I have question that is really confusing me and I find difficult to heal my problems and need to get find out what is actually going on with body and take steps to healing/curing myself of my main 2 problems, GERD and Anxiety/Depression.
I was prescribed Seroxat (Paxil) and shortly after Losec (Prilosec) 15years ago and have been on the lovely rollercoaster ride from hell trying to come off these 2 medications, which actually do what they say they'll do, the Seroxat works great for me for anxiety and depression and the Losec does stop acid very well, but I have been on them for one and a half decades and so now I trying to slowly taper, with the seroxat you can slowly taper and the withdrawal comes slowly but the Losec taper gives immediate acid problems.
Seroxat is an SSRI, which in my low level knowledge on meds means this drug kind of stops serotonin from leaking out and kind of manages serotonin, kind of re-cycles it - if that what inhibiting the re-uptake means and so there is more serotonin available for the brain?
Many people think that SSRI's and other antidepressants increase your serotonin level, but what they seem to do is increase the availability of the serotonin already there, anyway a study I saw online said that chocolate increases the LES relaxing and so gives you reflux, they found that when chocolate was taking the gut released lot of serotonin and serotonin seemed to be the culprit, now I am thinking if the problem is serotonin and I am taking something that also deals with the re-cycling of serotonin or whatever SSRI's actually do, then I am thinking is there a link between me taking Seroxat and me HAVING to take Losec in order for me to manage GERD???
It seems that the two are linked, I did know a guy who was taking meds for schizophrenia and was told after about 5yr that he had to also to Losec for life, many people I know (over 50's) are on Losec in the UK.
Some say to me if is working don't mess with it, bet they aren't the ones who's liver had to filter all this stuff or worry about Paxil pooping out (not working after many years) that many have warned me about, some of the side effects of the meds are like liver death for Losec, so these kind of things play on the mind even though you have totake the meds. Most people take Losec for a month and that's it, Seroxat for a few months - so I am kind of concerned to say the least and trying to taper off the drugs.
The Seroxat I have tapered to almost zero, but after 2 weeks my anxiety/depression reaaly got to intolerable levels, life just doesn't have the same appeal anymore, people make me angry, feel like crying, frustration, rage, real low feelings, palpitations and heart in my throat feelings etc, then I took about 5mg of seroxat and the depression liften within a few hrs and felt great, almost manic, super happy, talkative and smiling and fun to be around.
The Losec isn't te same, 20mg is my current dose and can't see my way round this one, although I am overweight and need to lose weight and am exercising daily, I see other fat people who don't have reflux and think that maybe it's not just my weight problem, but still have weightloss as my goal, I have a sliding Hiatus Hernia and a bit of a beer belly (Distention) so I really need to lose weight, my last endoscopy here in Beijing/China showed inflammation of the esophagus and so was put on Nexium and another chinese herb to deal with bile reflux for a month, I had pain in the throat/esophagus and so this is why I went for the endoscopy but now now pain and watching what I eat, but as I said really need to work and AM working on weightloss and getting down to my idea weight.
I came across a brazilian study whereby peope were taking Melatonin and B vitamins, tryptophan and some other nutrients and were abe to come off their PPI medication, now I was thinking Tryptophan becomes serotonin which becomes melotonin in the human body, right? I may be slightly off but this is the general idea I think. The idea in the study is that there are many melatonin receptor in the gut and this helps to lessen the LES's relaxations and so aid in lessening reflux, but hang on, I thought there were 90 or 95% serotonin receptors in the digestive system (The Enteric nervous system), what is it? Both? So our gut is lined with Melatonin and Serotonin receptors, increase Melatonin and LES functions better, increase serotonin and your brain feels better and everything is heaven right, your gut especially.
Seems that in some RAT study long term use of Seroxat actually decreses serotonin by 60% so maybe Seroxat by recycling serotonin in the way that it does, somehow decrease the overall serotonin availabilty in the body? This may be the reason why after a while my gut malfunctioned, LES relaxes too much it seems and need Losec to stop the production of acid lest I get Barratts and then real trouble.
So what does one do? What can I do? I am trying to understand what could be going on so I can choose an approach that may work in actually healing my body and mind, I've tried taking Apple Cider Vinegar for GERD, I had the most severe reflux to date cause of this 'cure', low carb, high carb, this and that and all only work alongside Losec, basically - take that ingredient away and you have collapse, add that and everything works, low carb - cool, eat what you want - cool, raw - cool, I think you get the idea here.
Tried chinese herbal medicine in the past but didn't work, but wil try again soon, this time I will see one doc that uses poisonous insects like scorpions and poison centipedes as they are supposed to heal the liver or help theliver and this is were we get our mental problems from (according to chinese medicine)
Was also thinking about one autho who wrote 'potataoes not prozac', I think she says to eat potatoes and protein at meals as they work together to introduce tryptophan - serotonin to the brain, so I wonder whether this will help me to introduce more serotonin into my system, I really don't know, please help anyone, thankyou for reading my post, please correct me on any errors I may have made to theory on how serotonin/melotonin are related to GERD and the LES, thanks again
Gerald
Hi Gerald...I sent u an article that is quite long on serotonin diets for stress reducing....
As for the LES, dairy products can affect the motility if u already have a motility issue.,...did ur Dr ever tell u y u had GERD?...Do u have a hiatal herian...etc...
Check out the info I sent and see if it can help : )
"selma"