Thread: Weaning off pantoprazole (ppi)

What are rennies?

What ever did doctors do before PPI's

I have to say that I think a significant amount of the GORD around is due to disease mongering by the drug industry - GORD seemed to become a popular disease about the same time as Losec/Prilosec hit the market.

What is ACV?
Thanks

rennies are an otc antacid in england and australia - like tums or rolaiRAB in the usa

Congratulations on taking charge of your health, and I pray that your efforts are soon rewarded with a healthy child.

The taper-down plan your doctor wrote sounRAB reasonable to me. Probably better than what I did, and my withdrawl wasn't bad at all. (I also blame Ibuprofen for my stomach woes!)

It can take a while to get off of PPI's. If you start to have symptoms during the taper-down period, don't worry too much, they usually subside. Possibly Tums will help with that (and it'll build those calcium reserves, too.)

Hi all,

Just an update to say I have successfully halved my dose to 20mg/every 24 hours. I have had no major issues with increasing the time between my doses by 4 hours every 2 weeks. It has taken me 42 days to halve from 40 to 20, but it's been essentially pain and discomfort free! Yay!

I have had 2 or 3 episodes of mild reflux, triggered by fried food. I treated both with ACV only and have not had to resort to Gaviscon or Rennies yet. Since fried food is something I eat only occasionally now, I find this quite acceptable and I have not changed my diet at all whilst stepping down.

I've had a few random occasions where my stomach felt like it was "bubbly", usually right before or after a dose but I have not been able to link it to anything. Sometimes I "know" that my does is due as my stomach feels a bit tight, but again, it's not painful and it's really good to know I can train my cells off of this drug.

Interesting discussion re the use/overuse of this drug. I didn't ask my GP at the time what the outcome of their meeting was, but I can try to remeraber to when I next see him in August. Having experienced my health care systems, I would say that the GPs I have had since being in the UK have been much slower to prescribe where other remedies might be of some help first. Although care comes first, it feels like a more measured approach. The again, I've only had 2 GPs so my my experience is quite limited!

I hope that there isnt a movement not what I intended when I said discontinue, there slightly useful but hopeful there is another method besides years of usage. I do believe its possible for my few mths on them they will be useful but I think after long term usage they become less effective for a lot of people. Maybe they will just take them off the OTC counters for those with minor issues, prob all they will do.

It can be done but, in my experience, it took approximately three months. I tried to rush at the onset and ended up experiencing pretty bad acid rebound for the first two months. If I have any good advice to give is to taper off slowly. Accept it will take a while to be PPI-free and step down in a very gradual fashion to minimize rebound. It sounRAB like you have a good plan and I am happy to read your doctor is supporting you on this.

I am one of those people who ended up with osteopenia after using a PPI for only three years. I was headed to become one of those statistics of women over fifty who take PPI's and end up breaking their hip. I am now hoping to reverse or halt the bone loss so I don't end up with osteoporosis.

Good luck to you and please take your time.

Rose

Thank you both for your supportive replies! :angel:

janewhite1: I have experienced very minor symptoms at the beginning of both steps, but nothing outrageous so far. It's helpful to know that is normal!

rosebloom: I read your story. Amazing and inspiring! Thanks for the reminder to be patient. It's difficult once you decide to get off of it to wait out the process.

My GP will be following my progress as I am his first patient to try and wean down. I was put on protonix in the US through Kaiser, but now live in the UK. My GP told me that the week before I consulted him, there had been a meeting of all the docs in the practice about the long term effects of PPIs and whether or not they wanted to continue to prescribe them as readily. The docs here are not *quite* as beholden to the drug industry as in the US, so maybe there will be a shift in prescribing tendencies here eventually.

In the meantime I am finding ACV to be a great help (and hey it's supposed to be an appetite suppressant as well lol!) and I will keep chipping away at my hourly intervals.

I wonder though if they don't prescribe then...what will GERD and gastriits and other acid problem people be prescribed?