Alternatives for Omeprazole

Have you tried stopping the omeprazole progressively? Taking it every other day for a few weeks, than every three days and so on? There will be a period of rebound for sure but after a few weeks it should go away. You can take other antacids that are not PPI in the mean time, whatever works for you. I found DGL licorice very helpful but my problem was more stomach pain. And if you follow a low fat, low acid, low salt diet, avoiding anything irritating and keeping the portions reasonable, you should loose weight. I know I did without even trying.

In answer to your query in your posting of (as currently listed) 44 minutes ago, I most certainly agree with you.  I do not feel that PPI's are an appropriate treatment as they only EVER address AT BEST a symptom and not the cause.  As you so generously point out the damage done on their sad wayside often reaks with the potential for greater damage than any cure should ever intend.  In my own case it was most definitely NOT appropriate for me to be given Nexium.  I was looking for a cure a feeling of pressure in/on the back left quadrant of my head.  I suggested initially that I felt it was due to my cervical foraminal stenosis but was told by a GP that such could not be the case.  (I have since been successfully treated for it with physiotherapy.)  I was thereafter fed a course of antibiotics for an ear infection that I did not have and then - on advice - had an incipient wisdom tooth removed on the upper left side and was fed two further courses of antibiotics only a few days after finishing the previous ones.  THAT is in fact what I suspect caused my symptoms of LPR.  My poor body was simply overwrought.  It could not adequately protect itself against the NHS.  Did I have incipient LPR before?  I cannot tell and I assume I will never know.  I was given the Nexium as yet another response to the head pressure. "Take this for two weeks" the GP said "and it may cure you"   And this man had been certified as a doctor.    This cure was much worse that any disease I had in the first place nor dreamt of in a particularly torrid nightmare.  No two weeks for me on those tablets.  I only took four .... count them four pills.  I only wish I had taken NONE.  I stopped because I asked myself - when I still felt the buzz above - WHY - OH, WHY am I taking these?????  Still that was enough to do the damage - and to push an acid rebound on my poor - wholly uneserving/suspecting body.  Yet another assault.  Blessedly my throat survived in tact.  At least it had when it was scoped two weeks ago by a noted ENT surgeon who said it was 'totally normal'.  He also said the level of training in terms of understanding "of these issues by the standare GP practicesis appalling'.  

In answer to your question:  Yes, I am off them.  I WILL NEVER GO BACK.  Well, certainly without both reason and proof.  There MUST be another way.  .... Of course I say NEVER .... IF it could be PROVED that it really WAS necessary .... and there was NO other way .... I would take them - but certainly NEVER for more than the maximum of SIX weeks that the original creators of these pills had intended.  How many people here were handed these drugs - whatever the particular nomination - BEFORE they had definitive proof of either LPR or GERD .... Before, say, an endoscopy ... or before a pepsin test which even now the NHS does not approve of and the majority of the GPs have never heard of.  

You are right, Mo,  I agree.  You must save yourself first.  You must take care of your body which has for so long taken good care of you.  That is OUR duty.  If I read between your lines correctly it sounds as if you have a fairly good idea of what to do.  I applaud you for the courage of your instinct.  Better - if you must - to die with that on your conscious than the despair of having followed someone else's misguided umbrage.  You are cleverly aware of the overall risks and you are succeeding in hedging your bets as best you can.  No one can ask any of us to do more.  Lond may you thrive.   

My problem is different then the ones I see here.  I have been on this drug for quite sometime due to an ulcer that thankfully hadn't progressed to cancer.  Now I am being told that this drug may be affecting my kidneys and was advised to cut the dosage in half i.e. every other day.  I am now in severe pain (stomach pain).  So I don't think I can just go off of this type of drug completely.  Am waiting to here from my doctor about what can be done.

I just came from the ear, nose & throat doctor.  His attitude towards Omeprazole is a bit cavalier, I  thought. I asked him about taking this medication long term & damage done to kidneys. He said you weigh the pros & cons & if this is helping, take it. What scares  me are the long term affects of this drug?  Has anyone found an alternative? I would like  to know if they have or any suggestions? Please let me know. Thanks

Hello all; I've long ago been diagnosed with GERD with Barrets syndrome. I was prepscribed Olmaprazole perhaps ten years ago and have been symptom free since!.

Recently, the JOURNAL OF THE AMA had a headline  that long term use of this drug caused cognitive and memory damage!! I informed my MD's and was switched to Ranitidine. While the former worked perfectly leaving me painless, the latter works poorly.

It's 3AM, I was driven out of bed by the pain that six anti acids and a rinititidine wouldn't end! My mother and many of that side of the family have died from esophageal cancer so I'm worried!

What alternatives do I have?

I mentioned to the GP that I was having problems swallowing, he suddenly sat up and took notice.

I now have an appontment to have an endoscopy, only saw him last week !  Once they have checked there is nothing more suspicious, they might stretch my throat so that I can eat normally again.

If it is the cause of the problem, I do not want to go through these treatments again so will ask my GP for an alternative