People are oppressed by the need to regularly take pills and therefore the idea of taking medicine not every day, but on demand, is almost always greeted with jubilation.
On demand - this means that if something bothers you, then they take medicine. And if it doesn't bother, then they don't accept it.
In the case of heartburn, omeprazole and similar proton pump blockers are not prescribed immediately. The use of these drugs is constant, and proton pump blockers are considered new drugs that have serious side effects. So even before it comes to omeprazole, a patient with heartburn will be treated with good old histamine receptor blockers like famotidine or ranitidine. These old people are considered relatively harmless and nothing terrible is expected of them.
In general, famotidine or ranitidine are more suitable for on-demand use. They do not last long. They will stop in a few hours. Yes, they are not very powerful, and may not help, but on the other hand, they do not stay in our body.
The ideal on-demand treatment for heartburn is an antacid that is almost non-absorbable and instantly neutralizes the acid. Such a thing generally lasts for about 30 minutes. If a person is worried about heartburn less than once a week, then he may well limit himself to an antacid on demand.
Now omeprazole
It will work in an amicable way only in a day. This is partly due to the fact that stomach acid is at war with him, and omeprazole it takes a day to choke off some of the acid. But all the same, it will work on the first day too.
In this sense, rabeprazole is more beneficial, which differs from other proton pump blockers in that it begins to act faster. Personally, I got the impression that rabeprazole works even when taken incorrectly. That is, you need to take proton pump blockers 30 minutes before breakfast. But rabeprazole seems to work even if taken incorrectly. Just what you need for on-demand use.
In fact, there are no official recommendations on this matter. That is, formally taking proton pump blockers on demand is not included in the treatment plan for gastroesophageal reflux disease. Therefore, no one will tell you how best to take these drugs. But there is an opinion, which is voiced in separate scientific studies, that if a person is satisfied with everything, and he does not have ulcers in the esophagus, then you can be allowed to swallow these pills at will. Adjusted for the fact that if he gets sick, he will be to blame.
Have you tried on-demand proton pump blockers?