I have had GERD since I had my first child 25 years ago and have been on Losec since. It helps me a lot. However, I've been concerned about taking a medication for such a long time. It is supposed to be relatively safe. Some days I try to take less of a dosage but heartburn is worse. What I found out from a Naturopath is that DHL (licorice root) that you can get from the health food store, helps a lot. I tried it and it does work. It's chewable and works better than Tums. It works immediately. Some days I only take half dosage of Losec and then DHL with meals.
I checked on a website for interactions with medicines & vitamins.
It said to take the thyroid medicine on an empty stomach, and as close to the same time each day. Take the prevacid at least 30 minutes later.
Take calcium 4 hours after both.
I double checked with my doctor about this. He said that it was accurate info - he just didn't think to tell me!
Hope this helps you!
I want to apologize. I have been so wrapped up in myself and my life and my ailments that I feel like I have allowed my attitude to slip some. And you don't know me and here I am complaining and sounding like a crazed woman. People don't want to hear about ailments. I know I don't. I think this was God's way of teaching mea valuable lesson. I had to become a little bit of a floundering fish, be out of sorts so that He could show me, He's in control of my life, not me. And he used this mysterious ailments-the gallbladder and the reflux to make me crazed enough to where I finally could listen and learn and begin to trust. And I want to apologize for contstantly lately talking about ailments and illnesses and using that as a cop out. I appreciate your concern and your wise words of wisdom. But don't worry about me. I am not lonely. I have adult conversation and religious discussions and current event discussions and they don't always involve weight, illnesses and everything. I will tell you this, through the last two weeks, God has revealed a lot to me and I know which direction I am going. I don't think my problems aretotally my thyroid. I really think I do have reflux--there are two kinds, bile and acid. My dad and I talked about it alot. We think I have bile, i.e. gallbladder removed could cause that. So, we are going to the dr. on Thursday and we are going to make something happen. (There is a drug that helps with bile removal) Don't worry about me anymore and I am sorry for being anal. I am good now. NO MORE AILMENT DRAMA!
Becky
Thanks. You know... I am beginning to wonder something too. I have a little alighment problems with my spine and had some upper back pains. I am beginning to think if all mine is a nerve/muscle issues since I have not responded to any reflux meds....Oh well. I will find out on Thursday..
Why are you vomiting? And why is the doctor okay with you vomiting?????
Could be a hiatal hernia. Have you had an endoscopy? Sometimes a hernia can be seen in a chest x-ray, also.
Guys---that awful balloon pressure is back and comes in my back, lasts for a while and then goes away. I am beginning to think my gallbladder must have grown back.......
Hey... TO the one above... I am learning myself. I am beginning to think I am crazy. The others who have answered me are good. What does your reflux feel like? I have this balloon like feeling-likesomeone is blowing up a balloon and squeezing it, in my chest, like right at my sternum, and a lot of times it goes behind the left breast, and in the left arm, sometimes to the right. I am trying to wean off the meds....I am all for talking to a doctor and I have an appointment, not to day but next week. Just trying to make it until then and see... I keep thinking it is my gallbladder, but duh, I don't have one...
Wow!! I finally have found someone with the same exact sumptoms. I have a severe case of acid reflux and I've been taking Protonix - seems to be working a lil but I'm still vomiting my food. I do drink lots of water and have cut all caffeine out. I, too have hypothyroid. The Endo rx: 125mcg. It seems I also have a nodule in thyroid. I just took some blood tests today for T3 & T4's. Do you have any recommendations to help me out?
I thought so.......I have to call my doctor.
I see that your TSH is 2.67. Is the doctor going to increase med dose? Lower than a 2 would be best, depending on how you feel.
Like my boss said today, everything is bad for you. Laugh.
So far today, everything seems okay. I did take some Charco tabs, then someone told me they were not good for gas, and then someone told me that they were. DUH? So I decided after today, just moderation in everything and keep my Tums handy and some Peppermint ea or something. I am staying away from PPIs and acid reducers. I will drink a little water from my parents' well or the bubbly water. IT could be the flat. Oh who knows. God istaking acre of us......
I have no problems other than hypo and GERD. My GERD was raging out of control just before my hypo diagnosis. I'm certain being hypo made my heartburn issues and GERD much worse!!! If being hypo can slow down various systems in the body and cause things like constipation and high cholesterol, then it can also aggravate reflux, and digestion in general. -- I had the sternum pressure/pain when my GERD and heartburn were bad, just before I was prescribed PPI (prevacid) which seems to have "cured" it.
