Download drug dilemma - Dr. Art Hister

health today
drug dilemma
If you suffer from chronic acid reflux, deciding whether or not to take
medication may be as worrying as the symptoms
By Dr. Art Hister
about as howdy-do-do as
you get.
On the bright side, acidreducing drugs are pretty
effective and not only reduce
(often eliminate) the uncomfortable symptoms that
reflux produces, but these
drugs are also said to lower
the risk of complications
from chronic acid reflux,
which may include, studies
have suggested, a higher risk
of esophageal cancer.
As another great figure of
literature, Homer Simpson,
says, “That’s good.”
studies have linked the use
of acid-reducing drugs,
particularly PPIs, to several
very troubling complications
including a higher risk of
fractures from osteoporosis,
as well as a higher risk of
pneumonia.
In fact, according
to a recent review in
the Canadian Medical
Association Journal, acidsuppressing drugs increase
the risk of pneumonia by
22 to 27 per cent, which is
not really a huge increase.
But it’s still something
Stomach cells becomes so “addicted” to
PPIs that the cells produce excess acid
when the drug is withdrawn
82 TVWEEKonline.ca April 23, 2011
stomach, really doesn’t
relish spending its days
bathed in hydrochloric acid,
life is often intolerable. At
the very best, it’s highly
uncomfortable due to the
pain, burning and other
unpleasant symptoms GERD
produces on a regular basis.
This is why, of course,
so many of us end up
taking some form of acidsuppressing medication.
The problem, however, is
that acid-suppressing drugs
might end up killing some
of us who take it, which is
you want to avoid if you
can, especially if you’re in
a higher-risk group, such
as the elderly or someone
with a chronic heart or lung
condition.
Bottom line: as with nearly
everything in this business,
there is no easy formulaic
answer to what anyone with
GERD should do.
If you have GERD symptoms, you have to decide
for yourself how significant
those symptoms are. And
if you find them difficult to
tolerate, then you have to
decide what to take and for
how long to take it. Doh! n
Dr. Art Hister is a medical writer and health
analyst for Global TV and Corus Radio.
i s to c k
“H
ere’s a
howdydo,” to
cite the
wise
words of one of the greatest
creations in literature, the
Lord High Executioner in
The Mikado.
On the one hand, for
those of us unlucky enough
to be suffering from GERD
(gastro-esophageal reflux
disease), in which stomach
acid regularly washes back
up into the esophagus, a
body part, that unlike the
On the not-so-bright side,
these drugs, which include
histamine receptor agonists
(like cimetidine and ranitidine, a.k.a. Zantac) and PPIs
or proton pump inhibitors
(like Losec, Nexium, Pariet),
are way over-prescribed and
often handed out for even
minor symptoms.
Homer: “That’s bad.”
Worse, many people
stay on these drugs forever,
partly because studies have
shown that even after only a
few days of using a PPI, the
stomach cells becomes so
“addicted” to the drug that
the cells produce excess acid
when the drug is withdrawn.
Homer: “That’s bad.”
Worst of all, of course,