Day Three – No Prilosec

For more than 20 years I’ve taken prilosec (or the generic, omeprazole). I was prescribed the medicine when I went to the doctor for stomach pain. He suggested that it could be stomach ulcers and ordered some upper GI testing. Back then you drank this horrible thick pink liquid and then lay face down on a table that tilted you back and forth like a lava lamp. It was a very awkward procedure to say the least.

Thankfully no ulcers were found, but the pain persisted so we continued with the testing and finally found that my gal bladder was full of stones and needed to be removed.

After having my gal bladder removed I tried to stop the prilosec but by then it was in my system and trying to stop it caused terrible reflux and heartburn. It was easier just to stay on it and the doctor agreed. Remember this was more than 20 years ago…

Fast forward to today and I am on my third day of not taking prilosec.

It’s been seven weeks since I began this process of weaning myself off the drug.

I started this process after going to the doctor a few months ago for stomach pain. Ironic huh 🙂 My doctor wanted to run some test but I couldn’t be seen by the specialist for about six months and in the mean time “we could up the dose of prilosec if I wanted to” That’s when I made the decision to look into options for myself and do what I could on my own.

Last week was the last step down dose of the prilosec of each week removing 25 of the 200 little balls in a 40mg omeprazole (generic prilosec) capsule. I have spoken to other people with the same dosage but their capsules have only 36 little balls. They made the decision to reduce it by 6 little balls each week.

Side note: I have to admit that I chuckle a little bit every time I type “little balls” It’s just funny. Yes I’m 12 years old. 🙂

Anyway…. I have had some moderate discomfort with heartburn and a couple instances of reflux, but in total disclosure I have to admit that I’ve been a little bad in regards to my diet (pizza and wine) and lets go ahead and add portion control to the mix too, all of which is probably more the cause of my discomfort instead of the absence of the medicine.

I’ve also decided to add probiotic to may daily regimen. Following is a list of the supplements I’m taking now and I’ve included some information on all of them from Dr. Amy Myers with mindbodygreen.

Probiotics
Our gut is full of “good”and friendly bacteria that help us properly break down and digest our food. They help keep our gut in check and prevent ‘bad’ bacteria from overgrowth. Unfortunately, these friendly bacteria can be depleted and disrupted by taking antibiotics, steroids, acid-blocking medications, eating a poor diet, and many other factors. Taking a highly concentrated dose (25-100 billion units a day) of probiotics on a daily basis can help you regain a healthy balance of bacteria in your gut.

L-Glutamine
L-Glutamine is an amino acid that is fundamental to the well-being of the digestive and immune systems. Glutamine is great for repairing damage to the gut, helping the gut lining to regrow and repair, undoing the damage caused by leaky gut, and reducing sugar cravings. I recommend 3-5 grams a day.

Digestive Enzymes
Digestive enzymes are plant or microbial-based supplements that support the breakdown, absorption, and utilization of macronutrients. Taken with meals, they work with the body’s own reduced supply of enzymes to achieve maximum digestion and support intestinal repair mechanisms.

Slippery Elm
It might have kind of a strange name, but slippery elm has been used as an effective gut healer for centuries in the United States. This supplement both contains mucilage and stimulates nerve endings in the body’s intestinal tract to increase natural mucus secretion, which is an instrumental part of the stomach’s protective lining and helps combat ulcers and excessive acidity in the digestive system. It also contains important antioxidants that help relieve inflammatory bowel symptoms.

Deglycyrrhizinated Licorice (DGL)
DGL is an herb that has been used for over 3,000 years in the treatment of digestive issues including ulcers and indigestion. It’s made from whole licorice, but the manufacturing process includes the removal of glycyrrhizin, which can cause an elevation in blood pressure. DGL supports the body’s natural processes for maintaining the mucosal lining of the stomach and duodenum.

Like I said before, this will be a lifetime process of being aware of my diet and the triggers that cause discomfort. Also managing portion control, properly chewing my food and not eating two hours before bedtime.

These are things I should have been doing all along and I suppose we can chalk that up to being another side effect of the PPI drugs. Being able to over eat and basically eat anything I wanted because I could just take a pill for any discomfort it caused me. Think about that for a minute. How crazy is that?

It makes me wonder if there was a pill that cured cancer how many people would start smoking (again).

