My experiences of stopping taking Lansoprazole

MY COLD TURKEY JOURNEY SO FAR...I stopped taking lansoprazole (30mg lanz once per day) 9 days ago. I've been on them for several years for reflux from my gastric band - then in January this year I started having problems. I had to have my gastric band deflated so I could determine if it was the band or the lanz. It was the lansoprazole My symptoms were my muscles in my stomach twitching, it felt like heart palpations but lower down. I thought I was having a heart episode. Each episode would last for minutes though. i was also getting a pain in my left chest. I had my heart checked , and it was fine . It has caused me a great deal of anxiety and that made things even worse.So I decided it was time to stop taking lansoprazole. I went cold turkey because i was in pain with them so how bad can it be to come off them? The first day and night I got a dreadful headache. Then after 2 days the acid indigestion started. its horrendous. I couldnt eat , it made me sick. I had pains in my gut and my chest. Felt sick and got headaches if I did eat. The food wouldn't go down, felt blocked. It's only today that it's got a little better. Gaviscon Adance has been a blessing but it's been easier not to eat some days. The night time reflux has practically gone though. but the excessive acid when I eat, still remains. So I guess I would say if you been taking lanzo for a long time and decide to go cold turkey be prepared for 2 weeks of hell, however you will lose weight in the process. Thankfully, the muscle twitching (or whatever it was) has stopped. The chest pain hasnt gone though and I have noticed that that comes on when I eat.

At day 9 I'm starting to feel better. I've managed to keep my dinner down and the acid is a little better so hopefully by day 14 I should be over the very worst.

I m looking for some advice. I suffered a perforated ulcer 6 years ago as a result of being over prescribed Diclofenac for a back injury, without anything to protect my stomach. My surgeon confirmed this. I was prescribed lanzaprazole for life. I found a forum for surgeons from around the world and the standard protocol is laparoscopy, Grahame Patch, antibiotics and a 6 week to 6 months course of a PPI. I feel that there is no real need for me to take this drug any more and I am worried about the consequences of just stopping. I have been taking 30mg per day for the last 6 years and I haven't taken a tablet for 3 days. I've never felt so tired!

I was fine for a few days, then got super agitation, and jerks, at first just at night, and then all day and night. I was so uncomfortable, did research on what could cause the jerks. Found something interesting - Seratonin Syndrome. Fit perfectly. And made sense, because PPIs prevent seratonin from being manufactured in your body. So suddenly my body was able to make all this seratonin, and I was just overloaded. It lasted a week or two (severe anxiety, agitation, and the jerks) finally dwindled off thank God. It was awful. But glad i did, my body (and gut) are ultimately more healthy now, and my depression has completely gone away.

I had a persistent cough from late January to 15 July when GP put me on 30mg Lansoprazole (after he'd ruled out all sorts of possible sinus/allergy things, antibiotics & a chest xray).

It took 2 weeks to semi kick in, coughing reduced a fair bit, but never really cleared, especially after I've eaten I coughed for about 20 mins or so, & when I lie down at night it can drive me NUTS! It's the only symptom I've had.

Dropped to 15mg on 1st Sept, still have the lingering cough, though improved some of the time (more 'random' each day now, bit better than the previous relentless pattern). Night very erratic, sometimes can be cough free all day, then it kicks off at night! Sometimes the other way round, it's doing my head in.

BUT - I noticed that I can't 'hold' my bowel movement. I get a mild cramp, it's looser, stinks, yellow'ish & that has been going on for a few months (apologies for sharing that graphic bit). I'm certain a side effect of Lans. Usually within 30 mins of getting up in the morning I dash to the loo, I've never been 'regular' like that ever before!!!

Trouble is if I haven't been forced to go first thing, I'm getting caught short when I'm out now. SO, I finally decided to come off the Lans. Not cold turkey but alternate days taking it. Only lasted 1 full week, but almost had a disaster yesterday when I was out, so from today I'm NOT going to take any more tablets.

That's it, I'm going to see how I get on, I'm starting daily probiotics to aid my digestion, determined to lose some weight & I'll post now & again with my progress , in case it helps others.

I take a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar (with the mother) in my nightie caffeine free tea and wondered if anyone else uses this and if so, does it help with heartburn.

