Chronic Acidity

[The Green Knight]

Salam

 

Since the beginning of this year I'm having constant acidity problems in the stomach. I had green chillies planted last year and they were delicious and so I ate a lot of them, but it left me with a stomach problem which could lead to ulcer, so I went on medication and it got fixed. But now I'm still having the acidity problem. To describe it, basically, whatever I eat makes me feel a burning sensation in the esophagus, below the throat. I'm tired of medications like proton pump inhibitors to patch this every day. :/

 

I think I might have it due to inappropriate eating habits. When I wake up I will have tea, and just tea. Then I will have one meal some 6 hours later. And after that the second meal in the night well before going to bed but I often have to skip meals, can't help it. If I eat something not made at home there will be acidity for sure. I feel I'm turning into the creature from that movie "Alien" and soon my toilet will melt due to my acids and so on.

All my life I've loved to drink water. Lots and lots of water. But now even water only gives acidity. :/

[UnknownShia]

My dad has a bad stomach acid problem, he fixed it by taking medication that completely stops the production of acid in the stomach, apparently its not really that essential to digestion... so hes been on it for 2 years now and hes in great condition.

 

Before the acid was burning his throat and he could barely speak.

[enigma313]

Don't skip meals and begin you day with water, not tea.  Also, lay off the spicy food for a while, which is easier said than done.  Oh, and stay away from dairy products too, esp. indian sweets.  I know these are the staples of an Indian diet (I am Bengali), but still, it should help to stay away from these foods.  I hope you feel better soon.  I had acid reflux during my pregnancies, it was the worst, so I do know how you feel.  

[Kasem]

I also struggle with acid and minus the whole green chilies, have had a lot of the same symptoms (particularly bad acid when I drink only water).

1. Get some sort of acid reliever, be it prescription (omeprazole or prilosec are very common) or over the counter (just a generic anti-acid)

2. Be careful what you eat & don't eat too many acidic foods

-tomatoes or anything with tomato paste, like pizza, pasta w/ tomato sauce, etc.
-coffee or tea ESPECIALLY WHEN DRANK ALONE (wash it down with bread/toast or something else)
-citric acids (including drinks like orange juice or foods with lots of lemon/lime juice)

3. Don't smoke or drink alcohol

- for other reasons i imagine we're not too worried about alcohol, but smoking cigarettes/hookah is terrible for acid.

4. EXCERCISE

- I didn't really feel any of my acid symptoms subside until I began exercising on a regular basis.

5. when suffering from acid, do something about it

- take an anti-acid IMMEDIATELY once you're feeling the burn. acid permanently scars your throat and if you don't take care of it, could get throat/esophageal cancer.
- drink 'basic' liquids when feeling symptoms (milk is perfect)


My biggest piece of advice is take note of when you're eating. If you eat a big meal right before you go to bed, you're lying flat and the acid will flow up & down your thoat from your stomach. avoid eating within 2 hours of sleeping, if possible.

Good luck friend. I know your pain.

[Guest]

Okay DV, so you have been taking antacids are the pain isn't going away. 

 

I don't know the dosage or how often you have been taking them but since its a long standing problem now I would suggest you to take a multi drug regimen that would take care of H.pylori ( these are the bacteria which attack the inside lining of our digestive system and that results in sores or ulcers). Proton pump Inhibitors just stop the acid secretion , they don't eradicate the bacteria and hence the ulcers aren't healed and the pain keeps coming back. 

Ideally one should get some investigations done like  endoscopy or barium meal , so if possible get one of these done. If not just follow this standard 'triple regimen for H.pylori' and hopefully you will feel better after this.

 

Omeprazole(losec) 40mg  Once daily 

Amoxycillin (amoxyl) 500mg twice daily

Clarithromycin(klaricid)500mg twice daily

take these for  seven days . don't miss out a dose, 

 

beside ^ make some lifestyle modifications

No smoking

no aspirin, avoid brufen and paracetamol too, if you need to take any pain meds use Nims or celbexx (these dont damage the stomach lining like the regular pain meds)

avoid excessive tea or coffee , no drinking tea on an empty stomach

 

hope you get well soon!

[The Green Knight]

Thanks everyone. Really appreciate it. Special thanks Dr. starlight for the usual excellent informative post with medicinal guidance. If Shiachat were a country we SC'ers would place a monument of you in your honor (and for pigeons to relax upon, hah) since you have helped us all so much and so often.

 

So you also think it could be H. pylori. I never treated for them and I have Azithromycin in my table drawer catching dust since last winters when the problem appeared and a doctor friend told me about h. pylori. I can't get endoscopy, I won't, and no barium meal either. Sorry. :/ However, I think it is h. pylori. Because a couple of months ago I took some pro-biotics and everything was alright. But then after summers, naturally, I got throat infection and I think the antibiotics destroyed the stomach ecology and the H. pylori have started to rule again, like noon league in the panjab. Makes sense to me. All I need now is the 40 mg omeprazole, as I have the 20 mg capsules only.

 

Thanks a lot.

[AhlulBayt_313]

Self-diagnosing isn't safe. Why wont you get the endoscopy? Now, I am seeing people post numerous medications, which do help; however, you will need a doctor's prescription to get the majority of these medications. Yes, some are over-the-counter, but those are merely a Band-Aid of relief, it wont correct the actual problem.

 

I, highly-recommend, you seek medical advice from your primary care physician, and stop trying to diagnose yourself. What if it's something more serious? Or you treat it with medications that wont correct the problem, and then down the road you run into bigger problems?

