The article I chose is on the effects of your ordinary heartburn medicines and how they can affect your health. The Article, "Do Popular Heartburn Meds Really Cause Dimentia" by Andrea Anderson was a wonderful article to get more information on those over the counter heart burn medicines like: Prilosec and Nexium. Having had a stomach problem my entire life this article was attached to me in a special way because I take those medicines nearly everday.
This Article claims, "Routine use of proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs)—drugs such as Nexium and Prilosec.......may cause or accelerate dementia in elderly individuals."
What is Dementia and how can this be developed by PPI's? Dementia is chronic disorder in the brain that is caused by brain disease. It is said to have the ability to cross the blood-brain barrier.
Although this idea is not completely proved, the German researchers nearly used 75,000 real individuals data from health insurance claims and found that on average, participants who filled a prescription for a PPI at least once every three months were more than 40 percent more likely to develop dementia than their PPI free counterparts.
Even if the smallest amount of this research is correct, we need to be more careful with the over the counter prescription heartburn medication we put into our body, because the horrifying effects of dementia have not been able to be treated and that is what it devastating.
We will know more in the future after further research in this field but from this we did find out that that Proton Pumps can be directly involved with our brain and the way it develops.
This article was incredibly interesting and i feel like it was even more powerful because of how it is connected to you life. I enjoyed how to broke the article down into different parts and explained points well and drew interesting conclusions from the article itself.
ReplyDelete-Jacob C
Thanks Jacob,
DeleteIt is a huge interest of mine to learn about PPI's and how they function in our body.
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ReplyDeleteI work at a pharmacy so I am very familiar with those two medications, and now I will always think of that. I hope that this isn't true, because I love the patients that come in.
ReplyDelete-gomez
Gomez,
DeleteHaving taken these meds and known about them for a long time It really does leave an impression that you will always remember them.
I find the body to be one of the most fascinating things to study. Consequently, I'm interested in knowing how I can better preserve and protect my body. Dementia or any other debilitating disease that takes away my autonomy is one of my biggest fears. Id be interested in finding out how researchers were able to make the connection between PPI intake and Dementia. I wonder if there were other factors in here that weren't considered, like age, what other prescription drugs they were taking, and possibly a predisposition to dementia. All facts aside, I think this article should at least highlight the fact that we should be aware and knowledgable of the things we are putting in our bodies. If I suffered from heartburn, I sure as hell wouldn't risk dementia by taking a PPI.
ReplyDeleteR.T.
R.T.
DeleteI am interested as well when I was looking up the article on what other meds these people were taking, or how old they were. It did not specify at on those subjects. I hope that they come out with more information on the topic to clarify in the future.
-Will
This is terrifying! My grandma suffers from dementia and i remember watching her take prilosec as i grew up. Are their warnings on the bottles? is dementia listed as a possible side effect? Or are we still waiting on more research to prove it? Could a patient possibly have a legal case if they could connect this medication to dementia? KH
ReplyDeleteThis is actually a pretty scary thought. Who knew that common heartburn medications could be so dangerous! I am curious though, how do these medications lead to dementia? Did this article explain anything like that, or are they still in the early stages of this study and do not know why yet?
ReplyDelete-Mindy C.
This article relates quite nicely to the one that talks about how diabetes medication might actually help prevent Alzheimers. Medication and drugs have many more side effects (positive and negative) than we understand.
ReplyDelete-BG
I work with and have worked with people who have dementia and Alzheimers for 7 years it is scary to think that an over the counter medication could cause such a debilitating disease. Did they say that there is a possibility of all heartburn medications causing dementia, such a omeprazole and other brands? I ask because most the people I care for are on these types of medications.
ReplyDeleteMy grandpa had dementia the last 6 years of his life. It was so awful to see his memory go. We had a family picture with the cousins, aunts, uncles, everyone...and we had everyone's name labeled on it. That way when we would come over to visit we could point to our face on the picture so he knew we were family. Dementia is awful. I am glad they have some ideas of how to help and prevent dementia, and what to avoid.
ReplyDeleteI think that any drug that crosses the blood brain barrier needs to be examined closely. Brain cells cannot regenerate the way that other cells can. I wonder if PPI use when young can cause dementia when older or if PPI use only negatively affects the elderly.
ReplyDeleteT Anderson
40% who used PPI medications every 3 months developed dementia. That is a terrifying statistic! Why isn't this being regulated, or changed? I think 75,000 individuals is small, but very telling.
ReplyDeleteHW
I feel like this goes back to profits. the medical field almost had to know of some of these effect, but they offer and recommend them anyway... why? because it keeps us sick, which keeps them rich. loved the connection made here, and the valued post, thank you! great job. sb
ReplyDeleteMy grandma has dementia and I have never heard that heartburn medications can lead to increased risk of getting it. This sounds like a great article. -EH
ReplyDeletePlease share more like that. Vinanza Grape
ReplyDelete