GERD anyone?

[jacqueline]

Just wondering if anyone has GERD or a hiatal hernia?
I was having pain running thru my chest to my shoulder blade and have recently been having heartburn. I at first (since I work in a hospital) thought I was having heart problems but it continued for over a week and only hurt when I turned. I thought I had pulled a muscle while vomiting the night before it started. I went and spoke with the employee health nurse and she agreed with me on my GERD (self diagnosed and was previously being controlled with free samples from a prior office I worked in) and said it was possible I had a hiatal hernia. She gave me a week's worth of pepcid and told me to let her know if that didn't work. So far it has been helping,my heartburn has went away. I've tried looking on the net for a diet and can't really find anything except what you aren't supposed to eat (which is everything I love).

Just wondering if anyone else has this and what types of foods you eat.
I am also putting some liquid aloe vera juice in my drink every morning (it's supposed to help coat the esophagus). Does anyone use vitamins/herbs/supplements that help? I would rather not take pepcid or any other prescription medicine (cost and also I don't want to be chained to a prescription pill)

[ravenmaniac]

My husband had to have surgery to repair his hiatal hernia. His esophagus was raw. He took Prevacid for a while but it stopped working. No matter what he ate or drank it came up. Good luck.

[Daisygirl]

I have horrible acid reflux that gets so bad if I am not on medication that I throw up, and my esophagus gets so raw that it bleeds.

I take Pariet, which is a prescription med, and the symptoms disappear completely. I can go to every 2-3 days but longer than that and the reflux is back in full force. There is an over the counter med in the states, Prilosec, which I find more effective than Pepcid, although that will help in a pinch.

Good luck! As for diet, when the reflux is there it doesn't matter what I eat, the symptoms are present. I found stress makes it MUCH worse.

[Marie78]

I take Prilosec, Prevacid was too expensive and I didn't notice it helped much. I try to stay away from citrus as it upsets my symptoms. I take a Vitamin C chewable each day to compensate for the lake of "natural" citrus in my diet. I have noticed that everything bothers me if I don't take the Prilosec. I think mine was brought on by stress this last year and for some reason now that I have it, I can't seem to get rid of it! Good luck, I feel for you.

[jacqueline]

I wonder if the stress in my life is making it worse. I'm really wanting to control most of the symptoms by diet instead of spending money on pills. Prilosec otc is expensive but not as expensive as a prescription i guess. And I hope it doesn't get to a point to where I would have to have surgery
I've also been taking a couple of antacid tablets before going to bed since I know acid backs up during the night (I can't sleep if I elevate myself like you are supposed to do)
Thanks everyone who replied, I appreciate your thoughts....I'm still searching the internet!!!

[mom2three]

Possible supplements: probiotics, biotin, apple cider vinegar (counterintuituve, but does help), gripe water. Althernative health care would say to treat for yeast. Hubby went off gluten and dairy to control his. He used to take a bottle of Tums per month and 3-4 Pepcid a wekk, but only uses he Pepcid 1 every three weeks now - it's pretty amazing as he has suffered problems since he was very young.