My background for anyone who may be interested ...I'm 65 and been on Lansoprazole 30mg since 2010 and before that Omeprazole for maybe 10 years. Prior to this it was Zantac from age 30 due to hiatus hernia. I was diagnosed with ME/CFS in 1994 and would appear to have quite heavy Fibromyalgia symptoms for many years now. The all over body pain makes it difficult to sit and as I'm getting older, am feeling tat I am in the early stages of being somewhat disabled, especially with arthritis in my left hand, had three hip replacements (trauma induced many years ago) but still active. I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis in 2011 (and atrial fibrillation in 2010) and this is when the consultant changed me from Omep to Lansop. I get ligaments tearing, have lost so much muscle (was still strong with bulky arms this time last year, ex fireman) and worst of all, occasional inner thigh muscle spasms from knee twisting round the inside upto the rear of he hip/groin. These can last for a true 10 mins and make you want to knock yourself out. I've only just read about the correlation of Lansop and hypomagnesemia . Also the loss of use of my limbs bit by bit die to muscle/ligaments giving up. The docs are in my experience useless. So, I got some 15mg and at the end of day 2. Stomach awful but not heartburn (yet). Feel slightly sick and burpy though. I've got a couple of cardio tests next week so may go back to 30mg tomorrow until after these as just don't have the capacity to complicate things even further.

Thanks for reading and be safe.

hi everyone, i know this forum may be a little bit old but its the most important information i have found since i have been struggling with lanzoprazole. i have taken this tablet for 4 months being wrongly presecibed it for acid reflux which i never had !!! 3 months down the line of still feeling extremely unwell, nausea, vomitting and not eating i was tested for h pylori and it was positive. i completed my treatment of antibiotics and then carried on with lanzoprazole for a week. after feeling no better i came to google for answers. i became extremely anxious for no reason i couldnt leave the house, still nauseous everyday, just feeling generally sad. i realised lanzoprazole could make me feel like this so i stopped it cold turkey. i have just experienced the worse 5 days of my life. dizziness, chest pain, aching arms, extreme nasaua and vomitting, crying for hours with no reason. rang GP and i was told twice this medication could not do this... I COMPLETELY DISAGREE lanzopraole is poison. Hoping to feel better soon

I had a gastric sleeve 5 years ago and ever since have been taking lansoprazole 15mg a day.

I stopped taking it 14 days ago today as it simply cannot be healthy to be on medication for 5 years.

my GP didnt mind prescribing it for this long and the pharmacist at the surgery advised me to stay on it if I was getting reflux after just 1 day of not taking the medication but after finding an acid reflux supplement on Facebook I decided to take the leap and stop taking lans.

the supplement did not really help but now that I'd started the journey i decided to see it through.

the first week was the worst as I was starting to get to grips with the fact I would not be getting any good sleep nor relief any time of day from acid reflux. once I accepted this fate and suffered through the following days things eventually got a bit better.

i am only on day 14 now and i hope things will continue to improve.

i eat a balanced and low calorie diet, I sip on homemade ginger tea with honey during the day I and pretty much always have a calcium carbonate lozenge in my mouth.

I do weight training and go running 5 days a week to make sure my body is functioning well.

I do not smoke or drink alcohol or take any other drugs for that matter and since I stopped taking lans also stopped all caffeine.

so I really hope this constant acid reflux will ease off soon and my stomach will learn to regulate itself as I am doing all I can.

it's hard to keep going when acid reflux doesnt let up. being under physical stress pretty much 24 hours a day is exhausting..

my gp has booked me in for a h pylori test tomorrow and will report if results were positive but I've got a feeling this is more to do with the fact that I had a gastric sleeve and was on lans ever since the operation. my stomach simply hasnt had any time to adjust itself to this new stomach.

it has been bombarded with lansoparale since day 1.

its now learning to regulate itself for the very first time and because of that I'm in a lot of discomfort as it gets an understanding of how much stomach acid to produce.

but I'm trying to stay hopeful that itll get better.

sooner rather than later 😃

this forum has been super helpful.

whenever I'm going through a particularly difficult time with it I come hear and read some comments to get some reassurance that things will eventually get better.

I hope things get better for us all very soon.

Now 5 weeks and 2 days without a single lansoprazole!! 🙂🥳

things are finally getting better.

for anyone starting the journey it definitely gets better!! keep at it..

It took 4 weeks to start getting slightly better sleep but I can feel I am through the worst part.

I still suffer from acid build up and require constant access to calcium carbonate lozenges but the amounts I require are decreasing as the weeks go by.

