering with it forever. It was really an eye-opener.

My stomach has never been normal again. Today I've found that probiotics are very helpful, also -- possibly -- for my mood. I notice that when my gut gets messed up I get paranoid and depressed. High doses of probiotics have been shown to improve mood (many serotonin and other receptors in the gut). I take Jarro-dophilus +FOS 3.4, 3x a day. For a long time I didn't take them because I'd tried one once and my stomach went crazy, but years later, I gave it a go again and it was fine.

After I could no longer tolerate the pharma drugs, what I found worked a lot better when my stomach was really bothering me was Slippery Elm -- I would get the bark at an herb store and soak it overnight and then sip the viscous liquid throughout the day. It worked far better than anything from the pharmacy to just soothe my stomach.

 

[Foggy]

I also would like to caution on this, of course you can always give this a try for a short period, but I would stay away from PPIs unless you have a confirmed and severe problem with too much stomach acid possibly also scarring the esophagus. When I had gut trouble (thought to be gastritis) back then 3 weeks of omeprazole made everything worse and also caused an overgrow of candida. I likely never had high stomach acid in the first place and eventually fixed my gut to 80% with totally different remedies. If you must reduce acid I think h2 blockers are a gentler approach.

Coming off PPI's suddenly can cause rebound hypersecretion of the stomach glands in most people, so its best to wean off them over several weeks (bit like if you are on anti-depressants etc).

These drugs are incredibly strong and are good for severe heartburn/reflux, oesophagitis, gastritis etc, but only for short-term use. Up until my heartburn surgery ~6mo, I was on strong PPI's for 14yrs, developed gastric polyps and in the end, they just stop working. I only take the occasional mylanta tablet now - sometimes surgery is the only remedy.