I was able to dump omeprazole which I took daily for 6 years by drinking 8 ounces of malted milk instead (usually after dinner).
My acid reflux mid 40s was so severe it would prevent me from sleeping. Managed it with Zantac for a time (which is no longer available) but finally had to go to daily omeprazole.
I knew I could shoot a small glass of cold water with a table spoon of baking soda, but that is like chugging sea water. Seemed malted milk powder has just enough baking soda in it to do the trick.
It was a nice feeling to dump something like omeprazole which ideally isn’t taken daily and can be hard on the organs later in life. My dad was taking that crap daily for about the last 15 years and he couldn’t eat a lot of his favorite foods.
That’s mine, hope it works for some of you guys. Let’s hear what you’ve got.
Similar experience to you at a similar age. I drank a half glass of almond milk in the morning everyday for a couple of months. I still get occasional heartburn/reflux but nothing like I used to.
Stretching. I never worried about it when I was younger even when I did a lot of heavy weight lifting and running. Now that I am older it is a bigger part of my workout routine. If I don’t stretch I’ll get injured just sitting at my desk :laugh: .
So it isn’t just me? I’ve noticed in the past year or so lower back pain that doesn’t have any obvious cause. The only thing that explains it is sitting too long, which was was never an issue. It’s gone away with a regular stretching regimen.
I gotta say… I have felt better at almost 49 than I did in my early 40s… simply due to regular exercise (I am teaching martial arts regularly again, and my son is my top pupil) and giving up all the damned sugar. Dr. Pepper was the worst thing for me.
I sleep better, I don’t have joint inflammation, my arthritis is better… Just due to regular exercise and a decent diet.
My Wife and I pickelball at the local civic center for 3 hours , 6 days a week and have for the last 3 years,
I used to lift weights but only do that now to target certain muscle groups that don’t get worked out during
our pickelball regimen.
My Doc says keep it up !
Similar to tennis on a reduced sized court, except with plastic ball similar to a wiffle ball and using a small racket. It is the fastest growing community sport. Pickleball courts and leagues are sprouting up all over the place.
I forget where I read this but it makes sense. Antacids give quick relief but sometimes kill too much acid.
It may sound crazy but try gently mixing the baking soda with a few ounces of Coke. It helps the taste and balance the pH. The Coke bubbles help release any gas. Also helps with upset stomach.
I read sleeping on your left side helps with reflux due to the stomach’s shape. I stopped eating and drinking anything but water a couple hours before bedtime.
Harder stuff I had to work on to help reflux and indigestion:
Stopped eating most fried and fatty foods. Fat is slower to digest.
Stopped eating as much refined food as possible.
Started eating smaller portions.
Stopped drinking soda.
Started drinking water.
Started straightening my back and sitting down less. Not sure if there’s any science behind it but it seems to help.
This thread came up at a good time … Ive been on Nexium for 15 years , and have been trying to get off it for about that long . Everytime I try to taper off , I last about 2 weeks and then Im miserable . Tried cold turkey once and that lasted for about three days before I had to start again .
Mine is/was so bad , I had to have my esophagus stretched about once a year so I could even swallow food or liquid . Looks like Im going to try the malted milk first and then the others . Hope its really that simple … and I have changed my diet drastically over the years . Lots of water , almost no caffine or fried foods and so forth .
Good luck. One thing I’ve found is everyone is different.
I know guys who can drink water and dilute their acid reflux, for me drinking water just made it much worse.
I know guys who couldn’t touch ice cream because it generated an insane amount of acid, I started off noticing results from ice cream sundaes and malts making it less severe. Through experimentation I discovered ice cream works, ice cream malts really work and malted milk also works with about the same effectiveness. So I ditched the ice cream sundaes and malts (made with ice cream) for special occasions so I didn’t end up weighing 300 lbs.
Same. I sit too much and work on a computer. Trying not to slump too much but I have something going on in one side of my back or shoulder making the opposite foot go numb a lot. Stretching helps. Exercise aggravates it.
I work in IT from home and am in my mid 40s. I recently left my skepticism and embraced the standing desk concept.
What pushed me over the edge was more and more lower back pain flare-ups caused by degenerative disc disease and bulging L4/L5 and L5/S1 wear and tear from my days humping shells and wearing body armor as an artilleryman. Combine that with a few decades of sitting on my ass in front of a screen losing core muscle corsetry and pain was inevitable.
I find it contributes to much better posture and keeping that spine in natural curvature is a game changer. I don’t stand all the time but do way more than sitting.
Another discovery that has helped me a bunch: Robin McKenzie’s book on how to treat your own back problems. His basic exercises are on almost every Physical Therapist’s wall for disc issues and sciatica.
I’m 100% convinced that regular stretching related to martial arts has saved me serious injury throughout my life. Besides knowing how to fall (and here is where a judo black belt is worth 100 karate black belts) there have been a dozen incidents where I tripped, ran into something or otherwise got knocked on my ass and as i was regaining my senses started to realize I was going to be seriously F’ed up because THAT was a lot of impact, but as I slowly got my shit together discovered I had sustained no real injury.
I also think exercise is different for everyone. I can’t run anymore, I can if I have to but it causes lower back pain no matter how smooth I try and stride. Even walking more than a few miles requires a recovery day and a lot of stretching. But working the heavy bag actually feel great, except for muscle fatigue which I kinda enjoy because I’m weird that way, but I still need a recovery day.
I have found that forms of yoga are extremely beneficial low impact exercise for me, problem is I don’t have the patience to stop and perform a daily routine.
I hate running or jogging and haven’t the patience for yoga either. I’d rather glove up and hit the double end bag for my cardio. Another thing I’ve grown to be uninterested in is lifting my weights. I’m fine with doing body weight workouts. Hey, it’s what Mike Tyson started with.
The more we talk about this, the more I picture myself one day looking like the old man in The Goldbergs warming up in my track suit.
Meditation. I have been meditating for 7 months, usually, twice a day for 20 minutes, and the changes to my mental health are amazing.
The science behind it is that meditation builds new clumps of neurons around trauma damage and restores brain structures and glands to normal. This can happen with as little as 12 minutes a day in two months and the first thing that most people notice is a restoration of short-term memory.