I now only need 6 during the day and 6 throughout the night when I get woken up by the acid build up.

if you are worried that your stomach will never be able to regulate its stomach acid, I want to reassure you that it can.

it takes time and it feels like forever waiting for it to get better.. believe me, I get it!!!

but it does eventually get better and living free from this medication will definitely be worth the short term(or not so short) suffering.

staying on any medication for years and years will have side effects and consequences..

I read it takes about 3 months to be back to 100% but I can reassure everyone that it significantly gets better at the 5 week mark, at least for me it has!

hope you all stay strong.

I will write another post in another 5 weeks to update further.

Hi I've been taking omeprazole and lansaprazole for more years than I can remember. I'm having a bad time at the moment as I'm on 15mg and gaviscon. The doctor said to increase my lanzaprazole to 30mg for a month I dont want to take such a high dose as it doesnt make much difference. I have a hiatus hernia does this mean that I can never stop taking this dangerous drug? I'm so used to it now I would be terrified to stop because the pain and tightness in your chest makes you feel like you're having a heart attack!! I know there's an antibiotic that you can take for a week which I've heard really helps. The list of foods that I have to avoid seems to increase by the day. I'm worried because my dad died at 58 and my brother at 59 of cancer of the oesophagus and my dad suffered a lot with heartburn. Any advice would be appreciated.

l have taken Lansoprazole and went on to take Omeprazole for 14 months, six weeks ago it was so bad all day so i said enough, not taken one pill for six weeks reflux gone after three weeks, stopped eating two foods (cheese) (tomatoes) other than that nothing changed i am now reflux free happy days, give it a try.

i have over the last 2 wks cut down from 15mg daily to every alternate day i have been on them for 20 yrs acid heartburn has returned but managable hopefully it will settle plan to stop completely on 21st june

I've been on lansoprazole since 26th May for a possible ulcer and reflux. Lately the reflux was really bad - so bad I couldn't go through with a gastroscopy, as with a numb throat (from them numbing it off prior to the 'scope) I felt as if I was drowning in saliva/reflux as I couldn't swallow because I couldn't really feel my throat. On lansoprazole my stomach also felt very odd - full - and I couldn't eat much; it was as if I couldn't digest my food properly.

I stopped taking lansoprazole this last Friday and, even after the very first tablet I missed (evening) the reflux was considerably less. The next day it was still much better and my stomach felt a lot less full... I could actually eat a small meal and felt like it had done me some good.

I'm now on Day 3 of no lansoprazole. Stomach now feels a bit funny and the reflux is still a lot less than it was when I was on it. I also feel more like my 'pre-lansoprazole self', if that makes sense. Only thing is, stopping seems to play havoc with bowels (not going!), but I suppose that will right itself in a while.

Anyway, instead of going cold turkey, I wonder if I should have cut down to 15mg once a day (was 15mg twice a day), instead of just stopping completely. The thing was that I felt so well after stopping that I didn't want to take another of these tablets again. Ever.

BUT.... right now, to get rid of the stomach pain I am fighting the urge to start taking one 15mg tablet a day, keep doing that for maybe 2 weeks and then do every other day and then wean myself off.

QUESTION: Has anyone else gone completely cold turkey and come out the other side and been back to normal (whatever normal is)? If so, how long does it take for lanso reduction problems to disappear?

Since coming OFF the prescription meds 9 months ago I've been taking a daily capsule of Saccharomyces Boulardii, 20 billion CFU . Had good results within a month, been BRILLIANT ever since! Nagging cough that was worse at night pretty much stopped altogether, just bothers me very slightly right after I've eaten for a few minutes (mainly throat clearing & a couple of coughs). Bowel problems that were caused by presciption meds gone.

Made no concessions with diet. My daughter-in-law had gone on it first, her problem really troublesome heartburn, sorted her out really well. As my cough was linked to acid reflux I had nothing to lose - been doing great.

My friend has suffered for years, GP has refused to prescribe anything, so I persuaded her to at least try it a short while ago. As her reflux was really bad she started for the first 4 weeks on 2 capsules a day, just dropped to 1 as she's been doing so well.

A google search will bring up suppliers but we all use the 20 billion CFU (not the 5 billion). Cost is £16.95 for 120 capsules, from Natures Zest. I don't know if anyone else sells the same strength, there's nothing in it for me to recommend that supplier, it was the cheapest! All I can say is it's been a massive relief for 3 of us, 2 with heartburn symptoms & me with the nagging cough (I've had a chest xray - nothing to see there).