This is a common issue, especially amongst people like us who sometimes eat an obscene amount of calories.
It’s hard to know what to do, there’s a lot of scaremongering around PPIs… even on T Nation there are a few articles encouraging people to stay away from them. But then there are also the highly respected gastroenterologists saying that a lot of the fears are overblown and most of the studies coming out are only observational ones. So what are we to believe when a practitioner will throw higher and higher doses at you?
On the net, HCL and Apple Cider Vinegar have been boasted around like cure-alls. Have many of you here had much success with those protocols? I know there was a rebuttal post here a while back completely destructing a lot of Poloquins claims around HCL, and I’m sorry if I’m remembering incorrectly, but C.Thib may have said he’s seen HCL supplementation cause problems in some people. Others swear it got them their quality of life back. HCL is mentioned in a lot of the older training books but you don’t see it in many, if any of the ones released in the past 10-15years. Maybe there’s a reason for that though, a step too far in health advice.
Stress management is important and something I’m always doing my best to stay on top of.
As many long-term digestion sufferers will empathize with, seeing a doctor seems rather pointless after countless visits leave you completely unsatisfied and having every test come back clear.
In the mornings I can occasionally feel so sore, like someone has held a massive cigarette lighter throughout my GI tract. Even Gaviscon Advance before bed won’t stop that - if it’s gonna happen, it’s gonna happen. I have bricks under the top side of my bed, and a wedge underneath my mattress… but I tend to have slipped down by the time I wake up leaving it quite ineffective. Maybe I should invest in something like you’ve got.
I’m on a lose dose PPI. I get bad reflux and have an esophageal issue that been diagnosed. So yes they have some side effects long term and you should stick with the lowest dose that manages your symptoms. One of the leading side effects of bone denisty reduction etc is not common amongst the active lifting crowd. Its more of a side effect for little old ladies. Regardless, I’m miserable without the PPI and on top of that the reflux can literally wear away your esophagus faster than the side effects will get you.
No, if anything the opposite. I feel my acid reflux got worse after trying this nonsense.
Also doesn’t make sense why adding acid to acid would make you have less acid…
Sorry, to answer your question… I just kind of deal with it? IDK it sucks but I try to avoid greasy/overly spicy foods and it stays pretty well under wraps.
Apple cider vinegar tastes like shit. I tried it after reading the whole “it balances your pH levels”, but I’ll just let my body figure that out. I will say though, when I eat at home or out, I typically get “heartburn” I guess. It’s a bit uncomfortable, but subsides kind of quickly. I attribute it to the fact that I was single for so many years, I got used to eating very, very fast. When I first started dating my wife, she thought I was either in the military or recently released from prison based upon how I ate. To this day, I have the same problem.
She’ll be two bites into her dinner, my plate is cleared, and the waitress comes over and says “would you like a box”? She gives me the look every time LOL!
It’s not always that people think adding acid lowers your acid, but that they believe that a lot of reflux problems are actually caused by low stomach acid. The belief in functional medicine circles is that most heartburn issues are actually due to low stomach acid affecting digestion, leading to fermentation and your LES not being triggered to close.
It’s the whole “manage the symptoms but not the root cause” thing.
I’m not saying I believe it but the logic can sometimes sound legit. As far as i’m concerned though it’s more likely to be food intolerances combined with a weak sphincter.
I get reflux. I generally don’t care during the day. Lying down in bed though makes it brutal.
As I drink less now, and only really Fridays and Saturdays I seem to really only have issues those nights.
Sleeping position can help. Being on my back helps.
Interesting thing I found is that if it is mild, drinking a big glass of water makes it far worse. I thought it would help, but it does not. If I were to guess it is worse because the water increases the volume in the stomach.
I used to take over the counter prilosec. For me, that felt like overkill. Tums wasn’t enough. I found that Pepcid AC works though. I keep some on the night stand in case I need them.
Yeah, volume is definitely a factor. High calorie low volume is how I try to eat most of the time, otherwise I can end up regurgitating.
I used to take Ranitidine/Zantac which is a similar drug to Pepcid (H2 Blocker), but they took them off the market, and for some reason Pepcid is hard to get in the UK.
I used Omeprazole for a month recently and whilst I didn’t get as much burn, I did get a foul taste in my mouth and lots of mucus. Maybe it was a healing thing.
I bought some esomeprazole on the way home today anyway. Maybe i’ll give it another shot. I plan to take it in the late evenings though because it’s in the night it’s at it’s worst and I go to the gym early mornings so it’ll still be in effect.
I’ve dealt with this and other recurring gut issues for most of my adult life. It sucks. I’ve also had 2 pretty debilitating stomach ulcers.
One thing I’ve read is that reducing spicy food in your diet doesn’t actually help. That’s something I tried that didn’t work. Milk helps me sometimes.
Medication-wise, I’ve had prilosec prescribed to me, I’ve used omeprazole, and I’m currently using pepcid ac to manage it. I think the best thing you can do is essentially try each thing and see what works best for you. You’ll likely find one product that works better for you than the rest.
Gut issues can really be the bane of many people’s existence. “It’s all in your head” or “Stop being so fussy” is a phrase I am sick to death of.
Me too, and I used to hate that it did. My head now sees the positive side though. My digestive issues have led me to quit smoking and for the most part, abstain from drinking. If I was walking around with a cast-iron stomach my lifestyle choices would be much, much worse. Every cloud and all that.
I did a month of omeprazole around 3 months ago and just now did about 10 days of esomeprazole. Very little difference if any, and a TON more gas both ends.
Did consider upping the dosage but I really feel it was making my digestion worse (whilst having close to no effect on regurgitation etc). NHS has been useless in helping me with this. After a clear endoscopy and a second one with just a slightly inflamed duodenum, I wasn’t even able to get a follow-up with a gastroenterologist. I just get told health anxiety and have anti-depressants thrown at me. I’ve tried every diet there is and feel like I’ve gone every “functional” medicine route.
If you want to drop a food/symptom log in here, I can maybe help trouble shoot it from a diet standpoint.
Include all foods/beverages (including water), quantities, times and the time/severity of the reflux symptoms. I’m not sure it will tell us anything, but it’s worth a shot if you’re game.
100% I’m game, and thank you. This has controlled my life for a decade.
I say reflux, but it’s more complicated than that. I do regurgitate a lot of food and I do get a lot of burning in my chest and a sour taste. When i’m not “refluxing” though I still deal with shortness of breath, thick saliva/mucus, I can’t even begin to describe the taste but it is horrible and I feel like it covers my entire GI tract. It’s hard to concentrate on anything and severely diminishes my quality of life. The worse my upper GI symptoms are, the worse my lower GI symptoms are too. It’s not like I get episodes of feeling this way, it is there all the time. I would consider the moments it’s not as bad as the episodes as they are far more infrequent.
I have kept a food diary and eliminated lots of foods before and never could figure out a pattern, but it would be great to have other peoples input. I saw a dietitian once when I was severely underweight and told her that I believe sugary things are triggers. She told me to eat ice cream and more fruit. ahem
Most of my diet is rice, beef mince, mostly fodmap free vegetables, lightly salted crisps (chips), lactose-free milk, and peanut butter. I had these symptoms long before introducing milk and peanut butter into my diet and have had various periods without both. I mostly avoid gluten but yesterday I had some pasta and feel like i’m having a bit of a better day today. This has happened many times before. I avoid onions, garlic, tomatoes and gluten but have a meal out and think “screw it i’ll eat what i want” and can sometimes feel better! If a rhyme or reason were to be found it would literally improve my life tenfold.
I’m currently trying to focus on upping my fiber intake.