Here's my thought process: if hypothyroidism is the slowing down of our metabolism, that affects EVERY metabolic process, including digestion. If we are not digesting properly, we get GERD.
I was diagnosed hashi/hypo in April. I was experiencing pain in upper right quadrant (gallbladder area), so had abdominal ultrasound, abdominal/pelvic catscan with contrast dye, pelvic ultrasound, and echocardiagram. All came back normal. Doctor put me on prilosec and either symptoms got worse, or I became too aware of them. I weaned off Prilosec in September, then put myself back on it because I had to go on antibiotics in late October for a tooth infection and the GERD started up again. All of a sudden in mid-December I started waking up with bad stomach pain in the middle of the night (not gas pain). I weaned myself off Prilosec again, alternating with Pepcid AC (the pain stopped). Finally, the last 10 days I've just been taking Pepcid AC, and guess what? The nocturnal stomach pain surfaced again! So I didn't take anything yesterday and was just fine last night!!
As for bottled water, I've read soda is bad for GERD. I drink "bubbly" bottled water--Poland Springs sparkling water. The original, no flavor. Flat water gives me indigestion.
I've been taking (when I remember) digestive enzymes that I picked up at the health food store. I also read eating an apple a day helps. I think the solution depends on what is really causing your GERD. If you have a hiatal hernia, I'm not sure what helps. I think in my case I don't drink ENOUGH water, because water helps dilute the stomach acid. The only way to know what's causing the GERD is an endoscopy, but then the doctor will want to put you on a PPI, so ?????
Keep us posted on any new insights you have.
Good luck!
My levels
T3 80 L ng.dl (L= 82 H= 179)
T4 9.3 mcg/dl (L- 4.50, H= 12.50)
TU T3 Uptake 42 % (L=24, H-42_
TC TSH 2.67 uU/ml (L=0.35, H 5.50)
AM taking 75 mcg of synthyroid
Have no female reproductive organs.
Had a total hysterectomy
no gallbladder
They dropped me drastically in 2006, not 2005, from 200 mcg to 50 mcg, then came up to 75 mcg.
Hey Guys!
Have you when experiencing the GERD/GAS, do you ever feel like a pressure, like someone is blowing up a balloon behind your sternum? That comes and goes? Is that normal?
Thanks. I will keep some peppermints on hand .I really believe this is all GAS... I had a little pain in the chest area when going to bathroom. I am going t oget some charco pills and see. Thanks.
Eating just plain hard peppermints. I'm not a particular fan of peppermint tea unless it is just plain peppermints melted in warm water. The charco pills work much faster for me and take less time. But of course that is a personal choice and may not work for everyone that way. I agree the Gas-X pills do bad things to a person. ={
I have done a little more research after reading what you all said (thyroidism and GERD) and I began analyzing and thinking. When the GERD symptoms were the worst, what was I doing and when they went away what did I do different? Also, the gastritis, when did it start...( I do not have my thyroid and I also had a total hysterectomy last year, and my gallbladder out this year)
Well... (1) After the gallbladder came out in June 27 and I was having pain and GERD symptoms, I had cut out my Coke intake, and was doing Diet Coke and then stopped the DIet Coke and was drinking MASS AMOUNTS of bottled water--a lot of times on an empty stomach. I cut out the fast foods totally and kind ate differently in a drastic way. They had me on all sorts of Acid Reducers and PPIs and such. And I felt worse after a while.
(2) The symptoms stopped around September..... I didn't drink as much bottled water-one occasionally and was drinking a little bit from the Well at Mom's, but I stopped the mass amounts.. I drank at least two cokes a day, and ate an occasional hamburger(no fries) and was still eating good(thanks to Mom). But the chest pains and all had pretty much gone.
(3) I started working at Habitat, and noticed there was a pain in my right side(I thought itw as because I had picked up something wrong and that was heavy), so I started taking Ibuprofrin and was popping at least 4 a day because the pain was intense.
(4)After stopping the Ibuprofrin, I decided to quit Coke totally. I started mass intakes of water(bottled) again. The pains in my chest started again and the pain in my stomach got worse. The 10000 bubbles I felt and the pains in my shoulder and all started again. (Trapped gas, acid reflux, etc)...
