Drugs and Digestion

Proton Pump Inhibitors

Often indi­vid­u­als present diges­tive chal­lenge are giv­en pro­ton pump inhibitors, or PPIs.

PPI’s inhib­it cre­ation of stom­ach acid by lim­it­ing the stom­ach’s abil­i­ty to cre­ate hydro­gen.

Nor­mal­ly PPIs are pre­scribed for heart­burn, under the unfor­tu­nate assess­ment that heart­burn results from excess stom­ach acid. This is usu­al­ly exact­ly wrong.

In the absence of stom­ach acid, organ­isms, like bac­te­ria and yeast fer­ment food. Fer­men­ta­tion cre­ates Car­bon Diox­ide gas, which bub­bles upward into the esoph­a­gus. Bub­bles car­ry the stom­ach acid which was too weak to kill the organ­isms into the esoph­a­gus caus­ing a burn­ing sen­sa­tion.

Use of agents which dis­rupt acid pro­duc­tion to treat con­di­tions caused to insuf­fi­cient acid reflects a destruc­tive use of an agent, and makes a bad prob­lem to become worse.

If left untreat­ed, the esoph­a­gus is dam­aged result­ing in a hiatal her­nia, or injury to the esoph­a­gus.

Calcium Channel Blockers

Have a sim­i­lar effect.