Although acid-suppressive drugs claim to be excellent in the treatment
of heartburn and reflux disease, they have also revealed significant
drawbacks. It seems that medications taken to reduce stomach acid could
actually increase the risk of developing pneumonia.

Such acid-suppressive medications include:

     Proton pump inhibitors (PPI): Nexium,Prilosac,Prevacid.
     H2-receptor antagonists: Pepcid, Zantac.

In order to discover if a link exists between the use of
acid-suppressive drugs and the occurrence of community-acquired
pneumonia, researchers analyzed the pneumonia rates of two groups: those who used the drugs and those who didn't.

The analysis involved 364,683 subjects and 5,551 first occurrences of
pneumonia. Researchers found:

   

      The incidence rate of pneumonia in those who took acid-suppressive
      drugs was 2.45 out of every 100 people a year. This was compared
      to 0.6 among those who didn't take acid-suppressive drugs.

 
      The risk of pneumonia was 89 percent higher for those using proton
      pump inhibitors and 63 percent higher for those using H2-receptor
      antagonists. This was compared to past users of these agents.


      Patients with an increased risk for infection were also in a
      higher risk bracket for contracting pneumonia.

Also, within medical records of some 500,000 patients, researchers found
that those using acid-suppressive drugs to treat heartburn and
indigestion were four times more likely to have pneumonia than nonusers.

Researchers concluded that using acid-suppressive drugs is associated
with the increased risk of community-acquired pneumonia. Further,
current use of these drugs doubles the risk of pneumonia.

 Journal of American Medical Association
 October 27,2004;292(16)

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