 

The advice from member's was helpful, but it's not safe to diagnose yourself, and it's also not ethical for people to diagnose you through ShiaChat.

Edited October 8, 2015 by AhlulBayt_313

[Guest]

Thanks everyone. Really appreciate it. Special thanks Dr. starlight for the usual excellent informative post with medicinal guidance. If Shiachat were a country we SC'ers would place a monument of you in your honor (and for pigeons to relax upon, hah) since you have helped us all so much and so often.

 

So you also think it could be H. pylori. I never treated for them and I have Azithromycin in my table drawer catching dust since last winters when the problem appeared and a doctor friend told me about h. pylori. I can't get endoscopy, I won't, and no barium meal either. Sorry. :/ However, I think it is h. pylori. Because a couple of months ago I took some pro-biotics and everything was alright. But then after summers, naturally, I got throat infection and I think the antibiotics destroyed the stomach ecology and the H. pylori have started to rule again, like noon league in the panjab. Makes sense to me. All I need now is the 40 mg omeprazole, as I have the 20 mg capsules only.

 

Thanks a lot.

Thank you for the kind words. You are welcome :)

[StarryNight]

Thanks everyone. Really appreciate it. Special thanks Dr. starlight for the usual excellent informative post with medicinal guidance. If Shiachat were a country we SC'ers would place a monument of you in your honor (and for pigeons to relax upon, hah) since you have helped us all so much and so often.

 

So you also think it could be H. pylori. I never treated for them and I have Azithromycin in my table drawer catching dust since last winters when the problem appeared and a doctor friend told me about h. pylori. I can't get endoscopy, I won't, and no barium meal either. Sorry. :/ However, I think it is h. pylori. Because a couple of months ago I took some pro-biotics and everything was alright. But then after summers, naturally, I got throat infection and I think the antibiotics destroyed the stomach ecology and the H. pylori have started to rule again, like noon league in the panjab. Makes sense to me. All I need now is the 40 mg omeprazole, as I have the 20 mg capsules only.

 

Thanks a lot.

 

I was gonna suggest pro-biotics :) you shouldn't leave them! 

[Chaotic Muslem]

DV, you are drama queen! You know your problem and what caused it , yet you are looking for magical solutions -.-

 

There are no magical solutions, there is no more Son of Maryam remedies. There is your brain to use to solve things. Apparently you have a digestion problem. The magnitude of this problem is not huge as in : no major loss of weight, no major deficiencies of nutrients de to poor absorptions, no physical injury to the stomach wall because there is no blood coming out. Your problem so far is functional.

 

One important step to solve it is to know how stuff work. Your stomach needs to empty its content in the small intestine, then into the colon. If there is an obstruction , for example feces, stomach will not be able to empty its content properly.

There is a bio markers and signs inbuilt in our body and hard wired in our brain that we can use them as markers of good health of the digestive system:

1- the presence of peristalsis movement. This feeling of someone holding your intestine and squeezing it from up down then again from down up happens when your whole digestive system done the job and now is just cleaning it up. This single marker is alone can indicate the normality of your digestive system. Many modern day people upon reaching their adulthood lost this feeling.

2- regularity of bowl habit. you should go to toilet at same time every day.

3-feeling of hunger!

4-absecnce of gases, conistipation, diarrheic and nausea or vomiting.

5- avoidance to irretantce of digestive system like smoking, alcohol, poisoned food, some herbs and medicines.

[The Green Knight]

Thanks for the suggestions and comments. I myself also enjoy some attention now and then, I will not deny that. And I needed to be sure. :)

[YA13]

Salam,

 

I've had chronic acid reflux for 12 years now. During this time I have experimented with different diets, but nothing works. I've had a prescription for the appropriate medication for years now. Although the problem in my case won't go away, I know pretty well what makes the condition worse. Here are some tips for the OP ( I am sure you are already familiar with most of these, but trust me, you really should try your best to give these a try):

 

- avoid garlic and (especially raw) onions

- avoid tomatoes, bell peppers, chilies and other capsicum

- avoid fatty and acidic (vinegar, citrus fruits) foods. Some say that yoghurt is bad, but  personally I have had no problems with it.

- avoid spices, especially chili, paprika, turmeric, cumin etc. (yellow and red spices)

- always have something "neutral" (for example white bread) to eat with tea/coffee. NEVER put spices in your tea or coffee.

- NEVER eat a proper meal in the evening - this could lead to a painful acid attack during your sleep, because you a re lying down and the acid can rise to your esophagus (while your stomach is processing the food) very easily. You don't want this to happen, it is extremely painful and traumatic. I usually don't eat anything for several (4-6) hours before going to sleep. You should ask your doctor whether this method is the best one out there, but I certainly have found it helpful. You might not be at the stage where this even happens, but I have seen it happen to people with a "less-serious" condition as well, so keep this in mind.

 

I understand that it is significantly easier to do these in northern Europe (where I am), where food is generally not spicy, compared to say, South Asia or the Middle East, but there's just no way that a person suffering from acid reflux can continue on a spice-, acid-, or oil-heavy diet and not suffer from it. 

 

I really hope that you can get rid of this problem by adopting the right diet, and insha Allah you can one day return to your normal diet.

[Gypsy]

Chillies can cause heartburn or stomach problems. Don't xceed your limit. Get anti acid or cheapest is to use baking soda to neutralize the acid.

Edited October 15, 2015 by Gypsy