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Health News Archive 154 - Heartburn
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Popular heartburn drugs linked to diarrhea and colitis

• Prilosec, Prevacid and Nexium may lead to intestinal distress, study finds.
• Artichoke Reduces Heartburn Naturally

Heartburn may be uncomfortable, but the acid-fighting medicine you take for relief might lead to something worse, researchers say.

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

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 infection 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 germs at bay.

C-diff bacteria historically have been found in patients on antibiotics or with underlying illnesses, especially those in hospitals or nursing homes, but infections increasingly have been reported in the community.

Doctors think the growing trend is due in part to overuse of antibiotics but the new data suggest overuse of acid-fighting drugs may be another reason, said Dr. Michael Brown, a gastroenterologist at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, who was not involved in the study.

Proton pump inhibitors include Prevacid and Prilosec and the H2 blocker agents include Tagament, Pepcid and Zantac. Along with increasing your risk of C-diff infection, 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.

Sandra Dial, MD, MSc; J. A. C. Delaney, MSc; Alan N. Barkun, MD, MSc; Samy Suissa, PhD. Use of Gastric Acid–Suppressive Agents and the Risk of Community-Acquired Clostridium difficile–Associated Disease. JAMA. 2005;294:2989-2995.