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I was on PPI meds for over 5 years. For a while, they seemed like the answer to my problems because I felt better on them. However after being on Prevacid for a couple years, it stopped working and my doctor switched me to Prilosec. Prilosec worked for about a year and then it stopped working, too. My doctor cycled me through the remaining PPI's that were available (Nexium, Aciphex, etc) but I had become refractory to all of them. I tried to stop cold turkey because I thought they were no longer helping, but I experienced "acid rebound" which is one of the worst pains I've ever felt (like someone holding a lit match inside my throat constantly). After 5 years of blocking acid into my stomach, stopping the PPI's cold-turkey was like opening the acid flood gates. Don't stop cold turkey. You have to taper off of PPI's. I was able to get off them by tapering over a period of several months. My pharmacist friend thought I could have done it in a month.

I wanted to stop the meds because not only did they not help, but it seemed that they were making my problems worse. So during that time I asked a pharmacist what he thought was happening to me. He told me that my problem might not be about the amount of acid in my stomach, but because I was not digesting well. He suggested that I might be better off taking something that helps my digestion, instead of PPI's which actually impair digestion (acid breaks down food, it's a good thing). So I started taking probiotic supplements and, sure enough, my acid reflux symptoms improved quite a bit. They didn't get completely better, but it was much better than I was on the PPI's. (For reference, I was taking Nature Made Acidophlus tablets.)

It's not a surprise, given what I know now, that the meds didn't help. During the decade I had acid reflux, I also had chronic muscle tension in my stomach and chest. Unfortunately at the time I was barely aware of it because my stomach and chest felt "normal" to me. Now that I am able to relax those areas, I understand how locked up my muscles really were. That kind of muscle tension is bad for digestion. So I realize that the muscle tension plus anything else the TMS was doing to my digestion was the real culprit. Taking PPI's was only making the reflux worse by reducing the acid in my stomach and further slowing my digestion.

And to be clear, although the PPI's helped me at first, they never stopped the problem. From day one, I still had reflux symptoms even when on the meds. Both a feeling of acid burning in my chest and throat and regurgitation in my throat. The regurgitation was worse. It was kind of like a tickle from something that never totally goes away, no matter how much you swallow. It was particularly maddening at night when I was trying to go to sleep. I hope you don't have that happening to you. The burning sensations happened whenever I ate "trigger" foods (there were lots of them) or drank alcohol/soda. I mostly avoided those foods. If you haven't already, elevate the head of your bed 4-8 inches.