XEROSTOMIA - Dry Mouth

Who would have thought that you could say Dry Mouth in a really complicated, obscure way by using the word xerostomia - try using that in scrable and see everyone object.

The January 2010 edition of Mayo Clinic Health Letter had advice for people like me who take omeprazole to stop acid reflux which was not that welcome. When one stops taking omeprazole (or the alternatives like Nexium; Prevacid; Prilosec; Protonix; Aciphex) the stomach plays a good trick - it now produces even more acid than before.
I've been trying to gradually taper off Omeprazole and what Mayo tells me is "I'm wasting my time." Tapering doesn't reduce the impact of coming off Omeprazole - sad! I'm now down to taking Omeprazole on Sunday and Wednesday. I have been feeling acid reflux more but how long will it last ?

My interest in xerostomia is because I often wake up in the middle of the night, and the morning, with a very dry mouth. It turns out that this can be bad for teeth enamel because saliva neutralizes acid (coming up from the stomach) that could dissolves tooth enamel and the saliva also stops bacteria that can grow on the teeth surface and also dissolve tooth enamel.

Making sure that tooth enamel does not get wrecked due to easing back on Omeprazole involves getting enough fluoride. Luckily I don't drink much bottled water - I can drink tap water without any trouble. If you do drink a lot of bottled water you might be low on fluoride. Then again if you drink all of your water filtered then that can be a problem; filtration takes fluoride out of the water.

It's never easy.

Cancer Safety Fears Of Most Common Heartburn Treatment Rejected By Major Clinical Study

Cancer Safety Fears Of Most Common Heartburn Treatment Rejected By Major Clinical Study

I'm taking Omeprazole - a proton pump inhibitor to try and avoid the threat of esophagus cancer due to repeated flooding with stomach acid. This study confirms that the medicine does not itself cause cancer. One kind of thought this must be true but good to have a serious 2 year study make sure.

Of course my alternative healthcare provider say that it's all non-sense. The stomach needs to have a lot of acid and if the acid producing cells in the stomach lining are prevented from working then bacteria accumulate in the stomach and produce even stronger acid.

I kind of doubt this but there is always someone with a different point of view.