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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
Sdfuk youngatheart1
Posted
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 Sdfuk
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derek76 Sdfuk
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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 youngatheart1
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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 youngatheart1
Posted
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 wknight
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ikiman wknight
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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
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derek76 youngatheart1
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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 derek76
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christine_fay youngatheart1
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youngatheart1 christine_fay
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Emis_Moderator youngatheart1
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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 Emis_Moderator
Posted
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