What Your Doctor May Not Be Telling You About Nexium
Acid reflux occurs when acid in your stomach moves up into your throat. While a little acid reflux causes heartburn, a lot of acid reflux can cause significant health problems. It can cause chest, stomach and throat pain and many other painful, annoying and sometimes more serious symptoms.
Your doctor may tell you to change your diet, exercise more, lose weight, get tested for food allergies or may prescribe medication, like Nexium.
What is Nexium? Does it work?
Nexium is one of a group of drugs called “PPIs” or proton pump inhibitors, which reduce the amount of acid produced by your stomach. It was approved by the FDA and went on sale in 2006. Nexium is made by AstroZeneca.1
Nexium appears to be no more effective than Prilosec, which is also made by AstroZeneca, but Nexium costs about six times more.2
Does Nexium “cure” the causes of acid reflux? No, it only suppresses a symptom, stomach acid, and does nothing to treat the cause of the acid reflux. “When people take PPIs, they haven’t cured the problem of reflux,” according to Dr. Joseph Stubbs, a former president of the American College of Physicians. “They’ve just controlled the symptoms.”3
What should I go over with my doctor?
Nexium has a very long list of possible side effects, far more than are listed on the manufacturer’s patient information brochures.4
Drugs like Nexium interfere with body’s absorption of nutrients, including iron, calcium and Vitamin B12. According to the FDA, they can cause increased bone fractures, bacterial infections that are especially dangerous to elderly people and risk of pneumonia and weight gain.5
If you’re taking an anti-clotting medication to prevent heart attack or stroke, especially Plavix, you should not take Nexium or Prilosec. Nexium and Prilosec have been found to prevent Plavix from working and increased the danger of a heart attack or stroke.6
What if I’m already taking Nexium?
If you are already taking Nexium and are concerned or are experiencing any side effects, including a worsening of your acid reflux, you may want to talk to your doctor. As with any prescription medication, always talk to your doctor before stopping or changing the way you take the medication.
Some patients who have stopped taking Nexium have reported that their acid reflux either stopped completely or became less, while some patients state that it became much worse or constant.
Learn everything you can about Nexium before you start taking it.
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1 FDA, “Drug Details Nexium”, retrieved 12 July 2012, http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cder/drugsatfda/index.cfm?fuseaction=Search.DrugDetails; FDA
2 MSNBC.com, Robert Bazell, “The Costly Side Effects of Nexium’s Ad Blitz,” 14 August 2007,
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20249591/ns/health-second_opinion/t/costly-side-effects-nexiums-ad-blitz/
3 New York Times, Roni Caryn Rabin, “Combating Acid Reflux May Bring Host of Ills” (25 June 2012) http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/25/combating-acid-reflux-may-bring-host-of-ills/
4 rense.com, Ted Twietmeyer, “Nexium – A Staggering Number of Side Effects,” 15 May 2007, http://www.rense.com/general76/nexium.htm
5 FDA.gov, “Possible Increased Risk of Bone Fractures With Certain Antacid Drugs,” 8 December 2011, http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm213240.htm
6 FDA.GOV, “FDA Announces New Warning on Plavix: Avoid Use with Prilosec/Prilosec OTC” (18 November 2009), http://www.fda.gov/newsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm191169.htm