Getting Off of Omeprazole: Share your success stories please.

Posted by Bonnie @nightngale1998, Jun 26, 2018

Hi there: Has anyone had success in weaning off of Omeprazole? I take it for GERD. Thank you in advance!

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I am trying to get off omeprozole also. I have hiatal hernia but with the medication I have had such severe leg and foot cramps that I thought the bones of my feet would break. Most nights I would be up two to three times and have to stay up each time until the pain would stop. I am trying Zantac and eating very little hoping to keep the blowback reflux from getting over whelming. No one else on the post seems to have had the cramping. The doctor said just eat a banana every once in a while and you will be fine, that did not cut it so I am looking for other solutions.

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Look into the LINX Augmentation procedure. There are videos on YouTube. I had the procedure in September 2018 and it was very successful. I had a 4 cm hiatal hernia and my esophageal sphincter stayed open. I haven’t had to take an antacid since the surgery (laparoscopic) and adjustment was more than tolerable. Now I eat anything I want with no difficulty,

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I have taken Omeprozole since 2008 for 8 years, only the 20mg once a day.because my engoscopy showed I had Barreitts Esophagus;. In 2016, it showed I had low dysplasia and the doctor put me on 40 mg a day. Then in Feb. 2017, my endoscopy showed I had high dysplasia, and I was put on 40mg twice a day, which I have taken until Sept. of this year. Now after four ablations, my BE has gone away as of Sept. and the Dr. said I could cut my dosage back to 40 mg once a day. I have never had serious heartburn or Gerd as others have described, and my thinking was that PPI was not not working well. But I tried to continue taking it as directed. - maybe missing a few times but not noticing any symptoms,. I remember noticing GERD when I had had an unusual big dinner - two or three courses with wine.- I would wake up after being a sleep and throw up. I would then take a zantac, get relief, go back to bed and a of course, I learned that I had to be careful about eating. I also leaned from my doctor at MDAnderson that I had a hiatel hernia that I had not beejn told before. by my other GI doctor.
But... the only adverse thing I can see that has resulted with my taking a PPI - (I take prontonix now) is I noticed that my skin became very thin and bruised looking and would even start bleeding without any reason that I could see. Now that I am back on one pill a day, that problem has cleared up and my arms look normal. Has anyone else taking Omeprozale or prontonix had this problem?

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Yes! I have and never understood why. Now I just take 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda in water and no more blood marks on arms and bleeding.

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@l3440r

I have taken Omeprozole since 2008 for 8 years, only the 20mg once a day.because my engoscopy showed I had Barreitts Esophagus;. In 2016, it showed I had low dysplasia and the doctor put me on 40 mg a day. Then in Feb. 2017, my endoscopy showed I had high dysplasia, and I was put on 40mg twice a day, which I have taken until Sept. of this year. Now after four ablations, my BE has gone away as of Sept. and the Dr. said I could cut my dosage back to 40 mg once a day. I have never had serious heartburn or Gerd as others have described, and my thinking was that PPI was not not working well. But I tried to continue taking it as directed. - maybe missing a few times but not noticing any symptoms,. I remember noticing GERD when I had had an unusual big dinner - two or three courses with wine.- I would wake up after being a sleep and throw up. I would then take a zantac, get relief, go back to bed and a of course, I learned that I had to be careful about eating. I also leaned from my doctor at MDAnderson that I had a hiatel hernia that I had not beejn told before. by my other GI doctor.
But... the only adverse thing I can see that has resulted with my taking a PPI - (I take prontonix now) is I noticed that my skin became very thin and bruised looking and would even start bleeding without any reason that I could see. Now that I am back on one pill a day, that problem has cleared up and my arms look normal. Has anyone else taking Omeprozale or prontonix had this problem?

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Yes. I never knew that was the cause of my thin skin and the bruising on my arms. Very enlightening, but do not know what to do about it. I, too have Barrett's and afraid to stop medication.

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@benniebear

I am trying to get off omeprozole also. I have hiatal hernia but with the medication I have had such severe leg and foot cramps that I thought the bones of my feet would break. Most nights I would be up two to three times and have to stay up each time until the pain would stop. I am trying Zantac and eating very little hoping to keep the blowback reflux from getting over whelming. No one else on the post seems to have had the cramping. The doctor said just eat a banana every once in a while and you will be fine, that did not cut it so I am looking for other solutions.

