symptoms not food-related, so what's causing them?

  • Thread starter Thread starter melkon
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melkon

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I have chronic, daily heartburn. I've had it for 12+ years and have had it well-controlled, up until a few months ago, with omeprazole. Now I'm really having a hard time again. Anyway although certain fooRAB can make things worse, I get heartburn regardless of what I eat. I can even fast and I'll still get it.

So my question is, what could the cause be? Is it that my LES is just shot? Or is it that I possibly make too much acid? Is there any way to tell?
 
Yes, it is possible to tell. An endoscopy can examine your stomach, see if you have damage to your LES, or the doctor can actually measure the pH in your stomach (not 100% sure how).

There are medications that can cause reflux, are you taking anything other than the omeprazole?
 
Thanks Jane. I recently had an endoscopy and it came out pretty much normal which is remarkable to me given how long I've had GERD. I think the omeprazole not only controlled my symptoms well but really protected my esophagus. Going forward though I'm worried as it's not working like it used to. Doc just put me on 2x/day dosage a few days ago and I don't notice any difference yet. I'm guessing I'll end up having to try my luck with a different PPI.

Some years ago I got the 24-ph monitoring and I remeraber they said I was refluxing pretty bad during that. I guess what I'm wondering is over time has my LES just gotten weaker or am I producing more acid. It probably doesn't matter too much as they'll treat it the same way I suppose. I'm just trying to understand why it got worse as I'm really getting scared about it. When my reflux is out of control I can't eat, can't sleep, can't work, etc.
 
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