Dangers Of Overusing Your Acidity Medicines
Madhur Kotharay
Preventive Health, Nutrition, & Fitness | IIT Bombay ???? | Princeton Univ ???? | Author, Blogger, & Businessman | Marathon Runner & Fitness Enthusiast
Acidity (heartburn) is a common problem, which has become a modern epidemic. Some people eat spicy food 'after' swallowing acidity medicines as if pre-empting the trouble. But is such overuse safe? What can go wrong?
Answer
The Science
Stomach Acid
Every day, our stomach secretes about two litres of acid, which plays three important roles:
However:
What Are Proton-Pump Inhibitors?
Problems with Proton-Pump Inhibitors
There will be three types of problems with PPIs:
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While the problems of side effects and interactions with other medicines exist with all types of medications, PPIs face a major behavioural issue: Overuse.
Overuse Problems with PPIs
Many of the PPIs are available as Over-The-Counter (OTC) medicines. So they do not need a doctor's prescription in most parts of the world, including the USA.
In countries like India, people have a habit of self-prescription. Many are friendly neighbourhood experts who suggest some medicine to their friends or family members because it helped them. It is often noticed that a doctor prescribed a PPI for someone's acidity problem, and ten years later, the person still swallows the same tablet every time he gets an acidity spurt, without checking with a doctor. PPIs were not developed with this abuse in mind.
I have anecdotally heard from many doctors in India that patients swallow PPIs like 'peanuts' every day for years altogether. Such patients demonstrate dementia symptoms, an outcome corroborated by many studies. Beware!
Summary
Here is what you should know about using PPIs:
This article is a shorter version of my article 'Do I Need To Worry About Acidity Medicines?' on my Health Sachet website. Its link is in the comments.
To my dismay, I found my own mother swallowing Omeprazole after every little spicy meal. I had to stop her and started her on aloe vera juice which is effective and safe. But more about that later.
I hope you are having a good day. Continuing the tradition, I will pick the word 'acidity' from this article and write a newsletter today. Tentatively, my topic will be 'Can Drinking Milk Help Relieve Acidity?'. See you tomorrow!
Preventive Health, Nutrition, & Fitness | IIT Bombay ???? | Princeton Univ ???? | Author, Blogger, & Businessman | Marathon Runner & Fitness Enthusiast
1 年The link to the article on my website, with reference links and more reading material. https://healthsachet.com/adverse-effects-of-acidity-medicine-overuse/
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1 年in other words use responsibly