Although acid-suppressive drugs claim to be excellent in the treatment of heartburn and reflux disease, they have also revealed significant drawbacks. It seems that medications taken to reduce stomach acid could actually increase the risk of developing pneumonia.
Such acid-suppressive medications include:
In order to discover if a link exists between the use of acid-suppressive drugs and the occurrence of community-acquired pneumonia, researchers analyzed the pneumonia rates of two groups: those who used the drugs and those who didn't.
The analysis involved 364,683 subjects and 5,551 first occurrences of pneumonia. Researchers found:
The incidence rate of pneumonia in those who took acid-suppressive drugs was 2.45 out of every 100 people a year. This was compared to 0.6 among those who didn't take acid-suppressive drugs.
The risk of pneumonia was 89 percent higher for those using proton pump inhibitors and 63 percent higher for those using H2-receptor antagonists. This was compared to past users of these agents.
Patients with an increased risk for infection were also in a higher risk bracket for contracting pneumonia.
Also, within medical records of some 500,000 patients, researchers found that those using acid-suppressive drugs to treat heartburn and indigestion were four times more likely to have pneumonia than nonusers.
Researchers concluded that using acid-suppressive drugs is associated with the increased risk of community-acquired pneumonia. Further, current use of these drugs doubles the risk of pneumonia.
Journal of American Medical Association October 27, 2004;292(16)
Acid-suppressive drugs are clearly ineffective at what they do. As you learned from the above article, they don't solve the problem, but worsen it.
When you are using the wrong solution for a problem, you are bound to have complications. Drugs are rarely, if ever, indicated for the common ulcer and associated stomach problems. The proton pump inhibitors like Prevacid and Prilosec and the H2 blocker agents like Tagament, Pepcid and Zantac are some of the worst drugs that you could possible take.
They significantly reduce the amount of acid you have, inhibiting your ability to properly digest food. Reduction of acid in the stomach also diminishes your primary defense mechanism for food borne infections and will increase your risk of food poisoning.
Unfortunately, many people are being prescribed drugs for heartburn when it is one of the easiest medical problems to treat. Most people ignore that heartburn is an important clue from their body and rely on a drug to suppress the symptoms.
This is the equivalent of driving your car and ignoring the engine light that comes on that warns you of a problem. Using a Band-Aid like Prevacid to cover the light allows you to ignore the problem and, although it may solve the problem in the short-term, the implications for ignoring this important clue are quite obvious.
Since drugs are obviously not the answer of choice, you may ask what is. Well, for starters:
Learn your nutritional type and follow a solid eating plan tailored to your specific type. If you don't know your type, please take our free on-line test.
Drink up to one gallon of pure water every day combined with high doses of a good quality probiotic.
Eliminate sugars and grains.
Use one to two cloves of fresh, raw garlic per day.
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