I am not a medical pede, but as someone who has suffered from severe GERD for my entire life, and has had surgery to treat symptoms, and spent more than 20 years on PPIs before learning the truth and weaning myself off of them, I can tell you that choosing to take them is the worst possible decision you can ever make.

The problem with reflux is that the LES (Lower Esophageal Sphincter), the ring of muscle at the bottom of your esophagus that opens to let food into the stomach, and closes to prevent the stomach contents from flowing back up into the esophagus, is not functioning properly. For decades, nobody understood what made the LES open and close; but now they do. The sphincter opens and closes based on the acidity of the stomach. If your stomach has a pH level of 2.0-2.5 or lower (EXTREMELY acidic), then the sphincter will close. If the pH level in your stomach is higher than that, the sphincter will open. This means that by neutralizing all the acid with constant antacids, or worse, preventing the stomach from producing enough acid in the first place (this is what PPIs are designed to do), you are actually causing the LES to remain open all the time, which allows acid and food to back up into the esophagus. It also prevents you from digesting your food properly because you don't have enough acid in your stomach to do the job properly.

As for the PPIs themselves, the FDA released a major warning a few years ago that says you SHOULD NOT take PPIs for more than 3 consecutive weeks, and no more than 5 weeks out of each calendar year. This is because long term use is addictive, and dangerous to your health. They can cause damage to your vagus nerve (possibly the most important major nerve in your body, it controls the entire digestive system as well as several other important functions), and it can cause many other kinds of PERMANENT damage to your body. I dodged a bullet because I took them for over 20 years and was lucky enough to not have any permanent damage.

Once I found out about all the dangers, I quickly weaned myself off of them and have refused to ever again take them again. Since that time, my reflux problems have improved quite a bit. Weaning yourself off of them can be very difficult for some people since you can experience severe rebound effects when you do. Don't start taking them in the first place. Also, keep in mind that most of the OTC acid blockers are PPIs, just at lower non-prescription doses. Stay the hell away from them at all costs. They are nothing more than massive money streams for doctors and for big pharma, just like statin drugs are (which are just as dangerous long term and just as worthless and pointless).