Heartburn / Acid Stomach

The past few weeks, the heartburn and acid stomach has really been bothering me. I've been eating as bland as I can (cheerios, rice, saltines, lots of water). It is in addition to the nausea that comes with the migraines when they escalate. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I checked with my neuro, and he's changing my abortives--my pharmacist said two of them were probably the culprits (norgesic and toradol). I've been pretty much taking the maximum allowable dosage each week. I take Pantoprazole to protect my stomach already, but it doesn't seem to have any effect on it now. I've been downing a lot of liquid maalox too, which I'm concerned might decrease the effectiveness of my preventatives and supplements.

I googled natural remedies, and some suggested are: an apple (sliced one up and ate it yesterday--no effect); baking soda in water (mom used to give this to us when we were kids--makes me vomit), cider vinegar (I'm afraid I'll throw this up too); cold milk (no effect).

Geez, it seems you just can't win between the head and the intestinal issues.

Becky

I've only had a couple nights of twinges where I lay there and think "uh oh". I know all the anti-inflammatories are hard on my tum-tum.

I'm anxious to see what you find out.

Charlotte

yeah i get heartburn, acid call it what you will and it is awful, i am not sure what comes first the migraine or the heartburn but i seem to always get the 2 together, never really thought about if it was the pain relief i was using, anyway, i have a prescription for omeprazole 20mg, which i take on an evening and that seems to keep the acid at bay, the omeprazole stops the stomach from producing acid in the first place so you dont need to keep treating it with other remedies, i dont take it every day only need it once or twice a week at mo,

I back to forcing myself to eat something... anything, when I take my meds. I think I am this close to another ulcer. The bummer is eating first thing in the morning almost always triggers an IBS attack butI'd rather deal with that than another ulcer.

What works... Luna bars, yogurt, oatmeal, cream of rice, banana, a few slices of cheese (real cheese - not that processed stuff- shudder!)

Alli

meds no doubt can make a grump GI system worse. i take a PPI, Aciphex 1-2x a day and it works.

i've been on it for about 10 years and it works well.

bad side--possible side effect: headache.

Hi Becky, I take manuka honey for the pain caused by the codeine tablets I take but it is very expensive here - about £9 a jar. Sorry I don't know what the exchange rate is. It's got antibacterial properties and when I've used it for a few days, the pain usually disappears. Not the same as heartburn I know but it may help, if you can mortgage your house!

Good luck
Liz

Thanks everyone!

Marc--pantoprazole is a PPI (proton pump inhibitor) too. I take it once a day, but I may call and ask if it can be increased to twice daily. I've been on it for about a year and a half and it's worked pretty good up until lately.

Liz--I'm sorry, I have never heard of manuka honey. What is it? I know the type of honey depends on the crop the bees are raised on, but I don't know what Manuka is.

Alli--thanks! I do usually have plain yogurt with active live cultures every day. I try to eat a very bland diet with very few processed foods.

Theresae--I think I have some omeprazole around here too. I wonder if I should try taking that in the evening and the pantoprazole in the morning and see if it works.????

Thanks everyone. My tummy is rumbling and rolling now again. It's so uncomfortable.

Becky

Hi Becky, I heard about Manuka Honey through the District Nurses who treat my mum. They've been on courses to learn ways of using the honey to treat things like diabetic ulcers. It can be used internally and externally. It comes from honey made from bees who gather the nectar from manuka bushes. Here are a couple of links - I found a US one that mentions reflex and heartburn.

http://www.manukahoneyusa.com/manuka-honey-research.htm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/3787867.stm

Liz

Thanks, Liz. Very interesting reading on these sites. They also have a product effective for inflammation associated with migraine. hmmmm..........

Becky

I use Prilosec-OTC every day. When I still have a problem, extra strength Tums do the trick. I always try to take my medications with a small snack or milk if my stomach will allow it.

The doctor also told me to avoid coffee, tea, and other forms of caffeine as well as carbonated drinks. I'm afraid to say I don't listen to that part though. He says caffeine is a big culprit in acid reflux cases.

I've always had some issues with Acid Reflux but lately it has been really bad.

Worse than it has ever been.

Thank you to everyone for the good ideas. I truly had not thought about it, but recently my doctor changed my meds again.

Guess I will have to ask him about that.

I will try some of the suggestions you guys have listed.

Have been eating Activia for the last week just to see if it would make any difference.

Has anyone else had any success with it?

Another thing that has been happening to me for the last few months is sour stomach.

You know where you belch that disgusting taste?

When it's really bad, you can even smell it! Makes me want to stay home, it's embarrassing!

This has never been a problem for me before.

Anyone else had trouble with this? If so, what did you do to prevent it?

I really want to know because this is quite embarrassing to me.

One evening, I was watching TV with hubby and he thought the dog farted!

I didn't speak up and say anything different, I just let the dog take the blame!

Is that terrible?

Anyway, any help you can give would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Cindy

Toradol is a real drill for the stomach.
I eat lots of boiled potatoes when I have those symptoms. I find that they absorb the exceeding stomach juices due to gastritis caused by meds.
Bye

I woke up at 2:30 this morning with a horrible sharp pain in my stomach...... Took almost an hour to get back to sleep between the pain and the stupid tinnitus. I think the ulcer is a real issue now. A whole bottle of water helped dilute whatever was going on.. too much acid I think. I was just too sleepy and too miserable with head pain to get up and eat something. So it's back to acid meds and making sure I eat with every single med dose.

Damn... I don't need this. But I've gone through this often enough to recognize the early signs and can heal it before it gets really bad.