Jump to this post

I also take Omeprozole and never considered that was the cause of my cramps. Just found out it is probably the cause of my thin skin and bruising on my arms.

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I take 40mg omeprozole every 3 days with zantac in between if needed. Dr wants me off omeprozole because it is linked to dementia and I have been on a ton of different antacids for the past 20 years. I have done some research and some articles say it is the lack of acid in the stomach that causes heartburn/gerd. They even suggest using betaine hcl with every meal which creates acid in the stomach to help breakdown food. They also talk about a large amount of people diagnosed with heartburn and gerd actually have bad bacteria growing in your intestines that thrive in low acid and that is the cause of heartburn. I am completely confused about my gerd now and don't know what is right. Anyone else heard of taking betaine hcl ?

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@blueeyes

Yes. I never knew that was the cause of my thin skin and the bruising on my arms. Very enlightening, but do not know what to do about it. I, too have Barrett's and afraid to stop medication.

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do you have barrett's or a precursor to barrett's? If you do have barrett's then you woll will to get RFA (Radio Frequency Ablation) to get rid of the bad cells. Radio waves are used by a thoracic surgeon to burn out the cells. It is not pleasant, and does cause a bit of throat swell. I had been told after a detailed endoscopy that i had a precursor to barrett's since i had cell changes that were questionable. I chose not to have RFA because of the above side effects. i had a 360 degree fundoplication which has been nothing bu, t problems for me for 2.5 years: gagging svndrome; burning sensation of the esophagus ( not acid reflux, but been diagnosed with "hypersensitve esophagus"; terrible gas and flatulance; i've had 3 dilations, because of food getting stuck in th LES; I have problem drinking cold water, since it seems tonor properly drain thru the esophagus. My thoracic does not know what to do next;. Does anybody out there seen any data on the effect of antacids on people that give them either dementia, altheimers, osteoporosis, kidney failure? I have not seen such data. For 18 years i was on 60 mg of prevacid and later supplemented it with 4000 mg of sulcrafate. All the testing post op done on me does lead to a possiblly too tight fundoplication. I am not sold on the 360 degree fundoplication process. If i were to go to a 270 degree fundooplication i would have better motility but a 25 % chance that gagging and swallowling would still be a problem. i control my "burn" with atavan (AMA recommendation for hypersensitive esophagus- use of antidepressants. yYpnosis did not work for me.sorry i got so wordy with my response. best wishes in your fight with heartburn and reflux.....kozlo52

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@mick2

Yes! I have and never understood why. Now I just take 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda in water and no more blood marks on arms and bleeding.

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What do you mean, you take 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda in water. You put it on your bloody arms or you drink it?? Does that stop the bruising and bleeding?

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@kelandjim

I take 40mg omeprozole every 3 days with zantac in between if needed. Dr wants me off omeprozole because it is linked to dementia and I have been on a ton of different antacids for the past 20 years. I have done some research and some articles say it is the lack of acid in the stomach that causes heartburn/gerd. They even suggest using betaine hcl with every meal which creates acid in the stomach to help breakdown food. They also talk about a large amount of people diagnosed with heartburn and gerd actually have bad bacteria growing in your intestines that thrive in low acid and that is the cause of heartburn. I am completely confused about my gerd now and don't know what is right. Anyone else heard of taking betaine hcl ?

Jump to this post

I know these are real diagnosis and pain. I had bad stomach problems they couldn't find so I started on my own journey of healing myself. I slowly started essential oils and found one called Digize for gut problems. I drop 3 drops in a capsule and that was two years ago. I haven't had any heart burn, up nausea, pain, etc. since I've started that one. I missed a few doses and then a few weeks, never noticed I didn't need it like I did.
If your willing and the doctor says its ok for you, Its worth trying. I buy Young living oils for the Digize.But I use Dr. Axe's oils because they are organic. Take a look, I get nothing, just wanted to share because it works for me.
https://store.draxe.com/collections/essential-oils

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