Heartburn
Will Spicy Green Tea Stop Your Stomachache?
How did people treat their heartburn before drugs like omeprazole and esomeprazole? These proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are so good at healing stomach ulcers and easing heartburn that doctors often…
How to Help Your Heartburn with Persimmon Tea
Heartburn is an ongoing problem for many people. Gastroenterologists may prescribe a proton pump inhibitor (PPI) such as dexlansoprazole (Dexilant), lansoprazole (Prevacid), omeprazole (Prilosec) or p…
Can PPI Heartburn Drugs Harm Kidneys Without Ear…
Millions of people take prescription-strength acid-suppressing medications daily. Millions more take over-the-counter versions. A new study suggests that such PPI heartburn drugs may trigger serious k…
Does Ranitidine Have the Same Risks as a PPI?
Americans must suffer from an awful lot of heartburn, because drugs to treat this painful condition have been best-sellers for a number of decades. The current favorites are proton pump inhibitors (PP…
Do People on PPIs Have More Infectious Diarrhea?
Is it smart to block the production of stomach acid with powerful proton pump inhibitor drugs (PPIs)? Millions of people take these drugs to control acid reflux, ulcers or gastroesophageal reflux…
How to Overcome Heartburn with Probiotics
The medications doctors prescribe most frequently for digestive problems may lead to serious side effects. As a consequence, many people would prefer to find natural ways to overcome heartburn. One co…
Can You Treat Heartburn in Pregnancy without Har…
Over the last several decades, acid-suppressing drugs have become extremely popular. Medicines like Tagamet, Pepcid, Prilosec and Nexium 24HR are available over the counter, and many people use them f…
Is It Safe to Drink Sparkling Water for Acid Ref…
Heartburn, indigestion or acid reflux all describe a similar type of discomfort: a burning pain behind the breastbone. There are numerous prescription drugs for this problem, including Nexium and Pri…
Is the FDA Biased Against Dietary Supplements?
Will your vitamins or dietary supplements hurt you? Millions of Americans take multivitamins, herbs or other supplements every day. Most people don't worry about possible dangers from these pills. Man…
Add Strokes to the Scary List of PPI Side Effect…
Proton pump inhibitors like esomeprazole, lansoprazole or omeprazole are the most popular treatments for heartburn and reflux disease. It is estimated that 15 million Americans spend $10 billion on su…
Can Common Medications Contribute to Kidney Ston…
Anyone who has ever experienced kidney stones knows that this is something to avoid. Some people have described the pain as an 11 on a scale of 1 to 10. "Worse than childbirth" is the way one woman ch…
What Are the Benefits of Cinnamon and Honey?
Some of the most interesting discoveries are due to serendipity. That applies not only to scientists working in a lab whose lucky accident opens a new line of research. (Imagine Alexander Fleming and…
Did Low Levels of Vitamin B12 Ruin A Life?
Most people rarely think about vitamin B12. It's not part of routine blood testing the way vitamin D is. We have been surprised that health professionals do not routinely request blood tests for vitam…
How to Ease Indigestion Without PPIs
Q. Because of concerns about side effects of PPI acid-suppressing drugs, I have switched to Tums. I rely on two or three of these antacids to control my heartburn. Is that safe? What else could I do? …
How to Prevent Heartburn with Green Tea
Many Americans take a lot of medications. Wouldn't it be wonderful to find ways to manage some common health problems with simple non-drug approaches? One reader found a way to prevent heartburn with …
Did Nexium Cause Bone Loss and Nerve Pain?
Whenever you decide to take a new medication, you should know what you will get out of it in terms of benefit and what side effects you might experience. This is especially important for drugs you wi…
Can You Trust Your Multivitamin?
It can be challenging to get all the nutrients you need from food, especially if you are taking medications. That's because many medicines can interfere with vitamin and mineral absorption. Some, like…
Boswellia Eased Arthritis Pain but Triggered Hot…
You may not have heard of boswellia, but we'll bet you have heard of frankincense. This dietary supplement has been used for a variety of symptoms including inflammation. This reader reported that i…
How Can You Stop Acid Suppressing Drugs Without …
As complications from proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) accumulate, people are getting worried. Millions of people take medications like dexlansoprazole, esomeprazole, lansoprazole, omeprazole, pantopraz…
Are PPIs Messing Up Your Kidney Function?
Gastroenterologists and drug companies love proton pump inhibitors (PPIs). These drugs help calm heartburn, reduce irritation from reflux and heal ulcers. So much money has been made from drugs like d…
When Is It Best to Take Nexium?
