Reducing the Symptoms of Acid Reducers

I’ve written about the travails of using prescribed/OTC drugs for reducing acid reflux (GERD, heartburn) several times. This group of drugs is very commonly used daily and is in fact one of the biggest selling and profit making pills ever.

The group is called proton pump inhibitors (PPIs). Specifically, the names Nexium, Prevacid, Prilosec, Protonix, Omeprazole and Aciphex come to mind. All of these reduce the production of stomach acid.

If you’re feeling crummy and your Doc can’t quite get a finger on the pulse maybe your ailment is caused by or made worse by drug therapy. I’m repeating myself, I know, but I’m wanting the word to get out.

Two weeks ago, I started with a series of columns in which I described how prescribed drugs can and often do interfere with the absorption of necessary nutrients.

This is little known as it is rarely talked about.

Nutritional deficiencies can be diagnosed as a new ailment contributing to having yet another prescription written. Common sense tells us the more drugs we take and the longer we take them the risk of nutritional deficiency would increase.

So far, I’ve discussed the drugs for lowering blood pressure like Lisinopril, statin drugs to reduce cholesterol and Metformin (glucophage) commonly used for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.

I started the first column with the following; “In our nutty system which often pits medications/science against nutritional supplements the bias supporting medicine is usually given top dog status. Dire warnings abound that if you do this drug or that, then these supplements will interfere causing harm. Rarely, is there a balanced approach.

Suppose the prescription medication bias with huge amounts of corporate money backing it is entirely backwards? Suppose the prescription drug is actually interfering with the absorption of the nutritional supplement. Suppose, it is well established that prescribed drugs often and commonly create new ailments by causing vitamin and mineral deficits… what would you do? Think about this as this is more often the case than we can imagine.”

Consider the possible impact of the long list of heartburn/GERD drugs above on the reduced absorption of folic acid, B12, beta-carotene, calcium, iron and curiously thyroid hormone levothyroxine and synthroid. Yes, it is true that reducing stomach acid can cause anemia, tiredness, skin troubles, osteoporosis (bone thinning) and then all of the troubles of low thyroid (and there are many of them). All of this can be countered by proper nutritional supplementation. It may be possible to replace the drugs with naturals but the rebound effect is powerful… this reduces in time.

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