Posted on 12/21/2010 11:08:09 AM PST by LucyT
Acid-reflux suppressing drugs may modestly boost the risk of both community- and hospital-acquired pneumonia, according to a meta-analysis.
Proton pump inhibitor (PPI) use predicted a 27% elevated risk of pneumonia overall (95% confidence interval 1.11 to 1.46), Chun-Sick Eom, MD, MPH, of Seoul National University Hospital in Seoul, South Korea, and colleagues found.
(Excerpt) Read more at medpagetoday.com ...
bttt
You might find this of interest, given our exchange over the carbonate effect of too many soda dopes.
“Longer duration of acid-suppressive therapy before the date of pneumonia diagnosis weakened the associations, with the most striking risk in the first week of use and no significant links for use lasting more than six months prior to pneumonia diagnosis.
“These findings might reflect tolerance,” Eom’s group suggested in CMAJ, noting that administration of H2 blockers generates tolerance marked by a decline in acid suppression, generally within two weeks.
Another explanation may be that those most susceptible to pneumonia get it early after starting on acid-suppressive drugs.
“That is, patients who remain on the drug are those who can tolerate it, whereas those who are susceptible select themselves out of the population at risk,” they added in the paper.”
I take these. So, if you’re going to get pneumonia from these drugs it’s likely to happen within the first week and decrease in liklihood after that.
Sounds like an individual thing and not an overall problem that you’d have to worry about if you’ve been taking them for more than two weeks.
unless, like me, you only take them on an as-needed basis. I may go several weeks between doses.
A little baking soda in a glass of water works good.
I think, from reading the article, that the risk is very low. And if you only need it intermittantly then you wouldn’t be on the medication for the week it specifies that will increase the risk.
That's a pretty low RR - anything under a 2 is usually just noise.
Hmmmmm ... could it be that the earliest signs of pneumonia in certain individuals is misdiagnosed as acid-reflux? or perhaps those with untreated acid reflux mask the critical warning signs of pneumonia in a subset of the population? or maybe the refluxing acid somehow is keeping the pneumonia in check and once the reflux is diminished, the pneumonia takes hold? I'd want to rule those things out first before blaming the PPI drugs for "causing" pneumonia which is the sense I get from the title.
Well, we'll hear the "bad drug" commercials in no time at all. Isn't that the last step in the pharmaceutical life cycle now?
I always chuckle when I hear that. Might work for a mild case. In my case, it sort of works for 40-45 seconds. Then back to searing pain. That's why a reflux patient like me has to be on PPIs 100% of the time.
I am worried much more about the long-term CA absorption problems with PPIs. But there’s nothing I can do about it other than to increase easily-absorbed calcium supplements.
Papaya enzyme works wonders. Just pop three of them in your mouth and chew them. Problem solved.
Same response as in #10 except that wouldn’t work at all.
You people have no idea what severe acid reflux is.
If untreated, would chew through the esophagus in a few days.
Esophageal cancer would follow.
You can easliy get them over the counter/on the shelf. Ah oh, gov’t control!
Steve86 is right. This type of ‘heartburn’ is like someone’s pouring straight acid onto the base of your throat. Which, it really is acid, so... the little remedies don’t work at all.
Thanks for the heads-up!
People often have no idea what a major clinical manifestation of a disorder is compared to a mild, everyday one. It is understandable. I can’t blame them if they’ve have no experience with a severe case.
It is sort of like on psychiatric-type threads when people are talking about major depression. Someone will say “Get up at sunrise, take a brisk walk in the cool fresh air. Works every time for me”. Yeah, right. Just be sure not to let the patient walk near any low branches where he could hang himself with his belt.
Eliminate sugar.
You still don’t get it.
About five times over the last few years, I have woken up with my throat closed off and unable to breathe. Jumping up, I force my self to breathe and have a severe burning in my throat (bile) that I knew cannot go away on its own.
Is it like that? (I don't know)
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