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Lanzoprazole and esomeprazole use

Posted ,

youngatheart1
youngatheart1

Keep getting posts deleted for trying to mention about link between heart attack and PPIs. May be nothing but the post I saw in a paper today makes me wonder. Had a GP visit today anyway and showed him what I had seen and he said he would keep an open mind and check. Especially interesting to me as I have been suffering chest pains for ages.

1 like, 14 replies

14 Replies

  • Sdfuk
    Sdfuk youngatheart1

    Posted

    Hi,

    Just been looking at the study that you're talking about. If it's true then it's not great news for all of us on PPIs. I was already thinking about trying to control my symptoms by diet alone and wean myself off the PPIs. The trouble is that I have Barrets so I have to be especially careful with the acid.

    Cheers

    S 

    • dean48614
      dean48614 Sdfuk

      Posted

      That is very worrying .as I have been on them for bout 5 year solid. And was diagnosed with Barrett 2 and half year ago. I will definitely look up this and speak to my doctors thanks for posten this as I would have never of known .
    • derek76
      derek76 Sdfuk

      Posted

      It's funny but bad reports frighten us and we don't believe the 'good ones' about Statins.

      A consultant suggested to my wife this week that as she at one time from X-ray evidence had a slight stroke that she should take a statin.

      Her immediate reaction was I know what they did to my husband and friends. His next suggestion of thyroxine was never again as the minmum dose she had taken last year had turned her into a depressed zombie.  

  • derek76
    derek76 youngatheart1

    Posted

    I've been taking PP's for about fourteen years.I recently needed to up my dosage to two a day. My GP said that recent guidelines said four or even six a day are not harmful.

    Just copy the text and paste it to your post. That way no link to the mail comes up...voila:

    Indigestion pills taken daily by millions raise the risk of having a heart attack, doctors fear. A major study showed that those who take proton pump inhibitor, or PPI, drugs are around 20 per cent more likely to suffer a heart attack than others.

    Even otherwise healthy, middle-aged people are at risk.

    The US analysis of the records of  three million patients doesn’t prove the highly popular pills are at fault but the study’s authors say the link is ‘very worrisome’.

    Lead researcher Dr Nicholas Leeper, a heart surgeon, said: ‘These drugs may not be as safe as we think.

    ‘Heart disease is by far the leading cause of death in the western world and PPIs are so commonly prescribed.

    ‘This is potentially a big deal from a public health perspective.’

    PPIs including omeprazole and lansoprazole are some of the most popular drugs in the world.

    More than five million prescriptions are written out each year in England alone.

    Many more Britons buy them over the counter in the pharmacy, where brand names include Zanprol and Pantoloc Control.

    Any long-term use is meant to be subject to regular review and over-the-counter pills are meant to be limited to two weeks. 

    However, some people find PPIs so helpful that they take them for years.

    The tablets cut the amount of acid produced by the stomach and are used to treat acid reflux, in which stomach acid travels up the food pipe, causing a burning sensation in the chest. 

    They are also prescribed to people with stomach ulcers.

    They have long been considered harmless – but recent studies have produced hints they may damage the heart.

    To find out more, teams from Stanford and Houston Methodist universities in the US, scoured the medical records of three million patients to find people who had been diagnosed with heartburn.

    They then compared the heart health of those taking PPIs with that of sufferers not on the drugs.

    This revealed that those on PPIs were 16 to 21 per cent more likely to have a heart attack.

    It is thought that the drugs harm the heart by cutting levels of nitric oxide, a gas that keeps the arteries flexible and healthy.

    The researchers said the link between the pills and heart attacks was ‘clear and significant’ but said more research is needed to prove the tablets are to blame.

    They stressed that people should speak to their doctor before coming off PPIs, or switching to a second type of heartburn drugs called H2 blockers, which were not linked to heart attacks.

    Stanford researcher Dr Nigam Shah said the results should be taken seriously.

    He added that those who buy them over the counter, should tell their doctor they are taking them, especially if they need them for more than the recommended two weeks.

    Other recent research has linked PPIs to a higher risk of hip fractures.

    Maureen Talbot, of the British Heart Foundation, said: ‘All medications, whether prescribed or bought over the counter, have potential risks as well as benefits and a full understanding of what these are should be given by a doctor or pharmacist before a person takes them.

    ‘It has been identified in the past that PPIs are sometimes prescribed or taken for far longer than intended; they should be used as a short term treatment for heartburn only.

    ‘Despite that, this study suggests if you’re taking PPIs to treat heartburn, there is a greater risk of having a heart attack than if taking alternative treatments.

    ‘If you are taking PPIs and are concerned, it is worth discussing the issue with your GP.’ 

     

  • wknight
    wknight youngatheart1

    Posted

    Here is a very frightening statistic

    The lifetime risk of dying in a transport accident is remarkably high - with most of the risk coming from road traffic accidents. While the risk of dying in a road accident in any year in the UK approaches 1 in 20,000, the lifetime risk is 1 in 240

    There can be many factors for an increase in the risk of heart attack, I would worry more about  diet before blaming the PPI.

    I get regularly checked, watch what I eat and being pain free and living a pretty normal life to me is priceless. I'll give up the car before the PPI

    • derek76
      derek76 wknight

      Posted

      And look at the extra exercise and the benefits that would bring you.
    • ikiman
      ikiman wknight

      Posted

      I agree with you. I am using some these plz just when its really needed. but if you want to think about the side effects, you should give up many things in your life.