Now that I’ve had to pay attention to the foods I eat and when I eat them I have learned that if I start my day on the “right track” then the rest of the day goes well. The “right track” for me is a breakfast of mostly protein and very little, if any grains. Luckily we are blessed daily by our chickens with fresh eggs and I have a freezer full of sausage and bacon from our hogs. Cereal, over night oats and muffins for breakfast are out (for now anyway).

The most important factor about dinner is timing and portion control. I try very hard to make sure that dinner is finished at least 2 hours before bedtime and I also make sure that my portions are in check by using a salad plate as my dinner plate. I also drink very little fluids with dinner usually just sipping on some water.

This is my plan for the next 30 days… Now that I’ve stopped the prilosec I will continue the L-Glutamine and probiotics in the mornings, DGL licorice before meals, digestive enzymes after meals and slippery elm as needed.

The anxiety… I’ve said that this process hasn’t been that difficult, and I’m proud of myself for doing it the right way and including the supplements allowing me to wean off the drugs and heal my gut at the same time. What I haven’t talked about in my blogs is the anxiety associated with it. If you’ve taken any of these PPI medications, then you know how effective they are in preventing heart burn and reflux. And I’m betting you also know how painful the heartburn and reflux can be when you miss a dose. It can be excruciating! I don’t know one person who isn’t to some degree afraid of pain. This is what can cause the anxiety. I’ve asked the Z Man many times… what if it doesn’t work… what if I make it worse…. what if I can’t do it… what if……

This is where I need to say Thank You to the Z Man for his support and encouragement through this. Thank You My Love! 🙂

While I was worried about the possible discomfort and pain, what’s worse is the fear of the terribly damaging side effects of these drugs that made me want to finish this.

I’m sorry this post got so long and I want to thank you for letting me share my experience with you, it has inspired me to do the research, to learn more and to make better choices for us. Thank you! 🙂

Have a great day,

Till Next Time,

Lori

Friday’s Frugal Five

It’s been a busy week, but it seems like it flew by. I wish I had some earth shattering frugal tips for you today. Sometimes it’s hard to remember the frugal things to post about because they are so routine for us. Things like using the clothes line to dry clothes or taking leftovers to work for lunches.

But I’ll say it again, it’s the little frugal things that add up and over time they just become the normal way of doing things.

Five Frugal Things:

This week the Z Man and I celebrated our anniversary. A long time ago we decided that our food is better than most restaurants we’ve been to so very seldom to we ever go out for a meal. We started a tradition for our anniversary celebrations to include BLT sandwiches and carrot cake. When you have bacon like we have, a BLT sandwich feels like a special meal. Our wedding cake was a carrot cake, so each year we have carrot cake for our anniversary.

I made a weeks worth of salad in a jar for our lunches. During the busy months at work our dinners become more simple like sandwiches or something grilled which often doesn’t allow for leftovers. I love salad in a jar and I’m a firm believer that is saves money and prevents waste when making all the salads at one time. How many times have you bought salad ingredients only to find they got pushed to the back of the fridge, finding them days later in need of Viagra and on its way to the compost pile? That doesn’t happen with salad in a jar because you make them all at one time. It’s a great healthy grab and go meal.

I fell into a frumpy mood this week feeling that I needed to look better, more styled, more modern, prettier. Fortunately some of my frugal friends gave me a little boost of encouragement helping me realize that I need to just keep taking care of myself (not smoking, eating better and quitting the omeprazole) and let the rest of those (not good enough, negative) feelings go. More on this later… lets just say for now I didn’t spend the $500 or so dollars it would’ve cost to (supposedly) feel better about myself.

Yesterday was cinco de mayo so we had taco salads for dinner because I had leftover meat and beans from the quesadillas we had on Wednesday so it was mexican two evenings in a row. The funny thing is that we had BLTs on both Monday and Tuesday evenings. No waste = frugal. The Z Man is so easy going with my dinner plans, he is always happy no matter what I serve. As long as its good food it doesn’t really matter to him what it is. That makes meal planning so much easier. Luckiest woman in the world I tell ya.

I completely failed to track my grocery spending for April. I will go back and tally the receipts when I get time, but lesson learned because I’m sure I spent more because I didn’t track it. So far for the month of May I’ve spent $14.57. I want to stay as close to my $20 a week ($100 a month) budget as possible. Now that I’m buying more local and organic foods it is a bit more expensive, but I’m just fine with the extra cost. I would rather pay for it now than pay for it later with my health. Tracking spending = frugal.

What frugal fun did you have this week?

Have a great day!

