I have been on sulphasalazine for 4 weeks and for the past two nights have had horrendous acid reflux when I wake up in the morning. The first time I even wondered if I was having a minor heart attack. Have consulted with Dr Google who says you should take 2 hours separately from any antacids. No one had mentioned this to me. I take esomeprazol twice daily for GERD. Has any one else suffered from this and will it settle down?
Desperate to get rid of yet another drugs side effects, tempted to stop taking them! I was injecting methotrexate and had one bad day a week which was more bearable than 24 hours a day pain in my chest and oesophagus! Any advice would be very welcome. Xxx
I may be wrong but I'm not sure that by antacids they mean a PPI - it usually means calcium containing antacids like Rennies or Tums and the like. A PPI has a 24 hour effect which takes a few days to build up so it won't make much difference when you take other drugs. It is one of the more common side effects of sulphasalazine.
I take a calcium and vitamin D supplement daily as well. Would I be better taking that separately?
As far as I can see it won't have any effect on the sulphasalazine though it is probably better to allow a couple of hours between. And if you have two tablets to take, take one at a time, the calcium is absorbed better your body can only absorb about 500mg at a time.