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Most people experience a little heartburn (acid reflux) once in a while. Nothing serious, right?<\/p>\nMost people experience a little heartburn (acid reflux) once in a while. Nothing serious, right?<\/p>\n
And why not grab a couple of common heartburn pills. Can\u2019t do any harm, right?<\/p>\n
Deadly wrong!<\/p>\n
Because the journal BMJ Open<\/em> recently published a study by researchers from the Saint Louis Health Care System, Washington University School of Medicine at Saint Louis, and Saint Louis University<\/em> that suggests that taking one popular kind of acid reflux drug will increase your risk of dying soon by 25%.<\/p>\n Researchers used data collected by the U.S. Department of Veterans\u2019 Affairs to identify people who had been prescribed a proton pump inhibitor (or PPI) and people who had been prescribed an H2 blocker.<\/p>\n Like PPI, H2 blockers also prevent the cells of your stomach from producing acid, but they are considered to be weaker and safer than PPIs.<\/p>\n The 349,312 subjects were followed for five years.<\/p>\n Compared with those who took H2 blockers, those who took PPIs had a 25% greater chance of dying during that five-year period.<\/p>\n The risk of death was not associated with any specific cause of death. They were just more likely to die of any cause.<\/p>\n Approximately 8% of American adults take PPIs, often unnecessarily and under almost no medical supervision. So, a 25% or higher risk of death translates to thousands of deaths per year.<\/p>\n