Till Next time,

Lori

More On The Dangers of PPIs (Prilosec, Nexium, Prevacid)

It continues to become very clear that these medicines are doing serious harm to people. Every week there is a new article with more information about the dangers of these medicines.

The following is from a recent article in the U.S. News & World Report.

Taking PPIs has been linked to an increased risk of pneumonia and a higher risk of developing a digestive system infection called clostridium difficile that causes diarrhea and can be life-threatening. In addition, PPIs can affect absorption of vitamins and minerals and have been found to be associated with certain deficiencies, such as for vitamin B12, calcium, iron and magnesium, says Dr. Joel Heidelbaugh, a clinical professor of family medicine at the University of Michigan—Ann Arbor, who has done research on the overutilization of PPIs and risks associated with this class of drugs. He notes there’s now also concern PPIs could possibly affect kidney function and be linked to a higher risk of developing chronic kidney disease. “Of course, all of these associations were determined retrospectively,” he says. The drugs haven’t been studied prospectively to prove a cause-and-effect relationship between taking PPIs and the health issues studied. But experts say the risks are worth considering when deciding whether to start or continue on PPIs.

Most recently, a study published online in April in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology found patients who take PPIs for heartburn, acid reflux or ulcers were more likely to experience a decline in kidney function, compared to those taking H2 blockers, and had an increased risk of developing chronic kidney disease and kidney failure. Researchers found the longer patients took PPIs, the greater an individual’s risk. Regarding possible vitamin deficiencies associated with PPIs, Heidelbaugh notes in recent years that attention has turned toward magnesium. Low levels of magnesium have been linked to issues ranging from osteoporosis to high blood pressure. In addition, research published last year in the online open-access journal PLOS One found that taking PPIs was associated with an increased risk of heart attack.

I’m so glad I made the decision to stop taking this awful drug. It still worries me that there may be residual damage after more than 20 years of taking it daily. I have to tell you that at this point I have zero confidence in getting to the truth of it inside the medical world.

Several years back I expressed to my doctor my desire to quit this medicine, and his response was “why? it seems to work well for you and there have been no long term damaging side effects noted, I would recommend you continue with it”

I like my doctor, I’ve been a patient of his for almost 20 years, and I plan to discuss this with him at my next visit and share with him my concerns and the entire weaning process I’ve gone through. I want it specifically noted in my chart for future reference.

If you are still taking any of the PPI medications please discuss it with your doctor and perhaps consider this weaning process as an option for you too. If you have any questions, suggestions or comments please share them with us. You never know who it might help, after all it was a friend that shared her experience with me that encouraged me to quit these drugs.

Have a great day!

Till Next Time,

Lori

Herb Time

I use a lot of herbs in my cooking which makes it important for me to take tender care of my herb garden. Ha, actually I mostly neglect them all year long except for early spring and late fall when I clean their beds and perhaps the Z Man gives them a fresh coat of mulch. Herbs are very forgiving and are the easiest thing to grow.

Well, except for cilantro! I have the hardest time growing cilantro which really stinks because I use a lot of it in cooking and when canning my salsa.

In the early spring I always have some pop up in the garden voluntarily but it doesn’t last long.

This year the Z Man transplanted some of it into pots for me and they are looking pretty good (for now).

All the other herbs (rosemary, thyme and mint) made it through the winter and are growing nicely.

I’ve already made the first round of cuts on the herbs and have hung them to dry. I like to try to get 3 cuts dried for winter use. Especially the sage, I use quite a bit when we grind our pork sausage in the fall.

My oregano is going crazy this year, the first cut didn’t even make a dent in it. I’ll need to do another cut this weekend.

The sage is a little slower growing, but I managed to get two good size bundles hung.

Here is a picture of the sage before I cut it. This sage plant is probably 5 years old now.

To dry my herbs all I do is cut them, wrap a rubber band around the base and hang them in the kitchen for a few months. Looking at them hanging during the summer months gives me this kind of old day medicine woman feeling. Which reminds me I want to share my rose toner with y’all when the roses start blooming.

I once saw Jamie Oliver on a cooking show going nuts over finding some dried oregano that was still on the stems in a little specialty food store. Look at me having that in my kitchen all summer long… 🙂

Herbs are good for you and add so much flavor to meals, you may even find yourself using less salt in place of fresh (or dried) herbs.

If you are new to gardening or perhaps have limited space, try growing herbs. You can make your flower beds multipurpose by planting herbs in them. And, think about all the money you’ll save by doing it yourself.

Have fun and have a great day!

Till Next Time,

Lori