What's Your Favorite Antacid?

[Yota]

I know I'm not the only one who gets killer heartburn.

What's your favorite antacid? :D

[jnschwie]

Baking Soda.
Damn it is good.





Edit: It comes in many flavors too, you just have to rotate the food in your fridge to get them.

[Yota]

So I'm all about Pepcid Complete. You get the standard Ca or Mg carbonate plus 10 mg of femotidine acid reducer.

I can have brutal heartburn and take one of those and it goes away and stays away.

Pepcid AC is OK but it doesn't usually help with existing heartburn. You really do have to take that one ahead of time, which I never remember to do.

Before that I had a jumbo size bottle of Tums on my night stand that I'd take two-at-a-time.

Anyway. I know this is random but it popped into my head that a lot of people get heartburn and I was curious what others do about it. :D

[jnschwie]

Oof. I don't like the chalky taste of any of those.

Actually, I take zantac whenever I need an NSAID since I got an ulcer once.

[Yota]

The Pepcid AC mint flavor is the only decent one. It's a little chalky because.. well.. it's made of chalk. But benefit of that is that it knocks down the acid immediately and then follows that up with the reducer. Genius! God bless you, Big Pharma! :D

[jrvyota]

Costco size bottle of tums mmmmm good

[CSP]

A daily dose of Prilosec keeps my heartburn (acid reflux really) in check. If it flares up, there's not an antacid out there that provides relief. I've tried them all.

[Pilot]

Bourbon.

[TwoDogs]

Pepto BABY!! :barf:

[CLYDE]

Nexium, greatest thing since sliced bread, as far as OTC, pepcid completes, pricey, but worth it..

[Waifer2112]

I took Prilosec every day for over 10 years. I NEEDED it, or had bad reflux. Since I've changed my diet dramatically over the last year, I only take one twice a month, maybe. I'm not sure what it was that made the biggest difference, but cutting way back on the diet Dew probably has helped a bunch. I know it's a big (hard) change, but it sure is nice not to wake up in the middle of the night and rush for the baking soda. BTW, my Dr. told me be real careful with using baking soda as an antiacid. Besides the incredible amount of sodium in it, he said it eliminates the acid in your stomach, making your stomach create more.

[jnschwie]

Nexium, greatest thing since sliced bread, as far as OTC, pepcid completes, pricey, but worth it..

prilosec is damn near identical to Nexium for OTC...
It is basically a racemic mixture of the same compound, where as nexium is a single enantiomer (for you chemists out there). Whether or not that matters clinically....:shrug: but it does allow for a new patent from the FDA.


I took Prilosec every day for over 10 years. I NEEDED it, or had bad reflux. Since I've changed my diet dramatically over the last year, I only take one twice a month, maybe. I'm not sure what it was that made the biggest difference, but cutting way back on the diet Dew probably has helped a bunch. I know it's a big (hard) change, but it sure is nice not to wake up in the middle of the night and rush for the baking soda. BTW, my Dr. told me be real careful with using baking soda as an antiacid. Besides the incredible amount of sodium in it, he said it eliminates the acid in your stomach, making your stomach create more.

2 things Waifer.
1) You can actually "burn out" receptors on your esophagus so that you don't feel reflux anymore. Scary, but I see patients every single week who have this scenario. You did the right things, so, you may have eliminated it, but don't forget that. If you have GERD, I'd still follow up with GI for an endoscopy periodically. :)

2) I was just kidding about the baking soda. :D People do it, but wow. :D

[zoriloco]

Have to take a pill of Nexium if not the reflux kills me. Good stuff

[supremebeholder]

I took Prilosec every day for over 10 years. I NEEDED it, or had bad reflux. Since I've changed my diet dramatically over the last year, I only take one twice a month, maybe. I'm not sure what it was that made the biggest difference, but cutting way back on the diet Dew probably has helped a bunch. I know it's a big (hard) change, but it sure is nice not to wake up in the middle of the night and rush for the baking soda. BTW, my Dr. told me be real careful with using baking soda as an antiacid. Besides the incredible amount of sodium in it, he said it eliminates the acid in your stomach, making your stomach create more.

X2

In high school I ate pretty much whatever I wanted and I paid for it by having to take prescription antacids, I think it was prescription zantac. I did that for 3 years and still suffered through the pain when the pills wouldn’t work. Finally I completely changed my diet and now I very rarely have to take something for heartburn.

I don’t eat right before I go to bed and now my last meal of the day is almost always a bowl of cereal with milk. No Italian food and very little Mexican.

[longboy]

I can't think of the last time I've had an antacid. Probably 2x in my life is all.

[Yota]

For those of you who changed your diet can you describe that in more detail?

I can imagine avoiding tomato-based sauces, spicy foods, acidic drinks, and pretty much anything else that is low in pH.

But what were the trigger foods that you had to cut out? Anyone cut out beer? Multiple beers have been known to kick up my heartburn. In college I'd go out with Tums in my pocket.

