HealthDay Reporter
THURSDAY, Jan. 5, 2017 (HealthDay News) — People who take heartburn drugs such as Prilosec and Nexium may be at increased risk of two potentially serious gut infections, a new study suggests.
The study, of nearly 565,000 adults, found those on certain heartburn drugs had higher risks of infection with C. difficile and Campylobacter bacteria.
Both bugs cause abdominal pain and diarrhea, but can become more serious — especially C. diff. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost half a million Americans were sickened by the infection in 2011, and 29,000 of them died within a month.
The heartburn drugs in question included both proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) — brands like Prilosec, Prevacid and Nexium — and H2 blockers, such as Zantac, Pepcid and Tagamet, the study authors said.
All suppress stomach acid production, and the researchers suspect that may make some people more vulnerable to gastrointestinal infections.
The new findings, published Jan. 5 in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, aren’t the first to raise such concerns.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has already warned about a risk of C. diff infection linked to proton pump inhibitors.
“This study offers more evidence that there’s an association,” said Dr. F. Paul Buckley, surgical director of the Heartburn and Acid Reflux Center at the Scott & White Clinic in Round Rock, Texas.
Buckley, who was not involved in the study, said it’s also important to see the results in a bigger context. Long-term use of PPIs, in particular, has been tied to a number of health risks, including nutrient deficiencies, bone loss and heart attack, he said.
Because PPIs are so common and available over-the-counter, people may assume they’re “100 percent safe,” Buckley pointed out.
“There’s still a myth that these drugs are benign,” he said. “It’s not true.”
The new findings don’t actually prove that either PPIs or H2 blockers raised the risk of gut infections.
But it is plausible, according to the researchers, led by Dr. Thomas MacDonald, a professor of pharmacology at the University of Dundee in Scotland.
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