If you are a conscientious patient, you pay attention to the instructions you may be provided on how to take your medication. Should it be taken with food or on an empty stomach? At equally spaced int…
Is Your Heartburn Pill Putting You at Risk of De…
The news on  proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) used to treat ulcers and serious gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) has not been good lately. Researchers have reported long-term side effects such as a…
Do Heartburn Drugs Disturb Bacterial Balance in …
Popular heartburn medications can disrupt bacterial balance in the digestive tract. Comparing Twins: A new study of British twins compared stool samples from more than 900 pairs. When one twin took a …
Heartburn Drugs Upset Bacterial Balance in the G…
Proton pump inhibitors, or PPIs for short, have become a mainstay as heartburn drugs. Once available only by prescription, powerful acid-suppressing drugs such as omeprazole (Prilosec), lansoprazole …
Drug Interaction Could Lead to Disastrous Osteop…
Doctors may not always keep up with the latest research on drug side effects. To an extent, that is understandable. A busy family practice physician, internist or OB/GYN may have to see more than 20 p…
Heartburn Medicines Boost Risk of Heart Attacks …
Here we go again...another serious complication linked to acid-suppressing drugs known as proton pump inhibitors (PPIs). This time the adverse reaction appears to be an increased risk of heart attacks…
Sauerkraut Juice Subdues Stubborn Heartburn
Q. One "old wives' tale" remedy for heartburn is sauerkraut juice. I think homemade works the best. Are there other natural remedies for heartburn? A. Homemade sauerkraut juice contains probiotic orga…
Generic Competition Appears for Nexium
The purple pill, also known as Nexium, has just gotten nose-to-nose competition. The FDA has recently approved the first generic formulation of esomeprazole. The manufacturer will be Ivax, a subsidiar…
Surprising Help for Holiday Heartburn
Did you overdo it yesterday? Come on, be honest. If you're like most people you probably overindulged in turkey, ham or duck. Did you go back for seconds of stuffing or cranberry sauce? How about dess…
Heartburn from High-Dose Vitamin D
Q. My doctor prescribed 50,000 IU of vitamin D weekly because a blood test showed I am deficient. This pill gives me heartburn, and it seems like a big dose. Is there any reason I can't take a smaller…
Acid-Suppressing Medicine Can Deplete the Body o…
Q. My doctor prescribed Prilosec for heartburn and I took it for about a year. After discontinuing the Prilosec I was feeling very tired. The blood work that was done showed I had very low magnesium l…
For This Reader, Almonds Help Heartburn More Tha…
Q. I read about using almonds for heartburn, and I've found it works great, better than any over-the-counter medicine I've ever tried. (I am leery of the prescription meds due to food allergies and me…
Papaya Enzyme for Better Digestion Cools Hot Fla…
Q. My wife and I have found that papaya enzyme is a quick solution for heartburn and upset stomach and calms the effects of niacin. I have been in a heart study for the past 13 years. I started with f…
Stopping Nexium (Esomeprazole) Suddenly Can Caus…
When the acid-suppressing medications known as proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) were first introduced, doctors were extremely enthusiastic. The drugs were extremely effective at treating ulcers and sever…
What Can You Do for Heartburn?
Q. I'm trying to find out what causes heartburn and how best to treat it. Is it caused by eating too fast? Can heartburn cause heart attacks? My boyfriend has discomfort nearly every night. A guy he w…
Zolpidem (Ambien) Side Effects & Heartburn
Visitors to this website alerted us to a surprising side effect of the sleeping pill zolpidem (Ambien) over eight years ago. The unexpected complication is heartburn (acid reflux). Although the offici…
Addicted to Heartburn Drugs
Q. I have taken just about every heartburn medicine on the market, including lansoprazole (Prevacid), omeprazole (Prilosec) and pantoprazole (Protonix). My doctor is encouraging me to get off acid-sup…
Heartburn Symptoms Eased by Apple Cider Vinegar
Heartburn is a consequence of stomach acid splashing back into the lower part of the esophagus, where it causes damage and pain. Many people have shared their unusual home remedies for heartburn, from…
Not All Heartburn Patients Require Endoscopy
A person who has repeated heartburn may be told the doctor needs to take a look at the esophagus through a procedure known as an upper endoscopy. This is frequently done to diagnose Gastroesophageal R…
Cayenne Pills for Heartburn
Q. I have had success with a remedy I read about in your newspaper column. I have persistent heartburn and was on prescription medications for more than a decade. I was surprised to read that cayenne …