Washington – Dr. Martin Bashir of Washington Hospital Center prescribes acid blocking pills for his patients with chronic heartburn.
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“It’s like more burning in my chest,” said Cindy, one of Bashir’s patients.
“It’s like a burning pressure?” he asked.
“Yes, pressure,” Cindy answered.
For patients with chronic acid reflux, acid blocking pills with well known names like Prilosec, Nexium and Prevacid work wonders. They’re part of a class of drugs called proton pump inhibitors, or “PPIs”.
“They solve their symptoms they make them feel good and they essentially want to stay on them forever because once they go off them acid reflux returns!” Dr. Bashir said.
But new research indicates what’s good for your stomach might, over time, be bad for your bones, Cordes reports.
Doctors studied more than 60,000 Canadians ages 50 and older.
They found people who took PPIs for 5 years were more than one-and-a-half times more likely to have hip fractures. Those who took the drugs for 7 years were four-and-a-half times more likely, which is of particular concern, because 30 percent of seniors who break a hip die within a year.
“There may be patients who have very mild symptoms of heartburn who while they get relief from these medications may find they get equally good relief with less aggressive medications,” said Dr. Laura Targownik.
PPIs work by blocking the stomach from producing hydrochloric acid. But that acid helps the body absorb calcium – a key ingredient in bone health. Researchers theorize that over time, the drugs’ acid-blocking effect could speed up bone loss.
“I get the pains in my bones, I can feel the bone pain,” patient Barbara Paul tells Dr. Bashir. “I think the first thing we need to do is stop the medicine altogether.
Bashir puts his patients on a “holiday” from PPIs once a year, especially if, like 57-year-old Paul, they have osteoporosis.
“It’s amazing that you’re trying to take care of one situation and you’re causing a problem in another area,” Paul said.
Not a shock!!
We need to go back to the traditional way of eating. Our Bubbies made lots of ferments (pickles, kefir, pickled fish etc) that gave lots of enzymes for a healthy gut.
Reflux is a disease of the modern day.
I take nexium and my doctor told me to start taking calcium and vitamin B too offset this. Let people know before alarming them.
GERD or reflux as it is commonly know is a disease of obesity & overweight, along with poor eating habits.
AN MD
How about alternative therapies?
You think in the time of Dovid Hamelech they had all this junk?
We live in a time where the minute someone gets a headache they pop a pill.
The minute someone gets a headache they pop a pill.
When someone takes a long flight what do people do they take a sleeping pill.
We are a bunch of legal drug addicts and no wonder why everyone has something.
And what surely does not help is the garbage that goes in our mouth. Can anyone cook anything decent these days? Restaurants are serving oily, fatty, spicy, uncooked garbage.
Pomegrante store is saying they will carry wholefoods this is why they WILL DO WELL.
Nobody in BRooklyn sells wholefood and organic foods.
WE must learn to eat healthy. Drink lots of water and stay away from caffinated drinks. Stay away from foods that contain loads of suagr and fat.
EAT HEALTHY AND FEEL GOOD!
While overweight is a risk factor for GERD, so is asthma. My wife, who has asthma and GERD, isn’t overweight and has healthy eating habits.
Fosamax, a common treatment for osteoporosis, is a risk factor for GERD.
If you believe that whole foods are any better than processed you are very mistaken. These days, unless you grow it yourself, your food is processed. Most whole products lie about their ingredients as have been proven by many research reports.
For those calling for alternative treatments, there is no case studies, like this one, that analyzes long term effects.
The bottom line is, today we are living longer than ever, and for most people that means a healthy long life, so I guess there’s something to say for our methods over your Bubba’s.
For all of you waxing about the olden days “Inderheim” , check out the average lifespan in those days and you will quickly change your mind.By the time most of us start taking ANY meds people “inderheim” were in inderheim no more they were in “Shomayim”
GERd/acid reflux does not affect only heavy folks. I know quite a few folks who are very slim/thin and are suffering as well.
I think alot has to do with stress and behavior.
to: Anonymous Says:
GERD or reflux as it is commonly know is a disease of obesity & overweight, along with poor eating habits.
AN MD
08-11-2008 – 11:12 PM
You probably got your License in a cracker jack box to make such a proposterus statment
The reason you get hip fractures or other bone related issues is because when you take PPI’s(proton pump inhibitors)ie. Nexium, Prilosec, Prevacid, Aciphex, Protonix, You actually cut off 99% of all acid production in the body.
The problem with that is that in order for calcium to be absorbed in the body it has dissolve in the gut in an acid environment. Unfortunately the lack of acid is the problem for patients taking PPI’s.
Alternativly You can take drugs such as Zantac or Pepcid that work via a different mechanism (H2 Blockers) and dont stop acid production as much as the PPI’s so that you can have some calcium absorbtion.