This is a warning shot to those who are currently taking proton pump inhibitors. And it is a fascinating story of a drug company treating the wrong thing entirely. It may apply to you, even if you don’t have heartburn.
One of the most common problems with people has been heartburn, called GERD or acid reflux.
And one of the most commonly prescribed and taken medications is proton pump inhibitors. (Many are over-the-counter in the US).
These are some of them:
There is a lot of evidence that these drugs are not as harmless as they seem. In fact, the evidence is coming out that these cause hip fractures, kidney disease, and gastrointestinal illness including C. Difficile that may cause IBS, Crohn’s and more.
The paradox of these drugs
These drugs are predicated on the fact that supposedly, people with acid reflux have too much stomach acid.
But evidence has been mounting for many years that this is not the case.
In fact, there is much evidence that people have stomach acid levels that are too low, which actually causes heartburn in many people.
I’ve noticed for many years that people found a lot of relief from acid reflux by consuming acids such as betaine hydrochloride capsules, or apple cider vinegar.
If people were suffering reflects due to too much stomach acid, how can additional acid fix the reflex?
It turns out that much of acid reflux, GERD, whatever you want to call it, may be caused by infections of bacteria such as Helicobacter pylori.
This is one of the several studies that show that in normal people, stomach acid does not decline as they age.
Which makes sense.
Because why would stomach acid decline with age. When stomach acid declines, it makes it much easier for the person to get a bacterial illness or foodborne disease. Stomach acid is the first line of defense against foodborne disease.
(Note that C. Pylori and H. Pylori are the same things — the name was changed but they are the same bacterial organism.)
But when people get a bacterial infection in their stomach, this infection does, in fact, lower stomach acid.
And other evidence shows that as the infection is taking place, stomach acid levels skyrocket for a period of time, then they settle down to very low levels.
So that during the infection, stomach acid is very low, but as you’re getting infected, stomach acid levels are high.
We believe that the syndrome of acute (epidemic) gastritis is often…C. pylori infection. Our case shows that increased basal acid and pepsin secretion occur before onset of basal acid hypochlorhydria in the acute phase of C. pylori infection
This is not been studied enough
What brought this to my attention was a new study showing that people who are on proton pump inhibitors are more likely to die in the hospital.
And there are many studies showing that they get hip fractures more often, suffer more foodborne disease, and are more likely to have problems with IBS.
I think now we have the mechanism, which is decreased stomach acid.
I suggest if you’re taking one of these proton pump inhibitors, you try to get off of it. You try to use things like apple cider vinegar and betaine hydrochloride to restore the stomach acid levels even by artificial means.
And if that works, you can slowly reduce the amount of additional acid you’re adding to your stomach, and eventually be healthy.
The other thing that can help is to treat the symptoms of H. pylori.
Honey. I believe that a tablespoonful of good quality honey, perhaps raw honey, each day, on an empty stomach, may help more than anything else. I’ve noticed a dramatic improvement in my stomach since I’ve been doing that. Maybe you will too.
Citations
Effect of age and Helicobacter pylori infection on gastric acid secretion
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1440-1746.2000.02131.x/abstract
Proton Pump Inhibitors sold in the US
http://www.medicinenet.com/proton-pump_inhibitors/article.htm
Iatrogenic Campylobacter pylori infection is a cause of epidemic achlorhydria.
http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/3414650
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