Acid Reflux Pills Linked To Hip Fractures--old news, but I just heard it.

[raccoon]

What do some of you think about this?

(CBS) Millions of Americans suffering from heartburn and acid reflux take a class of prescription drugs that includes Nexium, Prevacid and others. With 180 million prescriptions a year and sales topping $14 billion, these drugs are a success story. But, as CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes reports, a new study shows using them long-term may significantly raise your chances of fracturing bones.

Doctors studied more than 60,000 Canadians ages 50 and older.

They found people who took PPIs for 5 years were more than one-and-a-half times more likely to have hip fractures. Those who took the drugs for 7 years were four-and-a-half times more likely, which is of particular concern, because 30 percent of seniors who break a hip die within a year.

PPIs work by blocking the stomach from producing hydrochloric acid. But that acid helps the body absorb calcium - a key ingredient in bone health. Researchers theorize that over time, the drugs' acid-blocking effect could speed up bone loss.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/11/eveningnews/main4341724.shtml

[juajen]

1. Another case of a rush to prescribe without long term studies. NT

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. Yikes! Looks like there is no winner there. Hip fracture or possible esophageal cancer?

[tabatha]

3. Another case of looking for a magic pill instead of looking at one's diet.

It is easier to pop a pill than to watch what one eats.

[Cassandra]

4. Don't jump to conclusions.

Mine is stress induced (after the 2004 election results were counted, I started coughing, my symptom, so violently that I could barely go out for two weeks). Fortunately, I have this problem only intermittently (once every year or two) and a month or less of generic prescription drugs tamps it down.

[tabatha]

7. My sympathies.

It is good that you only have it a few times.

However, I have seen too many people have it because of what they eat.
I have had it once or twice after I ate badly, and used bicarb of soda (a buffer) to get rid of it.

[mike_c]

5. with all due respect...

...I have suffered from acid reflux for years. I eat an excellent diet-- better, I'd suspect, than most people. Nearly all fresh ingredients, good quality,, lots of fruits and vegetables, no manufactured foods. I don't over-eat. I get plenty of exercise, daily.

I do have a propensity for evening snacking and the occasional cocktail, which I have to be careful about, but otherwise, if not for my acid reflux pill I'd have to sleep sitting up every night. No diet adjustment I've ever tried, other than going to bed with a completely empty stomach, has ever helped my acid reflux.

[tabatha]

8. My sympathies to you as well.

For those who do not cause it by a bad diet, that is tough.

It is easy when it is caused by a bad diet - just change the diet.
I have seen it in my family and in others, and it was due to diet.
I have had it a few times, and that was because of what I ate before going to bed.
It is hell.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

11. I'm sure that diet is a partial cause, but...

The parts of my diet that cause acid reflux are healthy foods - raw vegetables, some fruits, and nuts/legumes. It was only after I switched to a healthier diet that the acid reflux hit. If I eat all fast food; burgers, greasy french fries, fried chicken, etc; I don't have any acid reflux at all.

[Sal Minella]

6. By accident, I discovered that eating a grapefruit before bedtime

allows me to sleep through the night without once waking up groping for the Tums.

But Big Pharma can't make megabuck$ from this so it will never be investigated.

I have no idea why this works, but I haven't bought Tums for weeks and have gotten very fond of grapefruit.

Maybe the acid in the grapefruit signals the HCl-producing cells that they can relax because enough acid is in play already?

Dunno.

[Bitwit1234]

9. I have taken Nexium for more than 7 years.

AND I fell over a ladder, because I didn't raise my legs high enough and did not break a bone. I guess I was lucky. I stepped off a step stool, fell in the floor and didn't break a bone. Like I said I was extremely lucky. I just got breast cancer. After have survived cancer 25 years ago.

[wishlist]

10. I used them several months until taking calcium, eliminating caffeine helped more

I developed GIRD (probably from taking too much aspirin during a lengthy bout with a severe cold and sore throat) which was severe enough that I tried Nexium and then Prilosec for several months. But my doctor recommended eliminating caffeine and taking extra calcium capsules with Vit D both in the mornings and late afternoons or evenings. I found that no caffeine and extra calcium helped me so much that for several years now I have not had any pain except for when I slip up and drink a caffeine beverage.