(5) Proven fact--overuse of Iburpfrin(sp) or NSAIDS(sp) irritate the stomach. I had done a lot for over a week. I also was constipated. I started taking the PPI, Prevacid and the constipation got worse, but the acid was a little better. And I pretty much cut way back on eating anything. Hence, drinking water on an empty stomach........Lots of it.....The PPI started making symptoms worse. I took one day a lot of Maalox with the Prevacid for the gastritis(at the urging of a pharmacist) but the Maalox felt funny, and my lips started burning. Then he told me to take the Pepto Bismol, took a lot of that. I Before that though, I decided to do some natural stuff(oatmeal, apple, and a hot compress on tummy). I had an adverse reaction to one of those three medicines..... The bubbles and chest pain and all were back. Plus a rash on the face and lips. I stopped all meds except the synthyroid. (That was Saturday)
(6) Hypothyroidism, which I have, though my levels, according to my doc were jsut a little lower than norm, can bring on any of the symptoms I was going through. I don't think my levels were right.
(7) Today, I sipped on a Coke, ate pretty good, and have only experienced belching and the feeling of a tiny bubbles has not been as intense. I have felt like there was a little gas in my chest, but there was no tightening as of yet. And I only drank one bottled water early this morning with some yogurt and a drink with Benefiber.
DUH.. Does that tell you? I have been counteracting everything and doing everything wrong.
Moderation is the key, huh?
I will find out my thyroid levels later and let you know..
I walked with my mom today around the high school track and no pains in the chest or anything other than burping...
mmm...
Peppermint tea is also great for gas/stomch upset. Byh the tim eyou finish the tea, you are pretty much gas-free. Gross, but true. It is better than those Gas-X type pills.
It is amazing, I only drank one bottled water today----before I went to church when I took my synthyroid. And I decided to do a little experiment. I ate pretty good today and took nothing else-but I decided to sip on a Coke. I know this is silly, but like you I am a pop drinker-major. And then I stopped abruptly.... And that is when the pains came back-the chest pains and the flare ups, and then I took the Prevacid and then the Maalox and the Pepto... Well, I have been sipping the Coke all day. Not gulping it. So far, no heart pains. There is some gas in there, or something, because I feel the "bubbles"(tiny bubble). I think I need to drink a Coke, but that is the statement, a Coke. It is all about moderation.... Peppermints??? What kind of peppermints??? I will look into the Charco Caps.. Today has been a better day so far. It hits usually around bedtime. So we will see. Thanks...
Silly, isn't it? Like I said, tap water from where I live just kills me. But I can drink certain bottled waters all day long and it doesn't bother me. I am a pop drinker. Drink way too much of it. Also drink lots of iced tea. I'm from the south. ;)
Try changing the brand of water and see if that doesn't help. Check out what they have done to the water or where it's suppose to come from and get some from a different place or such. Drinking water is good for you so you shouldn't give that up.
Two more suggestions if you have a flare up of gastritis. Peppermints. Best thing in the world for a collicky baby and works wonders for all kinds of stomach ills. Also there are some gas pills called CharcoCaps(?) pretty sure that's the name of them. I know it is something with charco. Instead of making it easier to eliminate the gas it completely obliterates it in no time at all.
Hope you're feeling much much better really soon.
Dac
I have never had the heartburn issues or the GERD/reflux until the first of this year really. Actually, when my doctor reduced my synthyroid drastically, things started happening. I have had allergic reactions to both PPIs and the acid reducers and even Maalox and Pepto Bismol. So, those are out. I had been drinking lots of water, and barely eating. The symptoms went away for nearly three months after I suffered for a little bit after I had my gallbladder removed(normal recovery time). During that time, I was not drinking so much water, at least 16 or 20 ounces, but not much more along with Coke. I have no insurance, so can't afford a gastroenterologist. This stuff came back when I stopped drinking the Coke abruptly, and drinking lots and lots and lots of water(even on an empty stomach). I will have my TSH, T3 and other numbers Monday night, so I will post here. I never pay that much attention.
I just had my first sip of a Coke in 3 weeks and the chest pains are gone. Still a little burning in the tummy, but I have only been off of my Prevacid for two days(and they stay stopping it abruptly can cause the rebound symptoms).
I feel better now, listening to all of you!
I always heartburn issued, but they got much, much worse just before my dx of hashi hypo. I was sent to gasto MD who dx me w/ reflux/GERD and put me on prevacid twice daily. The prevacid help tremendously!!! I definitely being hypo aggravates GERD and may even induce it. I haven't had any side effects from the prevacid!!! But I've had LOTS of hypo symptoms that have been slow to improve. Oddly, enough I've noticed that I cannot drink water on a empty stomach!!!!! I usually have a tea and a cola oe ginger ale in the morning! -- I strongly suggest you see a gastroenterologist from your GERD!!! And an Endocrinologist for your thyroid. You should know your tsh number, T3, etc. Good luck!