My pharmacist didn't think any of my preventatives were causing the intestinal issues, but I've been making some big changes the past 3-4 weeks: titrating off protriptyline; discontinuing cyclobenzaprine; titrating onto amitriptyline and lamectal; increasing ativan. I have to wonder if all this doesn't play a role, in addition to the abortives eating up the intestinal walls.

It's so rumbly and rolly in there sometimes, it almost reminds me of when I was pregnant with my boys (25+ years ago) (and I'm certain that's not going on!). Isn't it Winnie the Pooh who says he has a rumbly in his tumbly?......well that's what I'm feeling along with the heartburn/acid stomach.

My doctor has switched two of my abortives to orphenadrine (without the aspirin) and celebrex. I had to use the celebrex yesterday and it worked for about 4 hours but then the pain was back.

Becky

ooh, aspirin and codine are 2 big no nos for me, get awful stomach cramps from them, and aspirin makes me belch and have alot of rumbling in my tummy.

Google alkaline/acid foods list and try and increase your intake off the alkaline list and reduce your intake off the acid forming list.
Surprisingly some foods that taste acid are good at neutralizing acid while some you think are ok are heavily acid forming eg:lean meats and all dairy. Fresh squeezed lemon in water can be of great benefit.
My own cure was a month on Active apple cider vinegar 3 x per day (was taking up to 80mg of omeprazole every day for 3 years) now I maintain an alkaline system with mainly alkaline foods, ionized water and lemon juice. No more heartburn and my migraines have greatly improved which I'll cover in another post.

It 3 months since I have started getting heartburns and acid reflux, I have been researching online, and reading alot: “Heartburn reflux,” in which the main complaint is heartburn, and “throatburn reflux,” in which the main complaints are chronic cough, frequent throat-clearing, hoarseness and/or a lump-like sensation in your throat. Throatburn reflux is acid reflux without any heartburn complaints. The medical term for heartburn reflux is GERD (gastro-esophageal reflux disease) and the medical term for throatburn reflux is LPR (laryngopharyngeal reflux) . I know all the medical terms I have used, (researched online)reason being when the Doc' uses them, one should know it.
According to EverydayHealth acid reflux disease can lead to severe inflammation in the esophagus, stomach, lungs, vocal cords, and throat. ( I had it in my thorat along with stomach, just could not swallow anything even drinking water was like pain...) In some cases, untreated or insufficiently treated acid reflux can even progress to esophageal cancer – the fastest growing cancer in America and Europe.
Please share if anyone of you had similar symptoms.

Hi, Myra
I am sorry you are suffering with such bad problems with acid reflux.
I can relate to this. I have similar problem, so over the years I have tried several solutions with my GP's as well as specialist doctors help.

There is no one simple solution, but you are right, this is a serious health issue so not doing anything about it, is not an option.
You need a proper diagnosis, and examination to establish what is causing your problem.

Min diagnosis was Barrett's oesophagus and hiatus hernia. Both sound terrible and scary, but the good news is that although I could not do anything about hiatus hernia (operation too dangerous for me for various reasons) but I managed to considerable improve the B symptoms by various methods.

I have some practical suggestions which really made a difference for me, but I am afraid this is not going to be short and it only works when you follow it properly..

At times I was given a wrong advice and wasted time, or made myself more ill, but in the end I think I got the right balance and my symptoms became more manageable.

I don't know what medicines you are taking, but the first step is to read, carefully, about side effects of each one (some will actually give you the heartburn) and try to replace them with the doctors help, by something else. Another thing is to space medicines, never take more then one at the time, and drink plenty of water between each one.

Omeprazole was mentioned in one post here, it works very well, but it must not be taken all the time, because it can actually contribute to cancer, which I did not know, because no one told me when it was prescribed. I stopped it, and use other methods, which work for me.

the next step is to eliminate all processed foods sauces, or snacks and fat, from your diet. Eliminate ALL fizzy drinks completely.
You don't know what they contain, but ALL of them contain hidden chemicals (even breakfast cereals).
Yes, it can be done, but do it gradually, so you can get use to it.

Instead make vegetables main part of each meal. I use steamed vegetables, not salads they make it worse. There are plenty of simple vegetarian, or vegan, recipes on the net, which are easy to prepare, so try some. You can do it gradually to get use to it.
I have a member of family who is vegan,so I cook for him when they visit, and feel so much better after eating it, quite amazing, no more symptoms - no I am not vegan, or vegetarian myself, but find that eating less meat, and replacing it with fish, for example, this makes lots of difference.
Unfortunately coffee makes me feel much worse, but I cannot do without it especially in the mornings.

The best advice I was ever given was to start drinking hot ginger tea after each meal. It is not only great for the symptoms but ginger has strong anti-inflammatory properties, so it is good for M and any other inflammatory conditions, as well.
You make the tea by cutting fresh ginger root (about and inch) into small pieces pour hot boiling water over it, then place in microwave for about 30 seconds. This will be your daily supply. You cover it then drink it by using some and diluting with hot water each time you use it. It is incredibly comforting for my symptoms.

For the long term healing properties you cannot beat Turmeric, in form of High Potency Curcumin tablets. This must be maximum strength to work. This made a most dramatic difference to my Barrett's symptoms.

After all this, I really feel much more in control and my quality of life improved a lot. I can even eat in restaurants, but you must be careful when you order.

I know this sound like a lot, but you will do it in stages, getting use to the changes and the reward is that it will happen if you stick to it. First tackle medicines, and your diet. BTW, the pleasant side effects of it all is that I have lost quite a lot of weight by eating healthy food,