famotidine

Imagine your stomach as a busy kitchen that uses acid to help break down food. Sometimes that kitchen makes too much acid, and the extra acid can rise up and cause heartburn or irritate the stomach and upper intestine. Famotidine is a medicine that tells the kitchen to turn the heat down. It lowers the amount of acid your stomach makes, which can ease heartburn, acid indigestion, and reflux, and it can also help ulcers heal. People often use it for GERD, sour stomach, or ulcers.

Famotidine belongs to a group of medicines called histamine H2-receptor antagonists, or H2 blockers. In simple terms, it lowers the amount of acid the stomach makes. Stomach acid is useful for digestion, but too much of it can lead to heartburn, acid reflux, or sores in the stomach or upper part of the small intestine.

It works by blocking histamine signals at H2 receptors in the stomach lining. When those signals are blocked, the stomach produces less acid. Because of that, famotidine is used to treat or prevent heartburn, acid indigestion, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), and ulcers. It may also be prescribed for conditions in which the stomach makes too much acid, such as Zollinger-Ellison syndrome.

You can find famotidine over the counter for occasional heartburn, and doctors can also prescribe it for longer-lasting or more serious acid-related problems. In everyday use, people usually think of it as a medicine that calms an overactive, acid-making stomach. It does not remove the cause of every stomach problem, but it can bring relief and give irritated tissue time to heal.