Want more iVillage? Sign up for our
Newsletters
Heartburn & GERD - Medications
- Topic Overview
-
Health Tools
- Cause
- Symptoms
- What Happens
- What Increases Your Risk
- When To Call a Doctor
- Exams and Tests
- Treatment Overview
- Prevention
- Home Treatment
- Medications
- Surgery
- Other Places To Get Help
- Related Information
- References
- Credits
If you have been using nonprescription medicines to treat your symptoms for longer than 2 weeks, talk to your doctor. If you have gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), the stomach acid could be causing damage to your esophagus. Your doctor can help you find the right treatment. Making lifestyle changes is still an important part of the treatment of GERD when you are using medicine.
Antacids, H2 blockers, and proton pump inhibitors—either prescription or nonprescription—are usually tried first. Medicines can:
- Relieve symptoms (heartburn, sour taste, or pain).
- Allow the esophagus to heal.
- Prevent complications of GERD.
Medication Choices
- Antacids, such as Mylanta and Tums. Antacids neutralize stomach acid and relieve heartburn. If you want to take medicine only when your symptoms bother you, antacids are a good choice.
- H2 blockers, such as cimetidine (Tagamet) and famotidine (Pepcid). H2 blockers reduce the amount of acid in the stomach. Most are available in both nonprescription and prescription strength. If nonprescription H2 blockers don't relieve your symptoms, talk to your doctor about trying prescription-strength medicine.
- Proton pump inhibitors, such as lansoprazole (Prevacid) and omeprazole (Prilosec). Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) reduce the amount of acid in the stomach. Some are available without a prescription.
Medicine may not prevent all of your GERD symptoms all the time. Even if you're taking an acid reducer every day, you may still have heartburn from time to time. It's okay to take antacids when you have heartburn like this. But if you feel like your daily medicine isn't working to control your GERD symptoms, talk with your doctor. You may need to try a different medicine.
Be sure to keep taking medicines as instructed by your doctor, because stopping treatment will often bring symptoms back.
For more information, see:
What To Think About
- Doctors usually try to choose a treatment that uses enough medicine to control your symptoms but not so much that side effects become a serious problem.
- Besides medicines, surgery is the only other effective option to prevent GERD symptoms from coming back.
- Up to 80% of pregnant women have symptoms of GERD during pregnancy.1 If lifestyle changes and antacids don't help control your symptoms, talk to your doctor about using other medicines.
| By: | Healthwise Staff | Last Revised: May 11, 2011 |
| Medical Review: | Kathleen Romito, MD - Family Medicine Peter J. Kahrilas, MD - Gastroenterology | |
© 1995-2011 Healthwise, Incorporated. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated. This information does not replace the advice of a doctor. Healthwise, Incorporated disclaims any warranty or liability for your use of this information. Your use of this information means that you agree to the Terms of Use. How this information was developed to help you make better health decisions.
Welcome to Care Circle, an exclusive tool to help you take care of yourself and your loved ones. Here's how it works:
- Create profiles for yourself and your loved ones.
- Select the topics and conditions that interest each of you.
- Get customized news updates, original content, tools, and expert advice for each Care Circle member delivered directly to your personalized homepage.
The information you input is strictly private; you choose who has access to your Care Circle.
How do I add myself or someone else to my care circle?
Click on "Add someone." Fill out the short profile. Choose an avatar. Select the topics and conditions that interest this person from the pulldown menu. You can select as many as you want, but you must choose at least one. Click on "Add Someone" again. You should start getting updates immediately.
How do I save content to my Care Circle?
Click on "Manage My Care Circle." Select the tab of the person for whom you're saving content. Put your cursor over the piece of content that you want to save; a disk icon will appear in the righthand corner. Click on the disk and the piece of content will be moved to a save folder.
How do I add additional topics and conditions for someone in my Care Circle?
Click on "Manage My Care Circle." Select the tab for the person whose preferences you'd like to update. Under "Add More to Follow," select additional topics and conditions.
How do I delete topics and conditions for someone in my Care Circle?
Click on "Manage My Care Circle." Select the tab for the person whose preferences you'd like to update. Under "Follows," scroll over the topic or condition you want to delete. An "X" should appear on the righthand side. Click on the "X" and the topic or condition will be deleted from the list.
To manage your Care Circle, Please
Sign In.
from
- 9 nastiest things in your supermarket
- Facebook is now fueling organ donations
- Military women and suicide: Home safe but not sound
- Still in gear: Injuries don’t stop veterans on 100-day bike trek
- Ask Jenna: I've hit a weight loss plateau. What do I do?
- He poses in a tutu to laugh in face of wife's cancer
The iVillage Network