Getting Off of Omeprazole: Share your success stories please.

I have a different issue altogether: I had my first endoscopy because of a slight sign of anemia. The GI doc said I had moderately severe reflux! I said, no I dont. He insisted I take protonix. After 8 mos and reading about side effects I tried to speak to him about discontinuing, or at least having another endoscopy to see if it changed anything. He asked me if I wanted to follow his advice or the internet!!! Holy moly he isnt my doctor any more…

Ranitidine was taken off the market, so hopefully you do not take it any longer.

I switched from omeprazole to rabeprazole instantly. Omeprazole gave me daily diarrhea. Rabeprazole works very well to control GERD, but it does give me a lot of gas. Originally I had Barrett's Esophagus, but my last endoscopy showed none.

I tried several of the brands with Omeprazole. The only one that has worked for me is Zegerid. I have been on it for years. At long as I take it every morning I’m good to go.
Tried getting off of it several times over the years but no luck.
I assume maybe it works better because of the Sodium Bicarbonate with it.

Yes. I was on in for 25 years and had to stop abruptly/completely while in the hospital with microscopic colitis. So far so good. Was originally prescribed due to GERD.

I was on PPIs (prescribed by two doctors) for years. First to supposedly treat me for GERDS. The second time when an endoscopy showed gastritis.

Rule #1. DO NOT GO. cold turkey. You must wean yourself off any PPI gradually. Why? the PPI inhibits the pumps that make acid, because you NEED stomach acid to digest your food. BUT you body, needing that acid, keeps making more pumps, which the PPIs keep inhibiting. When you go cold turkey all the pumps come back on full blast and you get agony. I have high pain treshholds so I soldiered on but boy was it uncomfortable.

Rule #2. You have to rebuild your gut lining and your gut microbiome. For the former try zinc carnosine. For the latter, BIOGais gut health ...and lots of fiber and foods like artichoke, sun chokes and foods with inulin.

Rule #3. Try half a lemon in water first thing in the morning. Try some apple cider vinegar before bedtime (in water of course). Why? Your stomach lumen wants to be a 5.5 PH. That's slightly acidic.

Rule #4. Try to get as healthy as you can and lose weight if you need to. The ONLY way you can do that is time restricted eating or intermittent fasting as it is known. If you don't like breakfast by all means skip it. I never cared for breakfast or breakfast foods but dutiful ate it as the medical establishment and Big Brother claimed we had to. Look where that got us. An obesity epidemic. I like to feast for dinner, a great variety of nutrients and eat to satiety. I have cut way down on alcohol although I still like the occasional half glass of wine or a mezcal which I make with my own hibiscus juice, lime, orange concoction. Get and read Jason Fund Obesity Code and Diabetes Code. Do cut out any added sugars or artificial sweeteners. They are sheer poison. I managed to cure even my Insulin Resistance and have lost and kept off 41 pounds over about 4 years.

I am 85. Never healthier after bouts of awful diseases which by and large doctors only made worse. It is wonderful to feel and be healthy. Your whole outlook on life changes.

Rule #5. Read and watch good YouTube health talks (Robert Lustig, Perlmutter, Sten Ekberg, Jason Fung, Peter Attria. So much more information is available today to us than it was in the past. You also can access any studies on the HIH site or Medline. Be very skeptical about any advice given you by run of the mill Western trained docs. They get NO nutrient education and the whole system has been coopted by Big Food and Big Pharma and Federal Guidelines which are generally the very apposite of what you need to do to maintain optimal health. As an example I recently food Stevia and "natural flavors" even in supplements. Hopeless. Stevia wrecks your microbiome and raises insulin by at least 20% over ordinary glucose. Almost makes you think that "they" want to keep us all sick. Who the hell needs to have their pills sweetener? It is sheer madness.

I would like to share with you that I was taking Nexium in the morning, had a flareup (maybe from carrying something very very heavy) and so I added famotidine at night. Since I still wasn't feeling well, I decided to try to switch the Nexium to famotidine, which I did gradually. Then, taking famotidine morning and night I still was not feeling great, so I decided to not take the famotidine in the morning and instead took a probiotic on an empty stomach. I felt a bit better with this. I then started taking melatonin at night and stopped the famotidine at night. The melatonin seems to reduce the gerd, although I do still have gerd symptoms at night. So, now I'm not taking nexium nor famotidine, and I feel better than I felt before. Still not perfect, but hoping that I'm in the right direction.
So, consider if reducing medications might make you feel better. (but reducing any PPI needs to be done very gradually or you'll have an acid surge, and expect to have a few days of feeling worse, so take other meds to get you through those days)

I totally agree with you.
I was on the highest dose of esomeprazole 40 mg 2 x's a day for 6 months for acid reflux corrosion of the tonsilary tissue. It healed but I developed a terrible allergic reaction. Lost the skin on the roof of my mouth, canker sores on my gums. My ENT told me I can never take this medication ever again and stopping abruptly I too experience some return of GERD. But things settled down and I am doing well. No coffee in the afternoon. Very little alcohol consumption. Maybe a glass of white wine once a week and watching my diet and no eating after dinner.
Thank you for your post. We all sometimes have to re-evaluate whzt medication we take and search within our hearts what works best for us.
PS sometimes questioning the use of statins, but this is another topic on a different post site.
Take care
Colleen P

I love all the information and support that is available today. I started my roads on Gerd, Reflux, you name it 25 years ago. Sadly doctors prescribed the medications freely and continuously over the years . Trusting the doctors and have extremely bad acid reflux I followed the flow. Now 25 years later I have osteoporosis, and have tried just about as many was to get off of proton pump meds. So yeah as early as you can work through it as best you can if you can, without these complications of these medications.

I also have gerd and have been on medication since 1996. I am 75 and since I heard about the dementia I have to say I am quite concerned, like anyone else I would imagine at my age you forget somethings where you place things etc nothing major but I can’t help but think of the dementia now I know. I started with 40mg and I am now taking 20 mg a day. I have been seeing a nutritionist and have been working on lowering the amount I take, the reason I now take 20MG. I did have a flare up a couple of weeks ago and she gave me wheat germ capsules to heal my gut and PH level. I have to admit I still eat what isn’t good for me the only good thing about the 40 mg was I could eat everything I wanted. I recently purchased some crystallized ginger and I have to say that really helps infact I would say it’s almost a miracle when I eat something bad.
I am also doing decaf ginger tea at breakfast and only have one cup of coffee a day other than that I drink water. I wonder what the percentage is of people getting dementia? We never find out until years later what the side effects are?