Anyone had a hiatus hernia?

[Ross Smith]

The problem I have is the op doesn't get you off the pills

The medication is very good if you are prepared to take it for the rest if your life

 

 

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[Woodworks]

Any diet advice for lessening the effect of a hiatus hernia?

 

It's been a lot worse lately and work is proving difficult so looking for natural ways to improve things.

[tcar]

I've had one for 18 years , never been offered any operation , just on omeprazol . Fine as long as I don't forget to take them !!

 

Same here, as long as I take the omeprazol no problems.

 

I believe weight, smoking, drink and spicy food can aggregate it, but I don,t think it ever clears up by itself.

[MLS]

My mum had that for years then health deteriorated in her thirties/forties so she had to have surgery she's in her eighties now so it worked. As I remember prior to op tried to eat little and often to reduce excess acid problems and avoided any foods which seemed to aggravate the symptoms, it was the excess acid and the medication not working which meant she had to have the op. As tcar said hernias don't cure themselves.

[bolthole]

Any diet advice for lessening the effect of a hiatus hernia?

 

It's been a lot worse lately and work is proving difficult so looking for natural ways to improve things.

 

Mate... the truth is, the fun's over.

 

I've had one for a good while now - it's not good. Am on the PPI drugs. Had an endoscopy done too. Consulant knocked me back for surgery after we'd had the 'lifestyle' discussion.

 

What works for me is;

 

Stay off wheat (Bread, pasta, etc) and all those 'white' carbs, Coffee only in the morning, likewise tea, no alcohol, keep the fatty food to a minimum. Pizza is the worst thing for me... coffee apparently relaxes the muscle tone of the sphincter at your top of your stomach, according to the Mrs (she's a doctor).

 

Portion control. Eat bigger in the morning and tail off so that dinner is early and light. Go large on veg and fruit throughout the day. Stay away from processed protein. Stay off the cake and biscuits. Likewise anything sugary. Pastry is also one of the worst triggers. Keep hydrated, but mix fruit juice with water 50/50 or less. Spicey food is bad too.

 

I used to sleep with the bed propped up by about 6 inches at the head end - it helped.

 

Sleep on your left side as the shape of your stomach means it's harder for it's content to spill up your asophagus this way.

 

When I'm at home in UK and all my temptations are available, I get it bad and maybe once a week am woken by inhaling my own vomit. Nice.

 

For most of the year I'm away (I contract for the military) and so my meals are regular, and I can mostly eat a really good salad with some high quality protein for lunch and dinner. I don't eat pudding, unless it's fruit. I can't eat late and there's no booze or crisps in the cupboard, or large amounts of readily available cheese to trough-down in front of the TV, like at home.

 

Once a week I do pizza and ice-cream...

 

Also, I'm in Afghan, so the two places I've worked in over the last few years (Camp Bastion and Kabul) have been at 3 - 6000'+ altitude. Not sure if this is relevent, but the severity of my condition is like night and day compairing being away to being at home.

 

Take your pills at dinnertime - as others have said, the long term problem with this is Barrets asophagus, which leads to asophageal cancer. If you do your med's at dinner time, or a couple of hours before bed, you can be sure that you're not producing stomach acid at that worst time of day, when you're laying down for up to eight hours. Actually, that reminds me... better take mine now...

 

To summarise, you can control the GERD (reflux) by eating really healthily and eating early. You can mostly manage the indigestion if you do the same, but not always. The surgery can put you out of action for a while depending on which way it's done. 6 - 10 weeks, especially for a job like Arb which is very physical.

 

To me, it feels like my body is trying to tell me to stop taking the pee, which in my mid 40's, eating like I did in my 20s, I was. It's forced me to change my bad dietary habits. The minute I cram down a pie, or smash in some cake, I know there's trouble ahead...

 

The good thing is, it's forcing me to eat healthily. And that's money in the bank! It's all about willpower - best of luck

[Woodworks]

Mate... the truth is, the fun's over.

 

I've had one for a good while now - it's not good. Am on the PPI drugs. Had an endoscopy done too. Consulant knocked me back for surgery after we'd had the 'lifestyle' discussion.

 

What works for me is;

 

Stay off wheat (Bread, pasta, etc) and all those 'white' carbs, Coffee only in the morning, likewise tea, no alcohol, keep the fatty food to a minimum. Pizza is the worst thing for me... coffee apparently relaxes the muscle tone of the sphincter at your top of your stomach, according to the Mrs (she's a doctor).

