Ranitidine

[VanessaJoanne]

Hi all

I have been taking 300mg Ranitidine every night in addition to Esameprazole and have the head of my bed up on wooden blocks.

I eat carefully as well having my last meal at 4pm.

I had a med review with my gp last week and she said that they have been told to completely stop prescribing ranitidine. However she said if I understand the potential problems with it she will continue to prescribe it for me because of my Scleroderma.

Have any other of you faced this problem and have you found an alternative?

[Joan59]

Hi sorry you are having to deal with this. I am on they same and they my GP practice employed a pharmacist to see if the practice could save money, and without asking the patient why I was even on the medication she just stopped them so I had a battle with my GPS over this and they have prescribed them. Someone who has a chronic condition and is not going to get better needs these meds.

It’s not as if you have gone to the GP with acute stomach discomfort and they have said oh you can buy some ranitidine or Nexium over the counter take them for a couple of week and you will be fine.

Our problems don’t go away.

Hope you sort it out

Take care

Joan

[Inamoment in reply to Joan59]

It's not available because of a manufacturing problem, nothing to do with saving money. It's a worldwide problem

[Atu8]

I took ranitidine(150mg x2 a day) prior to being diagnosed with crest. My rheumatologist switched me to Omeprazole (Prilosec) 40mg once before bed and I have not had any heartburn since (8 months).

[Kharding]

Hi there,

My son was on ranitidine and omeprazole for a long time. I took him to a health professional osteo, who ran some tests on him and said it would be ideal to stop these drugs. They very slowly weened him off these drugs through massage and manipulation and at same time, I removed sugar,bread and potato from his diet (also made sure pasta was gluten free). He ate little and often, not big meals. He’s never had a chest pain since and he was having chronic pain everyday. Every case is different but someone shared a similar example to me on this forum which is why we decided to try it out. Hope it all sorts out. Take care x

[laucar1]

I see one of the top specialists in the whole country and he still prescribes Ranitidine for systemic scleroderma so it must be suitable for people like us, all medications have side effects but the specialists decide if these are outweighed by the benefits. Every year my GP surgery call me in for a medicine review to try and cut some of the many medications I take or to switch to a cheaper brand. I always refuse and say I won't change unless Professor Denton says I have to. It is annoying but I 'win' every year, just such a waste of my time and their time but has to be done or they won't give me repeat prescriptions.

[Intimeslikethese]

Just a random thought. Ask doctor if this will help. To sleep with ice chips nearby and available throughout the night to eat small amount when needed to calm down the GERD

[VanessaJoanne]

Thank you all for your input. I am due to go in to Royal Free for my Iloprost infusion (due today but no beds) so I will get them to confirm about the Ranitidine. Fingers crossed for a bed tomorrow 😁

[JamesWilthern]

I’ve just seen this, reason for the sudden stop is this medication is linked with cancer, and the world health organisation and the us have banned the use of Ranitidine. There is also a high lawsuit in America against the makers due to illness.