{"id":6455,"date":"2012-07-11T12:00:18","date_gmt":"2012-07-11T19:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janaremy.com\/?p=6455"},"modified":"2012-07-11T12:00:18","modified_gmt":"2012-07-11T19:00:18","slug":"why-i-stopped-taking-ppis-for-gastric-reflux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.janaremy.com\/pilgrimsteps\/2012\/07\/11\/why-i-stopped-taking-ppis-for-gastric-reflux\/","title":{"rendered":"why I stopped taking PPIs for gastric reflux"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post feels a bit like a PSA rather than a typical pilgrimsteps post.\u00a0 But I wanted to share my experience with PPIs just in case it might be of help to some of you….<\/em><\/p>\n

Last year I struggled to paddle because of severe back pain that was due to some problems with my prosthesis.\u00a0 But it wasn’t just back pain, it was horrible painful muscle spasms that I had in my back, but also happened just about anywhere whenever I exercised vigorously.\u00a0 My muscles just simply didn’t seem to be responding well to exercise–I was continuously fatigued and got cramps easily no matter what type of supplement I tried.<\/p>\n

As a result, I quit paddling about halfway through last season.*<\/p>\n

It wasn’t until a few months later that a lightbulb went on in my head as I talked with a friend about my chronic gastric reflux problems.\u00a0 She told me that long-term use of over-the-counter PPIs did have long-term side effects (despite my thinking that they were nearly-benign meds) and that one of those was mineral loss.\u00a0 I realized that the muscle cramping symptoms that I was experiencing were quite similar to the problems I’d had more than a decade previous when I was calcium deficient.\u00a0 Given that I already have the double-whammy of bone density loss from being female and from having had high-dose chemotherapy, I started to become nervous about my dependence on PPIs to get me through dinnertime (it was almost always dinner that gave me problems–causing acid reflux for hours afterwards).<\/p>\n

So…I stopped taking the PPIs cold-turkey and modified my diet as much as I could to compensate (such as no citrus or tomatoes and more yogurt).\u00a0 Within a few weeks my acid reflux symptoms mostly disappeared–with only an occasional flare-up during stress.\u00a0 And I found that I regained my muscle endurance fairly quickly after that.<\/p>\n

I know that PPIs are necessary for many people and I’m not suggesting, necessarily, that you do what I did and stop taking them.\u00a0 But I think it’s worth reading this recent article<\/a> that warns of their side-effects, and to consider whether they are drugs that you really do need to be taking regularly.\u00a0 In my case, I think the PPIs caused me to exercise less which exacerbated my reflux and led to weight gain (weight gain being one of the major contributors to reflux issues).\u00a0 And I needed to get off the PPIs to I could become more active and healthy again.\u00a0\u00a0 My hope now is that the year I spent taking them won’t result in any long-term effect on my bone density.<\/p>\n

*Additional motivation for quitting mid-season was due to some problems with my coach and the need to focus on my studies.\u00a0 But the major reason was that I was in terrible pain each time I tried to paddle, I and I simply couldn’t figure out why my body was hurting so badly.
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This post feels a bit like a PSA rather than a typical pilgrimsteps post.\u00a0 But I wanted to share my experience with PPIs just in case it might be of help to some of you…. Last year I struggled to paddle because of severe back pain that was due to some problems with my prosthesis.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6465,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,25,26,51],"tags":[80,81,82,281,83,84],"class_list":["post-6455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-amputee","category-body","category-disability","category-outrigger","tag-athletics","tag-health","tag-nutrition","tag-outrigger","tag-paddling","tag-ppi"],"yoast_head":"\nwhy I stopped taking PPIs for gastric reflux - PilgrimSteps<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.janaremy.com\/pilgrimsteps\/2012\/07\/11\/why-i-stopped-taking-ppis-for-gastric-reflux\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"why I stopped taking PPIs for gastric reflux - PilgrimSteps\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This post feels a bit like a PSA rather than a typical pilgrimsteps post.\u00a0 But I wanted to share my experience with PPIs just in case it might be of help to some of you…. 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