Im going in for a barium swallow in a few days, does anyone know am I supposed to contiune taking my medicine or stop it for a few days?

Depends on how the doctor ordered the test. I have heard of it being done both ways. Call your doctor or the place you are going for the test to find out what they want in your case.

There is no reason at all why you would have to stop medication for the barium swallow. It does not affect the test results at all in the least .

I would contact the office which is doing your testing. They will be able to provide you with this information.

Medication does effect a barium study. If you are on anti-reflux meds, you're not going to reflux as much as if you weren't.

Antii reflux meds do not stop reflux. They only take the acidity out of it.

The main purpuse of a barium swallow is not to detect reflux. That is NOT why a doctor orders it. It is used to detect structural things like esophageal ulcers , stomach ulcers, obstructions, some motility disorders , hiatal hernia etc..,.. but it cannot diagnose reflux conclusively. . There are false negatives, and false positives.

The false negatives are due to the fact that reflux is not constant. A person with GERD doesn't have reflux episodes every few seconds. They can be well spread out in a day.

And there are false positives---There are also people falsely diagnosed with GERD because everyone refluxes. A normal person without GERD can reflux up to 50 times a day. GERD is defined as anything more than 50 reflux episodes a day .... plus the acid takes longer to clear in those with GERD

Heres a paste from E Medicene

The primary use of an upper GI in suspected reflux is to evaluate anatomy and NOT detect reflux as sensitivity is limited in patients with known esophagitis and normal controls can have visualized reflux during the test.

I had the swallow done today, and the doctor detected a hiatal hernia (as well as reflux coming all the way up into my throat.Im not sure how bad the hernia is, but im assuming its not too bad because she told me to just stay away from acidic foods, dont lay down after eating etc. Anyway, I was wondering what the best way to go about healing the hernia. Anyone who knows or has had it and what you did. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!