 

Portion control. Eat bigger in the morning and tail off so that dinner is early and light. Go large on veg and fruit throughout the day. Stay away from processed protein. Stay off the cake and biscuits. Likewise anything sugary. Pastry is also one of the worst triggers. Keep hydrated, but mix fruit juice with water 50/50 or less. Spicey food is bad too.

 

I used to sleep with the bed propped up by about 6 inches at the head end - it helped.

 

Sleep on your left side as the shape of your stomach means it's harder for it's content to spill up your asophagus this way.

 

When I'm at home in UK and all my temptations are available, I get it bad and maybe once a week am woken by inhaling my own vomit. Nice.

 

For most of the year I'm away (I contract for the military) and so my meals are regular, and I can mostly eat a really good salad with some high quality protein for lunch and dinner. I don't eat pudding, unless it's fruit. I can't eat late and there's no booze or crisps in the cupboard, or large amounts of readily available cheese to trough-down in front of the TV, like at home.

 

Once a week I do pizza and ice-cream...

 

Also, I'm in Afghan, so the two places I've worked in over the last few years (Camp Bastion and Kabul) have been at 3 - 6000'+ altitude. Not sure if this is relevent, but the severity of my condition is like night and day compairing being away to being at home.

 

Take your pills at dinnertime - as others have said, the long term problem with this is Barrets asophagus, which leads to asophageal cancer. If you do your med's at dinner time, or a couple of hours before bed, you can be sure that you're not producing stomach acid at that worst time of day, when you're laying down for up to eight hours. Actually, that reminds me... better take mine now...

 

To summarise, you can control the GERD (reflux) by eating really healthily and eating early. You can mostly manage the indigestion if you do the same, but not always. The surgery can put you out of action for a while depending on which way it's done. 6 - 10 weeks, especially for a job like Arb which is very physical.

 

To me, it feels like my body is trying to tell me to stop taking the pee, which in my mid 40's, eating like I did in my 20s, I was. It's forced me to change my bad dietary habits. The minute I cram down a pie, or smash in some cake, I know there's trouble ahead...

 

The good thing is, it's forcing me to eat healthily. And that's money in the bank! It's all about willpower - best of luck

 

Great that's very helpful and backed up quite a lot of what I thought. Doing most of what suggest except the wheat which I only recently discovered could be an issue. Basically a paleo diet fits the bill. To date the Doc has told me none of this and it's just been advice from fellow sufferers like yourself that have been most helpful.

 

Can I ask what was about you lifestyle that made the consultant knock you back? Job, diet or other?

[bolthole]

Reading between the lines, his surgical list was full. The hospital (in Crewe) was absolutely rammed the day I went.

 

The consultant who did the endoscopy said there was possibly the beginnings of Barrets so she obviously thought I was worth referring.

 

The surgical consultant's main pont seemed to be the lifestyle thing; I'm a big lad, but maybe about 3 stone overweight. He said lose weight, eat healthily, exercise more... cut out the booze, the coffee, the fatty food... I was well pee'd off after the consultation, as I actually wanted the surgery, but he was right.

[Woodworks]

Reading between the lines, his surgical list was full. The hospital (in Crewe) was absolutely rammed the day I went.

 

The consultant who did the endoscopy said there was possibly the beginnings of Barrets so she obviously thought I was worth referring.

 

The surgical consultant's main pont seemed to be the lifestyle thing; I'm a big lad, but maybe about 3 stone overweight. He said lose weight, eat healthily, exercise more... cut out the booze, the coffee, the fatty food... I was well pee'd off after the consultation, as I actually wanted the surgery, but he was right.

 

Thanks for your honesty.

 

Was not too bothered before when I first started this thread and realised how bad it was for others so just been taking the pills when it flares up. Now it's pills all the time and still not controlling it so my look into the Op.

 

Hope you find a way of getting the surgery

[TimberCutterDartmoor]

Mate... the truth is, the fun's over.

 

I've had one for a good while now - it's not good. Am on the PPI drugs. Had an endoscopy done too. Consulant knocked me back for surgery after we'd had the 'lifestyle' discussion.

