Acid Stomach-Acid reflux medication can cause problems?

By Raymond Harper

Acid reflux medication will help short term

For most people with an acid stomach it’s easy to take over the counter medication for a fast fix. However if you have been diagnosed by your doctor as having Gastro esophageal reflux disease, GERD for short, prescribed acid reflux medication will work very well but you should be aware of the problems it could cause.

Taking medication for acid stomach will stop the pain and give your esophagus time to heal if the lining has been damaged by acid, and this is great over a short period. But having GERD usually means it’s for life and taking the medication over a long period can have problems that are far greater than GERD.

The stomach controls its own enviroment

The stomach is usually aware of its requirements in that to stay healthy it will change to suit the conditions and accommodate any differences that take place. It will change the stomach acid strength to suit. I.e. it will secrete a lot more acid if you have a large meal to aid digestion than if you just had a smack.

Acid stomach occurs by eating the wrong food, rushing our meals or not chewing it will upset the balance of the stomach acid produced and unbalances the function of the valves which control the movement of food in and out of the stomach.

The stomach works normally when a ph of approximately 3-4 is reached. Ph is measured by the amount of acid or alkaline in the stomach. A low reading 1-3 is acidic while a reading of 6-8 is alkaline. If the ph level is above 3 this usually starts the digestion process. Food is usually on the higher side of ph and therefore the process in the stomach of adding hydrochloric acid hcl to aid the digestion begins.

The higher ph level triggers cells called g cells to release a hormone called Gastrin. It is the Gastrin that controls the amount of stomach acid released. The Gastrin hormone then triggers other cells in the stomach lining called parietal cells to secrete Hcl into the stomach. At the same time it also triggers the release of digestive enzymes the main one being Pepsin. It is the Pepsin that breaks down the food in the stomach and its ideal working environment is in the hcl produced by the stomach.

When the ph reaches below 3 this signals the stomach to decrease or stop producing Gastrin. This digestive process breaks down our food and turns it into the energy our bodies require. The Gastrin also stimulates the stomach muscles which contract to send any food product into the duodenum and on to the small intestine for further processing. If this process is broken then it can reslult in acid stomach.

What happens when you take acid reflux medication?

When you take medication for acid reflux like Proton Pump Inhibitors (PPI, s) you are reducing or in some cases stopping the production of hcl. This causes imbalance in the stomach and it tries to compensate by signaling that more Gastrin is needed to produce more hcl, the G cells believe there is not enough hcl in the stomach and overcompensate. Because the production of hcl is blocked the levels of Gastrin start to rise.

It has been measured that patients that take the PPI Omeprazole (the same drug that I take myself) is 2 to 4 times higher than the baseline figures after only 2-4 months.

Producing high levels of Gastrin can lead to a condition called hypergastrinemia. This is a well-recognized cause of a disease known as Zollinger-Ellison syndrome, a rare disorder that causes tumors in the pancreas and duodenum and ulcers in the stomach and duodenum. Up to half of these tumors can be malignant and lead to stomach cancer. Therefore long term use can put some people at risk of stomach cancer even though your acid stomach is better.

Using acid reflux medication puts you in a vicious circle you know that the disease is long term, and stopping the medication quickly brings heartburn symptoms and the return of acid stomach. You now know that taking conventional medicine like PPI, s can put you at risk of other problems in the future. So what’s the solution?

One of the alternatives is to look at natural cures. Herbal remedies for acid reflux have been used with great success for some people. Changes in lifestyle especially the way we eat will also help as does exercise and loosing weight. Using positional therapy when you sleep is also very beneficial. Surgery is another option which has a good success record.