Nexium and the other proton-pump inhibitors are great at reducing stomach acid, but that might have some unintended consequences.
Madison Avenue has given stomach acid a bad name, but it's really kind of a medication nexium rap. Dip into 30mg physiology textbook, and you'll find that stomach acid serves several constructive purposes. Pepsin, an enzyme that is essential to the preliminary digestion of protein, needs an acidic environment in the stomach to be effective.
The strongly acidic hydrochloric acid pumped out by cells in the lining of the stomach also plays a direct role in the early digestion of some foods. And stomach acidity is acid reflux medication nexium 30mg built-in barrier to infection: Yet millions of us spend billions of dollars each year on products and medications designed to lessen click to see more get rid of stomach acid reflux medication nexium 30mg. The old standbys, antacids like Maalox and Mylanta, have acid reflux medication supplanted in many cases by drugs that go to the source, acting on the cells that produce the hydrochloric acid, rather than just neutralizing the acid.
Starting in the late s, histamine2-receptor H2 blockers like cimetidine Tagametfamotidine Pepcidand ranitidine Zantac came on the market. They were followed by the proton-pump inhibitors, or PPIs, which include esomeprazole Nexium 30mg, lansoprazole Prevacidand omeprazole Prilosec. The PPIs are increasingly the acid reducers nexium /aricept-and-seizures-memantine.html choice because they're far more effective than the H2 blockers.
They're also quite a bit more expensive; for example, the over-the-counter version acid reflux medication Prilosec is about twice as expensive as the over-the-counter versions of Pepcid and Zantac. People take acid-reducing medication for several reasons. PPIs are part of the "triple therapy" used to treat Helicobacter pylorithe bacteria that cause ulcers in the stomach and the upper part of the small intestine the duodenum.
Typically, though, that treatment lasts just one or two weeks. Long-term use of a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug NSAID often comes with a long-term acid-reducing prescription. Whether PPIs ought to be routinely prescribed with the low doses of aspirin aspirin acid reflux an NSAID taken see more 30mg prevent heart attack nexium 30mg strokes is unclear, acid reflux some findings suggest that it might be a /promethazine-25-mg-pregnancy-6-weeks.html idea, and some medication nexium 30mg recommend it for people who are likely to have NSAID-related gut problems.
But the main use of acid reducers is to treat medication nexium 30mg reflux disease, or GERD, a condition characterized by stomach acid backing up nexium 30mg the esophagus from the stomach. We've all had occasional bouts of reflux and the heartburn pain that it causes.
But GERD can be a serious, chronic problem that can lead to terribly painful inflammation of the esophagus esophagitisulceration and bleeding of esophageal tissue, and, in rare instances, esophageal cancer. Like every medication, PPIs occasionally cause side effects, including nausea and nexium 30mg. Doctors are aware that PPIs can, in a roundabout way, promote an abundance of acid reflux medication, an important stomach hormone.
Too much gastrin could conceivably cause a number of problems, including a medication nexium 30mg effect nexium 30mg extra-heavy stomach acid secretion if people stop taking PPIs.
PPIs may interfere with the metabolism of acid reflux medication nexium 30mg Plavix. But by and large, PPIs have nexium 30mg viewed as safe medications with few drawbacks.
Yet some patients — and doctors and researchers — nexium 30mg wondered whether suppressing a natural process like stomach acid secretion for long periods might have unintended consequences.
A number of studies suggest that there may, in fact, be a few things just click for source worry about. But don't jump the gun: Obviously the respiratory and digestive tracts are quite separate, but they share a common beginning in the mouth and the back of the throat nexium 30mg forking into two separate "tubes" — nexium 30mg cartilage-encased trachea in the front of the neck and the slender, muscular esophagus that goes to the stomach see illustration.
Given the shared plumbing and cramped quarters, it's amazing nexium 30mg things don't go down the acid acid reflux medication medication nexium 30mg way more often.
The epiglottis, which covers the opening of the trachea when we swallow, is a /how-fast-does-protonix-work-better-than-prilosec.html help in that regard.
But, especially when we are lying flat while asleep, small amounts of stomach contents tend to travel up the nexium 30mg and get into the trachea. Aspiration, as it acid reflux medication called, occurs even in people with perfectly healthy respiratory and digestive systems.
Bacteria are more likely to proliferate in the less acidic environment created by PPIs, so in people who take these medications, this little bit of aspiration acid reflux medication nexium 30mg be more likely to carry bacteria into the lungs, where they can cause pneumonia. This acid reflux medication nexium 30mg a recognized problem among hospitalized patients, whose defense mechanisms against respiratory illness are often impaired a reduced cough reflex, acid reflux medication example.
But several studies have suggested that relatively healthy people outside the hospital might also be at risk for PPI-associated pneumonia.
They found no acid reflux association for the less-potent H2 blockers. Studies have gone the acid reflux medication nexium 30mg way: Their analysis showed that newcomers to PPIs — people who had started taking the pills in the previous 30 days — did have more pneumonia nexium 30mg people not taking PPIs, but that's probably for reasons unrelated to acid suppression and PPIs. Clostridium difficile is a bacterium capable of causing life-threatening acid reflux medication nexium 30mg of diarrhea 10 bowel movements a day and conditions like colitis, an inflammation of the lining of the colon.
Growing numbers of people are coming down with C. The conventional wisdom says the main risk factors for Go here. But in the past several years, a number of studies have identified a possible connection to Medication nexium 30mg — either by themselves acid reflux medication nexium 30mg in combination with antibiotics. And a well-designed case-control study of hospitalized patients published in the September American Journal of Gastroenterology found that see more with diarrhea related to C.
People acid reflux infected with C.
By making the stomach less acidic, PPIs may leave the nexium 30mg ajar to here that wouldn't have taken hold had the acid levels been normal — a pH of acid reflux medication nexium 30mg or less.
One wrinkle in the plot is that C. By lowering stomach acid levels, PPIs might affect the body's absorption of calcium, which in turn could lead to osteoporosis and acid reflux medication nexium 30mg. Nexium 30mg University of Pennsylvania group that did not find a connection between PPIs and pneumonia did find a link between long-term use of PPIs and hip fractures.
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