Although acid-suppressive drugs claim to be excellent in the treatment
of heartburn and reflux disease, they have also revealed significant
drawbacks. It seems that medications taken to reduce stomach acid
could actually increase the risk of developing pneumonia.
Such acid-suppressive medications include:
- Proton pump inhibitors (PPI): Nexium or Prevacid.
- H2-receptor antagonists: Pepcid and Zantac.
In order to discover if a link exists between the use of acid-suppressive
drugs and the occurrence of community-acquired pneumonia, researchers
analyzed the pneumonia rates of two groups: those who used the drugs
and those who didn't.
The analysis involved 364,683 subjects
and 5,551 first occurrences of pneumonia. Researchers found:
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The incidence rate of pneumonia in those who took acid-suppressive
drugs was 2.45 out of every 100 people a year. This was compared
to 0.6 among those who didn't take acid-suppressive drugs.
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The risk of pneumonia was 89 percent higher for those using
proton pump inhibitors and 63 percent higher for those using
H2-receptor antagonists. This was compared to past users of
these agents.
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Patients with an increased risk for infection were also in
a higher risk bracket for contracting pneumonia.
Also, within medical records of some 500,000 patients, researchers
found that those using acid-suppressive drugs to treat heartburn
and indigestion were four times more likely to have pneumonia than
nonusers.
Researchers concluded that using acid-suppressive drugs is associated
with the increased risk of community-acquired pneumonia. Further,
current use of these drugs doubles the risk of pneumonia.
Journal
of American Medical Association October 27, 2004;292(16)
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