      So I think the best way is to use them if really required and not be stressed about the results. Stree makes it just worse!

  • youngatheart1
    youngatheart1

    Posted

    Yes, I agree there are so many things that can make us ill or cause death, just another thing to consider amongst everything else. Yes healthy living, exercise and food all play a part as does knowing the risks you take when you use a product. Just found it interesting and thank you Derek for showing me how to avoid being censored in futue. Did not want to cause alarm just interested in what I read. By the way my GP is of the other opinion and is trying to reduce me down to 20mg from 40mg as she is concerned about risks that have recently been presented to my surgery in a report. What that is I do not know, her words not mine.
    • derek76
      derek76 youngatheart1

      Posted

      I wonder what my previous GP thinks about the story? He was quite young and had been taking PPI's from when they first came out.

      You can do a Google search on anything such as PPI's and ask Google to send you an 'Alert' when the subject comes up in reports or newspaper articles. I get a weekly list on certain subjects to stay ahead of my doctor:-)

      You can also get RSS Feeds from Groups, Medical Journals or newspapers. Mail on Line Health has one.

      RSS (Rich Site Summary); originally RDF Site Summary; often called Really Simple Syndication, uses a family of standard web feed formats to publish frequently updated information: blog entries, news headlines, audio, video. An RSS document (called "feed", "web feed", or "channel") includes full or summarized text, and metadata, like publishing date and author's name.

      RSS feeds enable publishers to syndicate data automatically. A standard XML file format ensures compatibility with many different machines/programs. RSS feeds also benefit users who want to receive timely updates from favourite websites or to aggregate data from many sites.

      Subscribing to a website RSS removes the need for the user to manually check the website for new content. Instead, their browser constantly monitors the site and informs the user of any updates. The browser can also be commanded to automatically download the new data for the user.

      Software termed "RSS reader", "aggregator", or "feed reader", which can be web-based, desktop-based, or mobile-device-based, presents RSS feed data to users. Users subscribe to feeds either by entering a feed's URI into the reader or by clicking on the browser's feed icon. The RSS reader checks the user's feeds regularly for new information and can automatically download it, if that function is enabled. The reader also provides a user interface.

    • youngatheart1
      youngatheart1 derek76

      Posted

      I know from previous posts you are a strong believer in PPI's, but you should equally accept they do not work for everyone. I personally have had no problems with them. At the end of last year I started with chest pains, palipations and breathlessness. I have been to A&E so many times for this, have had many tests and now waiting to see cardiologist, so you must understand my interest that all these tests may have been unecessary. My GP is worried others are not, yes according to wknight I could get run over by a bus or hit by a car, but our bodies are not meant to have all this stuff pumped into them year after year without have some side effects, plenty of people get them with PPIs and to be honest having taken them so long most people probably do not know what they would feel like without them, maybe better maybe worse. I was advised by members of this forum to try DGL licorice, it did nothing for me but has helped others which is great. I have weaned myself off 300mg ranitidine and 40mg esomeprazole over the past month and now take 20mg eso or 150 ranitidine every other day if that, I have done it with diet so plain old acid can be controlled without all these tablets, I appreciate that if you have Barretts or Ulcer/Hernia that is a different story, but I just have good old fashioned acid from years of unhealthy eating. I also now have diverticular disease and have to eat bread, plain chicken, cheese, eggs all the beige foods that are not particulary good for you but I still winning the acid battle. It was not my intention to cause panic just let anyone interested know it was available to look at.
  • christine_fay
    christine_fay youngatheart1

    Posted

    I stopped Omneprazole after ten years on it and all the awful palpitations and breathlessnes that my doctor put down to heart failure (I have a stent) stopped within a very few days... I have not had them since..... It was very hard to come off this drug but I am glad I suffered the pain and discomfort because now I hardly need any more than an odd glass of Andrews or some gaviscon if I eat something stupid. I keep wondering if it wasnt Vascilitis that caused the 75% blockage in my heart artery that required the stent ? There was a suspician I may have PMR/GCA way back in 2008 just before the heart attack but then it was put down to Thyroid and Graves... however the most significant improvement in my health in the past six months has definitely been weaning off PPIs I can now walk to the top of my hilly garden without being completely out of breath... in fact I was out of breath after two yards before...
    • youngatheart1
      youngatheart1 christine_fay

      Posted

      Hi glad to hear you are better, I have been on esomeprazole for 9 years and was asked last year to reduce to 20mg as I was getting palpitations and chesty breathlessness, no cough apart from a tickle then the breathlessness started. I have had lots of tests and am now waiting to see a cardiologist. This article has made me think that it may be related. I am trying to come of them all together using diet and am succeeding as I only have 20mg every other day. Take care
  • Emis_Moderator
    Emis_Moderator youngatheart1

    Posted

    The reason the posts were not posted is because you were starting several discussions in quick succession about the same thing after your first discussion which was posted. There is no problem including a link to the article but it will have to be approved before posting. I have moved your first discussion from Reflux group to esomeprazole group and added the link to the article.

    https://patient.info/forums/discuss/article-in-today-s-mail-on-line-427327

    The article is linked below but I see Derek has already posted it in full.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3118665/Indigestion-drugs-including-omeprazole-increase-risk-suffering-heart-attack-experts-warn.html

    • youngatheart1
      youngatheart1 Emis_Moderator

      Posted

      Thanks, I will know in future not to post all over the place and to copy and add the article.
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