My doctor got riled up when I said that I get somewhat frequent heartburn, IF I overeat and/or lay down after eating.
She prescribed generic omeprazole, and while it works fine, I honestly can’t tell any difference between it and Zantac, Tagamet, etc… because my heartburn is only limited to the specific conditions I mentioned earlier.
My gastro doc says you can take Prilosec indefinitely. He also said that some patients find that taking 2 is better than 1, and it’s okay to do that too. He recommends taking calcium supplements if you’re going to take 2 a day, because Prilosec decreases the absorption of calcium carbonate.
The weird thing to me is that 99 out of 100 Americans seem to suffer from GERD. Are we an especially maladapted race?
I’ve been trying to fight GERD the no-medication way, with some success. Where I have a failure, it’s because I’ve eaten something that deviates, no matter slightly, from the bland. Caffeine and alcohol are right out; tomato sauce is particularly bad; onions, garlic, spices are all dangerous; oranges and pineapples suspect. I also think very hot and cold foods are bad, but doesn’t ask for a cite from the literature. And as others have mentioned, staying upright after eating is key.
The main side effect of my anti-GERD diet is that you have to go around acting like a querulous 80-year-old dyspeptic.
That really is odd. We really shouldn’t have to medicate ourselves because we committed the deadly sin of taking in nutrients.
I once asked a doctor if there was a way to eliminate GERD without meds. He told me to lose weight and quit smoking. It’ll be interesting, when I finally accomplish both things, to lay off the Prilosec for a week and see.
A quick note to those taking Nexium: It’s essentially the same drug as Prilosec. No, really. Prilosec is omeprazole, Nexium is esomeprazole. The difference between the two? Warning: biochemistry alert!: Omeprazole has two enantiomers, an S and the R, but our body only recognizes the S, so essentially if your dosage is 20mg, like the OTC is, you’re really only getting 10 mg of useful drug. Nexium is ONLY the S enantiomer, so you’re getting 20 mg of useful drug. So it is twice as effective, because it’s just twice as much. Though I imagine for most people it’s cheaper to get a script for Nexium than to double-dose on Prilosec.
I bought generic prilosec on ebay when my insurance company decided that their non-medical degrees trumped my doctor’s degree. I seem to remember getting 200 tabs for about $50 or so. They worked, I’m not dead. Just make sure you check all the feedback for the seller.
I’ve been taking daily doses of either Prilosec or Nexium for years now, and for me it’s the true miracle drug of all time.
And isn’t the prescription Prilosec 50mg? I suppose it could be any size, but I think I remember 50mg as the common prescription dosage for some reason
Suckers, according to consumer advocate Kevin Trudeau, raw apple cider is better than any drug for heartburn 
I don’t know what the norm might be, but basically, all the dosages of Nexium are the same, but like I said, you get double the amount of the active version, so it’s just like taknig a double-dose of Prilosec.
I got a script for Nexium I never got around to filling, because it was cheaper for me to buy OTC Prilosec than pay for a name-brand drug with my co-pay, and it was for 30 mg. I think I even remember seeing a “double-strength” 40 mg Prilosec on the shelves once.
Thanks for all the input. The doc recommended taking it daily, and checking with him after awhile to see how it is working. I could cut back later if needed. I would be taking it for (possible) IBS, not GERD. I already take a bunch of fiber and Pepcid.
I am a student, so “sucking it up” is not really an option. I would see if I can get a prescription for cheaper, but I would still like to find the cheapest option.
I think it’s just a lot more expensive than your average OTC stuff like Tylenol or Benadryl, and hence more likely to get stolen.
Not quite. The body converts the R enantiomer into the S in vivo, so that a 20 mg Prilosec is approximately equal to a 20 mg Nexium.
IME, the common strengths are 10, 20 and 40mg for Prilosec, 20 and 40mg for Nexium. The disclaimer is that I just work in a pharmacy, but I’m not a prescriber.
I did some reading, and I found that you’re right, but the conversion isn’t as effective in all people, varying especially with ethnicity. Whereas starting with only the S enantiomer ensures everyone gets an equal amount of drug.
It was weird for me - I didn’t develop heartburn and reflux until after I quit smoking and lost a bit of weight. (about 25 pounds). My Dr. said to me, ‘this is where I usually tell patients to lose some weight, quit smoking, etc. but in your case that doesn’t seem to apply.’
I swear for some reason my gall bladder just up and quit after I lost weight, (I didn’t have stones or anything, it just plain stopped working over a period of about 3 months) and that seemed to make my digestive system go nuts in response for a while. Maybe the surgery itself messed up my system, maybe the difference in digestion without a gall bladder confused my stomach and made it produce more acid, I don’t know. I can’t find any facts or research to back up my hypothesis though. But my Dr. told me when I was taking 40 mg Nexium, twice a day, that I would likely be on medication my whole life and I should get used to dealing with heartburn. A year later I am almost symptom-free without medication.
I realize I am a freak of nature. For most people, losing weight does indeed seem to help. That could be a reason why GERD is on the rise in America, as people become more overweight it is just another side effect.
Right. I didn’t feel like going to work and getting a drug leaflet for it, but according to an uncited sentence on Wikipedia, the rate for Caucasians is only 10%.
(For the record, I mentioned all of this up in post 5. :p)
I don’t smoke, but I do have some extra poundage that presses on my hiatal hernia and aggrivates my GERD. When I can manage to lose this weight, my symptoms go away and I don’t need any purple pills. Right now I’m taking them once a day.
The first part of this happened to me. The generic version of Prevacid did not work but instead of going back to the Prevacid, my doctor put me on once daily Omeprazole which has worked like a charm. Ask your doctor if Omeprazole is right for you 
Do you know what the underlying cause of your GERD is?