Indigestion Pills Killing 4% Of Users

[Julieanne]

Bryan Hubbard
June 17 2019

Indigestion pills, known as antacids or proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), are killing 4 per cent of people who regularly take them.
PPIs—which include Prilosec (omeprazole) and Prevacid (lansoprazole)—cause health problems such as circulation disorders and infectious and parasitic diseases that can eventually kill. PPIs are causing 45.20 'excess deaths' from every 1,000 people who take them, researchers estimate.

Earlier research has found that PPIs also cause cardiovascular disease, acute kidney injury, dementia, gastric cancer, C. difficile infections and osteoporosis.


Read more: https://www.wddty.com/news/2019/06/i...=1560857823808

[Islander]

And these are available OTC! Users don't understand that the problem is commonly too little acid, not too much. A little research on the mechanics of digestion would be informative.

[Julieanne]

Islander, I think only antacid tablets are available OTC - proton pump inhibitors have to be prescribed,

[Islander]

They are available in the U.S.

"The proton-pump inhibitors esomeprazole (Nexium 24HR), lansoprazole (Prevacid 24HR), and omeprazole (Prilosec OTC) are sold over-the-counter to treat frequent heartburn (two or more times per week) for 14 days. These types of medicines are also available as higher-strength prescriptions. Take them according to the directions on the package or as advised by your doctor."

https://www.webmd.com/heartburn-gerd...unter-medicine

[Julieanne]

I didn't know that. Thank heavens that doesn't apply to Oz. The article says 'more than 405,000 veterans were prescribed the drug for the first time, and more than 177,000 of these had been prescribed a 90-day supply'.

[Pattypans]

How many doctors who prescribe these meds keep the patients on them for longer than mentioned here (two weeks)? And how many have an inkling of the possible side effects? It's so important that doctors know these things. I suspect not many doctors seeing the problems on that list of side effects even imagine they might be attributed to a medication. Imagine--dementia! It seems to me that side effects of drugs (even OTCs) and of interactions of two or more drugs should be one of the first things to be seriously looked at in searching for the cause of a health problem. And yet so many doctors simply treat the symptoms, piling one more drug on top of whatever others the patient may be taking (maybe without even asking the patient about other meds). It's a complicated, tangled web they create when they do that.

[Islander]

Not only that, but how many OTC users observe the recommendation for the 2-week limit?

[Mr. Wizard]

I don't know a single PPI user who abides by the 2 weeks recommendation. One of my relatives brought the issue up with her doctor after I made her aware of the 2 week warning. She later told me her doc said it was OK for her to exceed the 2 weeks, as long as he continued to monitor her. Oh, really.....?

[Julieanne]

I was prescribed Nexium a few years ago for nausea and bloating. I read up on the side effects and decided not to take it. I did more research and came to the conclusion it was the erythritol I had been using for two or three years, around 1 1/2 tspns a day. I stopped it, and the symptoms went away immediately. I can now go back to using it occasionally with no problems.