Thanks John,<br><br>You are a wealth of information and I forgot to mention in my post to phoggie that I tested positive for Celiac Disease. To add to the Barrett's post I was told most common in people with Gerd and I was prescribed a daily dose of 80 and then lowered to 40 mg of protonix, a PPI to lessen the severity and protect the esophagus. I never had H Pylori in biopsy but ulcer and SIBO. I recently read up on this medication and discontinued against my Dr. advice. I had been on the medication for three years and feel so much better without it. I am not advocating that people stop their medications but in my case I believe the risks out way the benefit until more research substantiates long term use of PPI's. I value your thoughts on this. Thanks again for sharing your knowledge. I find this board a great place with great people!<br><br>

Glad you found it helpful.
Testing positive for Celiacs makes going gluten free kind of urgent. I'm surprised that you were not provided with advice about this. If you don't address the Celiac you're pouring water into a leaky bucket.
So you were on the PPI for 3 years, feel great, and stopped it? Or, you feel great now having stopped it? Sometimes 'feeling great' transiently is exactly that since you assumed some control over your situation. However, unilaterally discontinuing a prescription for a potentially serious condition isn't a good idea. PPIs are not innocuous but I think that compensating steps can be taken to mitigate their potentially damaging effects, like more calcium, magnesium, iron and watch your b12. Try to get on the lowest effective dose or ask the doctor about whether an alternative like an H2 blocker might help. No drug is without consequences, but no disease is either. PPI's are looking like they have more and more long term effects so you need an expert opinion on this and not self-medicate.
Hope this helps

Good morning,<br>Nice to hear back from you. I feel better without PPI and Dr said H 2 blockers would not adequately do the same job. I also have osteoporosis and get yearly Reclast infusions. Thyroid meds and PPI both effect bone density I was told. I can't believe I go to a University Hospital and no one treats the whole person. I keep going from specialist to specialist with new diagnosis and am prescribed medications that contraindicate each other and I am the one pointing this out to them. I am sorry if I sound flustered but I am. It would be great to sit down with one Dr and go over all issues and maybe feel better again. I am still trying but with so many different diagnosis I believe something is being missed.<br>Thank you again <br><br>

No, you need to be flustered at the state of medical treatment today! What you ask for (one Dr. who treats the whole person) IS NOT TOO MUCH TO ASK FOR! We must continue to speak to these needs and demand better (logical, sensible, etc) healthcare. How much does it cost for one person to see 20 Dr. over 5 years time - with each one requiring their own tests and yes, new prescriptions!! It is madness - and it must stop. The cost is dollars in one thing and astronomically out of control because of just what you mentioned. The cost to the individual searching for healing is deplorably intolerable. We are suffering because of this madness, and it's unacceptable. There are Doctors who treat the whole person, and there will be more if we keep demanding them, by refusing to ride on this merry-go-round that doesn't serve anyone (not insurance companies, not patients, not doctors, not hospitals) well. I have found a Doctor that practices Functional Medicine (treating my Hashimotos) and life is so much better. Keep speaking up. Keep searching those kind of Dr's are out there. Keep educating yourself. Look into Leaky Gut Syndrome and Candida / Yeast infections. In the meantime, you must trust your instinct - THERE IS SOMETHING BEING MISSED. Routine tests do not reveal auto-immune disorders, and rushed Doctors do not take the time to listen. Don't give up in your search for a Dr. who takes time to listen.

I can identify with your observations. One huge problem that lingers with medicine these days is that the doctors across clinics do not share a single database, and if they do have one, they don't exploit its features. There is also software out there used by pharmacists that will inform them if there is a drug conflict and I think that the vast majority of doctors use it because the potential legal liability for prescribing drugs with known serious interactions is massive. In fairness to the doctors, the patient volumes in these mega-clinics is very high and I am sure that many patients do not accurately list what meds that they are on when they go from doctor to doctor. The knowledge base is far too broad for a single doctor to know and treat every condition. To expect a family doctor to be an expert in rheumatology for example is just not realistic. There is too much to know and the data is growing daily.
Anyway, a patient needs to do a lot of their own homework these days if we're going to stay on top of things. Maybe things were better in the old days when we didn't know so much. Sometimes I wonder.