Famotidine

[Phed]

I have been on 20mg of Famotidine for about a year, over the past 6 months while taking Famotidine I seem to have developed heartburn has any one else suffered with heartburn while on Famotidine? I was on Omeprazole previously for nearly 3 years without any problems but a blood test revealed low sodium so was taken off it and was told I couldn’t go back on it despite my sodium levels being ok now.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

The cause of your heartburn may have got worse and you need a higher dose - it is after all supposed to stop production of stomach acid which is the underlying cause of heartburn in reflux. Speak to the GP about it.

[Phed in reply to PMRpro]

Thank you for your reply. I have dropped a message to the Doctors and waiting to hear back from them as I’m also having a problem with the Statins I started on 15th March.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Phed]

Was the heartburn there before the statin? The are known to increase the risk of gastritis and reflux.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/290....

I'd pause them and see if it helps whether the GP gets back to you today or not.

[Phed in reply to PMRpro]

Thank you for your reply, the Doctor has just rung me and has suggested having a 2 week break from the Statins to see if that helps, the problem was there before I started Statin’s but has probably got worse since taking them, they are going to send me a new prescription for Statins. They are reluctant to do anything about the Famotidine as I had to come of the omeprazole due to low sodium and on 40mg of Famotidine I had terrible constipation.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Phed]

They could try a different H2 antagonist ...

[Phed in reply to PMRpro]

I will ask the Doctor about that if this new plan doesn’t work.

[LoveMygarden29]

The same happened to me. I was given 1 month of Famatodine 40, also Gaviscon (which I rarely needed) after which the Famatodine 20 has been sufficient. Best Wishes x

[Phed in reply to LoveMygarden29]

Thank you for your reply, I did start on 40mg of Famotidine but had to go down to 20mg as on 40mg I completely lost my appetite for food, I had been on 20mg for a while but seem to have developed heartburn as time has gone on which is really bad at times, I have used Gaviscon and it does help a bit but I would rather it went away altogether rather then keep taking Gaviscon . x