Heartburn pills can lead to serious side effects. They can also aggravate previous heartburn symptoms, making it harder for patients to stop using them even if they want to.
Heartburn pills, usually called proton pump inhibitors, are hard to stop using and at the same time, dangerous the more they are used. This creates a serious dilemma for those who use them, especially since they are usually prescribed by the doctors as well.
According to NPR, PPPs are linked to magnesium deficiency and increased risk for infections. A patient diagnosed with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), Marcella Lafayette relayed that when she was prescribed by PPIs, she started to experience muscle weakness and severe leg cramping, even though her chest pains and back pains from heartburn vanished. When she tried not using the PPIs, her heartburn returned, with more severe symptoms. "I can't seem to get off the drug because when I do, I experience severe stomach pain. I can't eat anything without experiencing stomach pain," Lafayette shared to NPR. "It just feels like you've got a knife in your gut. It's just really painful."
Doctors are also starting to worry about the side effects of PPIs as well. A gastroenterologist at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, John Clarke shared that the common conception was that these drugs are safe. To suddenly observed otherwise is problematic. "The teaching for many years was that these drugs were quite safe," says John Clarke, a gastroenterologist at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. "But there is data that's emerging that suggests PPIs may not be as safe as we think they are."
Another concern is that PPIs and dementia risk are positively related. Researchers claimed that those who use these are 44% more likely to get dementia.