Heartburn Drugs Pricey
May 18th, 2010 | 
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A post by Blanche Scharf http://www.yourhealthupdates.com I have been studying natural healing modalities for the last 25 years. In that time I have had the privilege of working with some of the greatest minds in Natural Healing including Naturopaths, Scientists, and Energy Healers. I have seen people miraculously heal from all kinds of dis-ease thru non-invasive methods. Personally, I have experienced all kinds of diets from Macrobiotics to Raw Foods. Now is a very important time to start sharing this health information with as many people as possible, so people can make well informed decisions about their health and not fall victim to a sickcare system based on profit, rather than one of supporting wholeness, compassion and love To see more posts by Blanche Scharf, click here |
Heartburn drugs are pricey. An advertising blitz for the purple pill made it become the number 2 best selling prescription in the U.S. with sales of 6.3 billion last year. The pill is Nexium and its close cousin Prilosec has billions in sales also.
The Real Price
The real price is in the harm that these drugs cause. This is a category of heartburn drugs, called proton pump inhibitors. A series of new studies published in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that daily use of these suppress the production of stomach acid, increases the risk of infection with an intestinal bacterium. The hard to treat bacterium causes severe diarrhea and other medical problems, and can be life threatening if not properly treated.
The second problem with the drugs is that it increases the risk of fractures in postmenopausal women. Previous studies also showed an increase in the likelihood of contracting pneumonia.
The Unnecessary Use
The unnecessary use of heartburn drugs is where the real price comes apparent. “About 60 to 70 percent of people taking these drugs have mild heartburn and shouldn’t be on them,” says Mitchell Katz, director of the San Francisco Department of Public Health who wrote an editorial that accompanied the new studies. “It’s not just a question of unnecessary costs, but unnecessary side effects.”
Where proton pump inhibitors do help, Mitchell Katz said is for the treatment of bleeding ulcers, infection with the ulcer-causing bacteria Helicobacter pylori, or management of a rare condition called Zollinger-Ellison syndrome, which causes the stomach to produce excess acid. It also may be warranted in cases of severe reflux, where an endoscopy reveals damage to the esophagus.
“Harm will result if these commonly used medications are prescribed for conditions for which there is no benefit, such as non-ulcer dyspepsia [heartburn],” Dr. Deborah Grady and Dr. Rita F. Redberg of UC San Francisco said in another editorial.
Managing Heartburn
Managing heartburn is easy; it just takes a willingness to make some changes. “There’s no question that these drugs will relieve indigestion and reflux,” says Katz, “but, beyond symptom relief, there’s no long-term benefit to taking them, while there are some long-term risks.” There is a 74 percent increase in risk of infection with harmful intestinal bacteria and a 25 percent increase in the risk of fractures in postmenopausal women.
The ads are costly to the audience, because they become convinced that relief is in a pill. There are many ways to manage heartburn. Understanding the problem is the first step to managing it.
Drugs Wrong Treatment
“A staggering 113.4 million prescriptions for proton pump inhibitors are filled each year, making this class of drugs, at $13.9 billion in sales, the third highest seller in the United States,” writes Mitchell H. Katz, M.D. of the San Francisco Department of Health. These medications treat inflammation of the esophagus, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), ulcers, and some other conditions. Evidence suggests that between 53 percent and 69 percent of proton pump inhibitor prescriptions are for inappropriate indications, he notes.
There is a misconception that too much stomach acid is the cause of heartburn. The acid is what breaks down and digests our food. Stomach acid declines with age. Younger people have lots of stomach acid. Yet, they hardly ever complain of heartburn. The reason is they usually do not have heartburn.
Older people that have heartburn often have low levels of acid. The medication to eliminate the little acid left makes no sense.
Here are ways to optimize digestion, because that is part of the problem.
Drinking a glass or two of water before each meal can provide enough liquid to help absorption of nutrients from the meal.
Eating vegetables marinated in vinegar as an appetizer can help increase the acidity of the stomach.
Chewing food well makes for smaller pieces and mixes the food with your saliva that is filled with digestive enzymes.
Get tested before downing antacids, they may be the wrong solution.
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