Heart-burn cure may be worse than cause

The Seattle Times ^ | December 20, 2005 | Lindsey Tanner

[neverdem]

Associated Press

CHICAGO — Holiday revelers beware: Seasonal indulgences such as eggnog and fruitcake might give you heartburn, but the acid-fighting medicine you take for relief might lead to something worse, researchers say.

People on popular prescription drugs for treating acid reflux — Prilosec, Prevacid and Nexium — seem more prone to getting a potentially dangerous diarrhea caused by the bacterium Clostridium difficile, new research shows. C-diff, as it's known, can cause severe diarrhea and crampy intestinal inflammation called colitis.

Dr. Sandra Dial and colleagues at McGill University in Montreal examined data on more than 18,000 patients in the United Kingdom from 1994 to 2004. During that time, 1,672 cases of C-diff were diagnosed, and the numbers increased from less than 1 per 100,000 in 1994 to 22 per 100,000 last year.

Patients with prescriptions for powerful acid fighters called proton pump inhibitors, which include Prilosec and Prevacid, were almost three times more likely to be diagnosed with the bug than those not taking the drugs.

Those on less potent prescription drugs called H2 receptor antagonists, which include Pepcid and Zantac, were two times more likely than nonusers to get C-diff infections.

The widely used and heavily promoted drugs reduce levels of gastric acid that can keep C-diff at bay.

Dr. L. Clifford McDonald, a researcher at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said proton pump inhibitors recently were implicated in a C-diff outbreak in Maine.

"It's not surprising in my mind that there could be some association" with acid-fighting drugs, said McDonald.

Most study patients hadn't been recently hospitalized and weren't taking antibiotics, both risk factors for C-difficile infections. The study will appear in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.

A co-author is a consultant for AstraZeneca, which markets Prilosec and Nexium, and Altana Pharma, which makes and markets another prescription heartburn drug, Protonix, in Europe.

A spokesman for Wyeth, which markets Protonix in the United States, said the company hadn't seen the research and declined to comment.

AstraZeneca spokeswoman Cindy Callaghan said, "Further research is needed ... to determine the validity of a potential link."

Dr. Michael Brown, a gastroenterologist at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, who was not involved in the study, said short-term use of potent acid-fighting drugs is unlikely to increase infection risks in otherwise healthy people. But he said the study results suggest doctors and patients "have to think twice about using such heavy acid suppression" over the long term.

[wolfcreek]

Acid imbalance, try a tablespoon of red wine vineger.

[Salamander]

I wouldn't take it at gunpoint and hubby quit taking it last year.

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

You are very fortunate. I'm glad for you.

[oceanperch]

Key words there Tony is :After a few:

IMO

Try only half a donut.

When I went to nutrition education I did all this research and such before hand got on the ball. THe educator was impressed at my enthusiasm but said in reality when she teaches men she makes it simple cut everything you eat amount wise in half and that will decrease blood glucose and cholesteral along with that brisk walk daily or some such cardio size.

I am a woman by the way so I get wrapped up in knowing all the details on new projects don't understand keep it simple stupid works.

[Salamander]

"it did not dawn on my to have a screen name condusive to the forum ideology. "

LOL!
Oh yeah.
And "Salamander" just screams volumes of conservative ideology!....:))

I picked something I just *liked*, too.

I started my strange journey on the net with a WebTV back in 96 or 97. [can't recall...old age is sneakin' up on me]

Boy, you wanna talk about flaming and bloodletting...there's a place to be....LOL!

We have Atlantic perch and Yellow perch.

Tasty little critters....;D

[Salamander]

Revival's only sold online;

http://www.revivalsoy.com/index.html?flash6=yes

Hubby is Sicilian and didn't notice that his rotini was -soy- rotini.
If it can fool him, it's good.

I haven't tried the local market soy pastas yet.

[mainly because Revival sticks so many samples of various soy stuff in my shake shipments that I haven't needed to]..;)


Tofu is...uh..."difficult".

[blecch!]

[Salamander]

Thanks....:)

Our previous doctors were severely undermining hubby's health by their general indifference and slavery to prescribing the most "popular" pills.

They simply did not care about him on anything even remotely like a personal level.

That's why I believe it was divine intervention.

[Ditter]

I hear and understand your lament about gluten. I am allergic to corn. I spend most of my time reading labels. Corn is in almost everything as corn syrup, fructose, corn starch or corn oil. Even some of the new sweeteners are made from corn like Splenda. There are only 2 kinds of bread that does not contain corn, only a couple of cereals, add my other food allergies and there isn't much I can eat except meat and vegetables, but what else does a body need?

[oceanperch]

Did you eat a balanced diet back then?
I had bleeding ulcers years ago but I only ate once a day and very spicy food. Went high roughage and fish with some meat and ate at reg intervals.

Also I have had a high acid tummy since high school 25yrs ago due to that is how I reacted to stress. Also was a waif back then who rarely ate.

And yes there are exceptions to the rule. I used Pepcid ect when healing from ulcers but my stress reduction and eating habits also changed.

I don't do well in high social traffic scenes I am better off in the quiet of the countryside and I eliminated pain in the rear people who dragged me down with there non stop woes or complaints.

Being in college is a stressful time perhaps. Or perhaps your tummy just over excretes acid. What ever works for you is great.

I didn't have serious health problems until 40 when I changed and now at 45 I ate right but way to much and not enough cardio. I used to eat hot sauces, pickled food way to much.

So perhaps you may think about the diet and if nothing strikes you then it is not unheard of having a over acid producing tummy like some people have sweaty palm.

[oceanperch]

BTW Back in high school when I would get really ill from the excessive acid like heaving ill I was prescibed a pharmaceutical that was actually deadly nightshade as we did not have Nexium type drugs back then that I was aware of.

[oceanperch]

Heart attack or stroke perhaps.
The side effect of muscle weakness counts as your heart muscle too.

Another person we know in the medical field says don't take a drug that has been on the market less than 7yrs.

The side effects will show up in others if devastating withen that time as a guideline.

Makes you wonder about all the free trial tests companies offer when introducing new products.

[oceanperch]

That is a very scary feeling and you wonder how many people to intoxicated to wake up die that way.

[WKB]

Whenever someone says they have it in the chest I notice it is usually a smoker.



I love it when smokers cough for about an hour
and then blame it on sinus and allergies. :>)

[oceanperch]

:P
LOL The man is gifted.

The Best Gifts sometimes comes in odd/different/akward, or pick your on verbage, packaging. : )

[oceanperch]

The key here Mesabi is Tablespoon I use to drink the stuff by the half cup and now can only tolerate rice wine vinegar diluted with water on my greens. My over indulgence of the past drinking vinegar because I liked the taste.

[MamaTexan]

I have only been to a doctor once in 10 years because I feel I can take better care of myself without what they may push.

LOL!

Glad I'm not the only one. The last time I went to a doctor, he couldn't believe I was creeping up on 50 and not taking any kind of regular medication.

Guess he figured everybody nowadays is taking somethin'.

:)

[oceanperch]

ROFL.

[oceanperch]

Oh good Lord I just spell checked ROFL in my last post and I have to be up on the hiking trail in two hours better force the pretend to sleep mode.

thanks everybody I am feeling more like my regular high spirited self with a few laughs tonight got get out of the Glum mode.

[Banjoguy]

Why would you be eating doughnuts in the first instance? Your body is telling you to quit it and you are not listening.

[oceanperch]

You wrote "what else does a body need?"

---

Mine needs daily doggie smootches from the three Labs.