Getting of PPI's

[GhostOf1901]

After months of treatment, my doc informed me it's now time to get off my heartburn medication (Nexium). I tried to go completely off of it, but within days my GERD symptims fire up again: sore throat, hard to eliminate mucus in throat, hoarse voice, pain in my tongue/mouth, and--rarely--pain in my back and upper stomach. I tried to go on once-every-two-days, as per his second recommendation, and while the symptoms are better, the aforemention symptoms are still there.

From what I've read, I hear a "rebound" time is normal when getting off of PPI's. I'd been on either Prevacid or Nexium since March 2008 (November 2008 as of this writing). How long will this "rebound" last? What can I do to reduce the severity of this? H2-blockers don't work on me (my stomach laughs at Zantac and Pepcid), and I'm affraid this increased acid will bring about a return to my gastritis (which I had before going on PPI treatment).

I follow a GERD diet, have my bed at an angle (8" rise at the head of the bed), and try to eat plenty of protein so that the LES is strengthened. I've also began reducing the amount of gluten in my diet, and am working on eliminating it completely. Nevertheless, the pain and burning are there.

A gastric emptying exam showed motility of 50% at 90 minutes, which they classified as borderline gastroparesis, something they attributed partly to my biliary dyskinesia (the possibility of a global motility disorder still exists, however, although I've seen evidence to suggest the problem might lie in some nervous system problems involving my back). I've been trying some herbs, but they are considerably less potent by themselves than they are with the medication, though this may simply be a result of the rebound effect.

With all that said, any suggestions on how to successfully ween myself off of PPIs?

[GhostOf1901]

Thanks for the help. I just saw this, actually, having believed no one had answered. I have an appointment iwth a gastro coming soon, and I'll discuss getting off PPI's with him. Should he give me the OK, I'll implement your plan.

Thank you!

[ayri]

hi friend, i believe a change in diet is the only way of getting off proton pump inhibitors, i got off nexium by changing the way i ate. first lets says its lunch time and your going to eat green beans and rice and water to wash it down, make sure thats all you eat and drink and nothing else, not even salad. then wait 2-3 hours before your next meal, you can have fruit and water but dont add anything else, same with salads, dont add anything else except water then wait 2-3 hours and have say a roast for dinner without adding salad or fruit or bread, just the roast and water, basically leave a couple of hours between meals and dont mix your foods, try this for a week or two and see how you go, it worked for me and i hope it works for you, cheers. p.s. its really great to see on this sight how many people you have helped,God bless.