[longboy]

In college I'd go out with Tums in my pocket.

Did that work for picking up the ladies? :confused:

[CSP]

Eliminating multiple Mt. Dews has helped my GERD tremendously. I hardly touch the stuff now. My digestive tract is much quieter now too. My stomach gurgled a lot when I drank lots of soda.

Beer never bothered me much painwise, but I'd feel full after one beer and had trouble drinking very many.

[shawnw]

Go to GNC and buy Chewable papaya tablets, and eat one or two before you eat something that gives you heartburn or upsets your stomach...works for me!

[Leon Phelps]

Greasy food (deep fried), carbonated drinks, anything with a high acidic content....

[missmelissa]

mmm tums are like candies

[supremebeholder]

For those of you who changed your diet can you describe that in more detail?

I can imagine avoiding tomato-based sauces, spicy foods, acidic drinks, and pretty much anything else that is low in pH.

But what were the trigger foods that you had to cut out? Anyone cut out beer? Multiple beers have been known to kick up my heartburn. In college I'd go out with Tums in my pocket.

It is mostly trial and error. If I eat something and get heartburn afterwards I tend to avoid eating the same thing.

Italian food is especially bad. The tomatoes and spices usually combine to make something truly bad. There is one spice in particular, I’ve never actually bothered to find out which one, that does it to me every time. I will eat spaghetti on occasion, but never for dinner, and I’ll eat pizza with some frequency but that is usually light on sauce. Bell peppers are a problem so I tend to avoid those. I’ve never really had a problem with carbonated drinks and I don’t drink beer.

[Yota]

Did that work for picking up the ladies? :confused:

:lmao:

Not as well as the banana I'm afraid.

[oleblue]

One word Chiropractor.

[Waifer2112]

2 things Waifer.
1) You can actually "burn out" receptors on your esophagus so that you don't feel reflux anymore. Scary, but I see patients every single week who have this scenario. You did the right things, so, you may have eliminated it, but don't forget that. If you have GERD, I'd still follow up with GI for an endoscopy periodically. :)

2) I was just kidding about the baking soda. :D People do it, but wow. :D

Thanks. I'll check w/ my Dr. next time I'm in, but I'm pretty sure, being as how it coincided w/ the change in diet, that that was the main problem. And I do sometimes still get some pain. As for the baking soda, it's not good to use, but man does it work RIGHT NOW!!

For those of you who changed your diet can you describe that in more detail?

I can imagine avoiding tomato-based sauces, spicy foods, acidic drinks, and pretty much anything else that is low in pH.

But what were the trigger foods that you had to cut out? Anyone cut out beer? Multiple beers have been known to kick up my heartburn. In college I'd go out with Tums in my pocket.

Definetly the spicy foods hurt. But really, I didn't cut out any foods because they brought on GERD. I changed my diet to lose weight, be healthier overall, and (after reading a few books (recommended by someone from this forum. I forget who, but a huge thanks and :beer: for the suggestion!)) help with depression.

However, I think one of the biggest reasons I have all but quit drinking was because of GERD. That guaranteed pain all night. I think Dew did the exact same thing to me. I still have appr. 12 oz. in the morning to get me going, and on weekends I might have one or two more all day, but I rarely have problems anymore.

Again, I don't know exactly what I may have cut out of my diet to make a difference, but here's some things I've done...

-No more processed foods. This was hard for me, because I suck at cooking.
-Whole wheat only. No enriched flour products. You have to be careful with this one, as some things SAY they're whole wheat, or wheat, but if you read the ingredients, they may be enriched.
-Lots more veggies. More fruit, too, but the biggest change for me was 4x more veggies.
-I cut down on red meat quite a bit. That one sucks! I eat a lot more chicken instead. I'd eat fish, but I don't like it at all. I do take 3 fish oil pills every day, though. :D
-I eat plain oatmeal every morning for breakfast. I used to not have anything, so this was a big change too.
-And of course I virtually cut out ALL high fat, high sugar products. About once a month now, I give myself a "reward" and pig out on some Nutter Butters, and have noticed they bring on the Prilosec that night.
-I drink lots more water now.

[Waifer2112]

:lmao:

Not as well as the banana I'm afraid.

Banana's used to bring the suck, too.








































so to speak. :D

[ni0h]

jalopenos seem to work well as a counter-irritant, if followed with frequent small drinks of water.
When it all goes to hell, there's one thing that works for my digestive tract - Bismuth subSalicylate suspension. Name brand Pepto Bismol or store-brand pink stuff.

[old_man]

I have gird but can't take the Prilosec et. al. formulations. They bring on horrible headaches after a few days. I just learned to not eat for several hours before bed, raise the head of the bed a couple of inches and use Kroger's house brand of sugar-free antacids. Aslo, I try to sleep on my left side as it reduces the reflux. I'm diabetic. This has worked well. Once you get things calmed down, you can back off a bit.