GORD, Omeprazole and the latest health scare

[carina62]

I am T2 and have suffered from GORD for 12 years now and also have a hiatus hernia. I have been taking Omeprazole on and off now for years but with te recent health scare over the last few days about that it can cause heart attacks and strokes, I am wondering whether I should get my medication changed to Ranitidine? Does anyone know the difference between these 2 types? I did try Lanozaprole for a short while but it didn't really help.

 

[CarbsRok]

As far as I know Carina they are all the same family of drug. Very little difference in them. I have tried them all as steroid dependant so GP wanted tummy lining protected. All they did was give me dreadful belly ache and make me sick.

 

[Indy51]

I was able to come off Nexium by following the advice at Chris Kresser's site. He now has a free e-book in PDF format:
http://chriskresser.com/heartburn/

Cutting out grains made a huge difference to the bloating that made reflux worse. Digestive enzymes and HCL also helped a lot. There is a very good book on the subject by Norm Robillard - very similar to the FODMAPS diet eliminating fermentable fibres from the diet:
http://www.amazon.com/Heartburn-Dig...qid=1434661013&sr=8-1&keywords=norm+robillard

FODMAPS diet: http://www.med.monash.edu/cecs/gastro/fodmap/

Hope this information is of help to you. The annoying thing about these drugs is that they are only meant to be prescribed short term, yet doctors keep us on them for years. After I read about side effects like osteoporosis and pneumonia, I decided it was time to get off them. Nexium completely destroyed my digestion and it's taking me years to repair it, unfortunately.

 

[Sirmione]

About 17 years ago I was diagnosed with a Barret's esophagus and put on Omeprazole.
It was effevtive but it gave me dry eyes especially on waking and a general mild hangover like feeling.

Omeprazole is one of a group of drugs called "Proton Pump Inhibitors" where as Ranitidine (Zantac) and Cimetidine (Tagamet) are related to anti-histamines. The two groups of drugs work in entirely different ways.

Ranitidine worked for me but only gives me about 10 hours protection per dose, the standard NHS dose is 150mg at 12 horly intervals so clearly gave me 4 hour gap in protection. My solution was a dose of 75mg taken 8 hourly intervals.
Prescribing 75mg Ranitidine seems to cause headaches for the NHS so I buy over the counter from Sainburys or even a pound shop. As long as I buy the generic type the cost is trivial.
NB I take Ranitidine NOT Cimetidine a there is a warning not to take Cimetidine when you are on Metformin.

As far as I know Carina they are all the same family of drug. Very little difference in them. I have tried them all as steroid dependant so GP wanted tummy lining protected. All they did was give me dreadful belly ache and make me sick.

 

[Shar67]

Omeprazole made me sick, I take pantaprazole, works most of the time

 

[ButtterflyLady]

Ranitidine is unlikely to be as effective as Omeprazole, and I would only try it if you have a mild case. At times I have needed to take both, but now just take Omeprazole. I have not noticed any side effects (been on it for years). It is the only thing that keeps my otherwise extremely painful GORD under control. Even at a normal weight I still have GORD, although it was worse when I was overweight.

I don't know what your other health scare was, but I recommend anyone over 40 who has T2 Diabetes and something like GORD, or hypertension, or overweight, or depression, or daytime sleepiness, should get a sleep study done to check for sleep apnoea. Diabetes and GORD are two of the known risk factors/associated conditions.