A story about treatment for a manager of two medical centers

Carmen R. is a manager of two medical centers in LA area. She came to my clinic for stomach problem on May 2. She told me that started from October last year, she felt spasm and burning on her middle chest. Her doctor diagnosed the problem as gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and gastritis and prescribed protonix for her. She felt little better by taking this drug at the beginning, but the symptom gradually getting worse. She felt pain below the ribs and severe burning when hungry and after eating. She could only eat little each time, otherwise the burning became very severe. She had to eat more times for this reason. Her doctor told her that she should not drink milk and eat apple and many other staffs. The only meat the doctor suggested her was chicken. She had been sick of the only few kinds of foods she could eat every day.

Because of the insufficient nutrient and poor absorption in addition to the suffering, she felt very tired and desperate. She was under depression. She was not sure whether the severe symptoms were caused by the medicine she was taking. She kept asking me with worry: “Can you help me, doctor?”   

I suggested her get both acupuncture and herbal formula for the best result. But she wanted to try herbs first. I prescribed scientific herbal extract for her. After taking about ten days, she felt better and had more energy. I prescribed her more herbs for another 15 days. I showed her the list of the possible protonix side effects from the website and suggested her try to gradually drop down protonix because it failed to help her anyway.

When she came back on June 15, she told me that she had stopped taking protonix for 9 days and the symptoms had been improved about 50%, but still felt burning especially when the stomach was empty. I modified the formula and let her take for another 15 days.

She came back on July 18 and told me that she felt much better. I could tell that she was so happy and no more depression. When I asked her to give me a number from 0 to 10 to let me know the percentage of the symptoms improvement. She told me if the severity was 10 before the treatment, it became to 3 now.

She told me that she had suspected that the medicine (protonix) made the symptoms became worse. She said that when she saw patients in the clinics she worked for, she just wanted to tell them don't take these drugs, but she could not do that because of her work.