PPI myths

[trents]

I recently had an upper GI endoscopy and a follow-up visit with my gastro doc. While waiting for him in the exam room I was reading the headlines of some medical research articles he had pinned to the bulletin board that had to do with PPI research. At the end of my follow-up visit with him I asked him about some of those things on the bulletin board. The long and short of what he told me is that recent studies with better controls have shown that a lot of the concerns about long term PPI therapy have been debunked. Among them are:

1. That long term PPI therapy contributes to higher incidence of CRC (cholo-rectal cancer)

2. "       "      "      "       "          "   osteoporosis

3. "       "      "      "       "          "   dementia

The doc said the problem with a lot of studies that seemed to indicate otherwise is that they are not longitudinal studies and so premature conclusions were drawn.

[Beverage]

Regardless, you need stomach acid to digest your food so it doesn't rot instead of digest, which leads to worsening of acid reflux.  You need stomach acid to break down your vitamins so that they can be absorbed in the intestines. 

Long term use of things that reduce stomach acid can have obvious long term effects and not a good idea except in a very short term step to letting some stomach healing if the problem is that bad. 

Read Dr. Jonathan Wright's information about acid reflux and connection to LOW stomach acid.  Low stomach acid lets the food rot instead of digest, thus irritating the stomach and the sphincter (causing hiatal hernia) and can let acid and/or acid fumes up the esophagus, irritating the throat and lungs.  I had a dry cough, hoarse throat, severe severe severe asthma, but silent reflux.  I've healed it all after doing what Dr Jonathan Wright recommends and hardly notice anything except when eating super super spicy food and sometimes when drinking wine, and then I chew a few licorice (DGL) tablets.