PPI,S & After effects.

Hi All,I,ve had an HH for over 5 years now and been on PPI,s on different doses all that time any were from 80 mls aday to 20 mils once a week.Just would like to know from the people on here,how long people have been on them,on what dosage and if you have suffered any long term side effects.I cut right back on them because they were giving me a lot of nausea and was worried about side effects especially when you read the paper you get with it which states you should not be on them longer than 12 weeks, but then I got a lot of stomach acid so have had to go back to two 20mils per day,Any replies would be of great interest not just to me but I would guess to a lot of us thank you in advance.

[BobD Volunteer]

Interesting question and there are some contra opinions about PPIs. One is that long term use is very bad for the following reason. The stomach needs an acid environment before the lower sphincter opens and allows the contents down into the gut. This means that food stays in the stomach longer when you take acid suppressants and often backs up increasing reflux and making things much worse than before. I know I found that after quite a short time my problem , having improved to start with actually got much worse till I stopped taking the drugs.

[Hidden in reply to BobD]

Thanks Bob,I more or less stopped taking them down to one a week,But after 6 weeks or so got a very acid tum And the trapped gas put pressure on my bladder so started peeing for England so have gone back on them for a couple of weeks to try to settle the gas

[Angie06]

I've been on 20mg a day for over 4yrs and when I tried to lower the dose to 10mg the reflux returned much worse so went back to original dose. I worry about side effects long term as I seem to having a lot of stomach problems now as well. When I went to the GP and asked about long term use I was told not to worry as others have been on it longer, not very reassuring!

[Hidden in reply to Angie06]

Thanks Angie for your reply,I,ve been on them for 5 years and tried cutting down as I had very little reflux but after slowly cutting back over 4 months and feeling a lot better I got down to one a week for 6 weeks and then the PPI that had built up in me must have slowly decreased and I too have started having gut problems ( acid gut )so have gone back on 40mils aday hoping when it levels off I will cut back again but probably to 1 every other day as I think I a week was to small.It,s all about getting the right dose to me, Drs seem to just give you the standerd dose 20 mils twice a day and hope that's it.