 

What works for me is;

 

Stay off wheat (Bread, pasta, etc) and all those 'white' carbs, Coffee only in the morning, likewise tea, no alcohol, keep the fatty food to a minimum. Pizza is the worst thing for me... coffee apparently relaxes the muscle tone of the sphincter at your top of your stomach, according to the Mrs (she's a doctor).

 

Portion control. Eat bigger in the morning and tail off so that dinner is early and light. Go large on veg and fruit throughout the day. Stay away from processed protein. Stay off the cake and biscuits. Likewise anything sugary. Pastry is also one of the worst triggers. Keep hydrated, but mix fruit juice with water 50/50 or less. Spicey food is bad too.

 

I used to sleep with the bed propped up by about 6 inches at the head end - it helped.

 

Sleep on your left side as the shape of your stomach means it's harder for it's content to spill up your asophagus this way.

 

When I'm at home in UK and all my temptations are available, I get it bad and maybe once a week am woken by inhaling my own vomit. Nice.

 

For most of the year I'm away (I contract for the military) and so my meals are regular, and I can mostly eat a really good salad with some high quality protein for lunch and dinner. I don't eat pudding, unless it's fruit. I can't eat late and there's no booze or crisps in the cupboard, or large amounts of readily available cheese to trough-down in front of the TV, like at home.

 

Once a week I do pizza and ice-cream...

 

Also, I'm in Afghan, so the two places I've worked in over the last few years (Camp Bastion and Kabul) have been at 3 - 6000'+ altitude. Not sure if this is relevent, but the severity of my condition is like night and day compairing being away to being at home.

 

Take your pills at dinnertime - as others have said, the long term problem with this is Barrets asophagus, which leads to asophageal cancer. If you do your med's at dinner time, or a couple of hours before bed, you can be sure that you're not producing stomach acid at that worst time of day, when you're laying down for up to eight hours. Actually, that reminds me... better take mine now...

 

To summarise, you can control the GERD (reflux) by eating really healthily and eating early. You can mostly manage the indigestion if you do the same, but not always. The surgery can put you out of action for a while depending on which way it's done. 6 - 10 weeks, especially for a job like Arb which is very physical.

 

To me, it feels like my body is trying to tell me to stop taking the pee, which in my mid 40's, eating like I did in my 20s, I was. It's forced me to change my bad dietary habits. The minute I cram down a pie, or smash in some cake, I know there's trouble ahead...

 

The good thing is, it's forcing me to eat healthily. And that's money in the bank! It's all about willpower - best of luck

 

Good post. Only thing I recall the surgeon saying to me is to "watch my abdominal pressure" i.e. bloating, weight etc.

[bolthole]

Thanks for your honesty.

 

Was not too bothered before when I first started this thread and realised how bad it was for others so just been taking the pills when it flares up. Now it's pills all the time and still not controlling it so my look into the Op.

 

Hope you find a way of getting the surgery

 

Thanks!

 

I don't blame the Doc's really - they see a lot of people with lifestyle induced conditions and they're bound to get a bit hacked off with it. The guy I saw wasn't exactly Mr Sympathy! The whole way our system of medicine has developed is in some ways to blame. We go to the Doc when we're ill and by and large everything's set up so that we go away with a pill is supposed to fix things.

 

The system's continued like this so that we're live in a world where we expect an expert to fix us with some neatly package pharacological magic, and so now everyone goes to the Doc when they feel bad. A lot of Doctors know this isn't good enough but there's no time or resources to help people properly.

 

Don't get me wrong, acute and trauma-related medicine is awesome, and lets face it, you don't really need a 'holistic' approach when you've come off your bike and shattered your pelvis, but the current system and our collective mindset as regards health has become something where people are largely allowed to co-opt responsibility for their wellbeing to someone else.

 

We aren't in control of a lot of factors that degrade our health, like our genetics and to some extent the cards life has dealt us, but the bit of it we can help, we should take responsibility for.

 

I'm probably going to keep going with the better diet, more exercise, less drinking thing and just get another endoscopy to keep an eye out for something more serious. The real problem for me has been the gluttony and drinking, a degree of inactivity and the stress of work.

 

This might make some of you laugh out loud, but this is why I like tree work because even when I'm completely exhausted and ache all over, it's better than the hollow fatigue I used to get when I was stuck behind my desk for 8 - 11 hours a day, seven days a week a couple of years ago.

 

Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox now.