Getting Off of Omeprazole: Share your success stories please.

@sjn1975 Great question and one I have not seen answered.
JK

I am getting a lot of good information from this thread - thanks!!! Is anyone else on both omeprazole and synthroid/levoxyl??? I have been on thyroid hormone since childhood and get frequent bone scans since osteopenia/bone loss is a common side effect. Since this is also a side effect of long-term use of Omeprazole too I am quite concerned about taking both.....

hi @becymel .... i must be in a bad mood today, lol but I am getting quite concerned about taking ANY meds these days! I realize medicine's benefits but so many side effects, short term effects, long term effects... and then some side effects are treated by doctors (not critisizing them) ...the doctors treat some side effects as another illness and another prescription and it seems to snowball from there. I have never taken as many pills (still not a lot compared to my spouse and others) but I have never ever worried as much taking medications ever before. The Internet has been a valuable source of information, could not do without it, but of course conflicting information on various sites its mind-bobbling. Even here in Canada re the vaccine for Covid, news bulletin issues and can go to sleep at night assured that your decision is based on fact; wake up to conflicting information - from reliable source like Health Canada, and opposite and then have to rethink it all. I just retyped my spouses daily list of am and pm meds (15) although he is ambulatory (heart surgery Nov) and I cringe. They had the stone age; industrial revolution, etc. etc. what are we going to be known as... the medical mystery marvelous madening miracle misery mixed up generation? Anyone here scared to even start reading the ingredients on things any more .... even food items? Where's the nearest rabbit hole??????

Interesting. I thought I had read about dementia concerns with long term use of PPIs (like omeprazole) several years ago. In fact, it was worrying me quite a lot. You question caused me to do a new internet search and I am not finding as much concern about dementia as I thought existed. One conclusion from this review is that it is hard to study long term side effects of PPIs.

FYI - I originally had links to these articles in this post, and attachments. By Mayo Connect is not letting me post with links.

One article from Cleveland Clinic: "“The biggest controversy has been around whether PPIs increase the risk of dementia,” he says, “but recent data do not support that association, although none of the research was from randomized, controlled trials so we can’t say this issue has been laid to rest.”

Another review article from the American Gastroenterology Assoc. (2017) concluded "Residual confounding related to study design and the over-extrapolation of quantitatively small estimates of effect size have probably led to much of the current controversy about PPI safety." There is a good chart in this article about % risks. (I tried attaching a graphic and a chart from this article but Mayo says I am too new a member.)

An article from US Pharmacist does not mention dementia as a concern. It mentions, among other things, loss of magnesium and osteoporosis concerns.

My conclusion, personally, is to try to get off omeprazole if I can, to reduce possible long term repercussions. (increased chance of getting C-Dificile is one of the risks and that is a dangerous and unpleasant infection.) I am doing as many other people in this Forum have suggested, I am going to read the Dr. Jonathan Aviv book Acid Watcher Diet. I am going to try to be ask strict as I can in following the recommendations, and see if I can get by on 20 mg famotidine twice a day. I have also learned there is a prescription 40 mg famotidine twice a day.... Of course - who knows what the long term side effects of famotidine are? (For years I took Ranitidine and then it was pulled from the marketing for having NDMA. Who knows what that did?)

Hard to balance pros and cons, especially when we really don't know them all. Best wishes to all! -RSE

@rse, I noticed that you wished to post a links to articles with your message. You will be able to add URLs to your posts in a few days. There is a brief period where new members can't post links. We do this to deter spammers and keep the community safe. Clearly the link you wanted to post are not spam, so allow me to post it here.

– Long-term Use of PPIs Has Consequences for Gut Microbiome https://consultqd.clevelandclinic.org/long-term-use-of-ppis-has-consequences-for-gut-microbiome/
- Complications of Proton Pump Inhibitor Therapy https://www.gastrojournal.org/article/S0016-5085(17)35623-8/fulltext
- Long-Term Consequences of Chronic Proton Pump Inhibitor Use https://www.uspharmacist.com/article/longterm-consequences-of-chronic-proton-pump-inhibitor-use

Thanks Colleen! You are ON IT! Have a great day. 🙂 -Rachel

@rse I don’t know about the States, but Zantac is back on the market in Canada. My daughter has to take it and she was beside herself when it was taken off! She is relieved to get it back!

PPIs scare me too, but unfortunately it is the only thing that keeps my acid reflux in check (I take just one capsule before bed - in addition to having the head of my bed raised) and both physician and pharmacist think that’s the only course for me to take. I trust my pharmacists (been with the same pharmacy for thirty years) because they have alerted me on other prescriptions and have even got my physician to take me off/not start certain medications.

@beckymel I feel negligent because it has somehow escaped me that my levothyroxine could be contributing to my osteoporosis as could the omeprazole that I took for several years. I am also on prednisone which is a major cause of osteoporosis so I attributed it to that.

I started doing Tymlos injections a couple of weeks ago because my osteoporosis has gotten quite advanced. Unfortunately, there is no drug for osteoporosis without side effects, but I think that's true of all drugs. From what I have heard the percentage of people on drugs for osteoporosis who have serious side-effects are in a small minority.

I guess we all just have to forge ahead with hopes we will not be a part of that small minority with serious side-effects.
JK

I was told to take my PPI 1/2 hr before supper. The food activates it.

Take any PPI or similar medication at least a half an hour before meals or preferably other medication to obtain maximum benefit. That way the acid reduction begins before you eat so that acid is not released when you eat.