Comments

1

Ugh. Sorry, Charles.

2

I am sorry about your brother and you are probably right about Zantac killing him.

Those acid reducing drugs are one of the biggest scams in the GI business. I got food poisoning once and was told I needed Nexium. I did not and never took it. I got H. Pylori and was prescribed Prilosec. I never took it. Our stomachs are supposed to be acidic. If you were to believe doctors hundreds of thousands of Americans have too much stomach acid and are prescribed these medications. The PPIs decrease your stomach acid and actually create more problems (including a non-acidic environment that allows bacteria and parasites like H. Pylori to THRIVE). And try to get off these drugs once your body is hooked on them? Forget it. Then you will experience side effects that seem like suddenly WAY TOO MUCH ACID and you will return to them again and again because you believe they help and provide relief (of a problem created by taking them and then trying not to take them).

It is truly criminal how doctors are able to push drugs people don't need on people who trust them to care for them when really all they care about are reaping the financial rewards of the drugs. Then down the line, however long that line is, after x number of deaths, the drugs are then pulled off the market or become heavily regulated. Look at the opioid crisis. The makers of Oxycontin marketed it to doctors as a pain reliever that was non-addictive and suggested it should be prescribed to everyone for every possible pain they might be experiencing. Now we have a situation where people who are in pain are treated like drug addicts and those who are addicted to opioids are dying in horrifying numbers.

But the big money machine pushes on and all lives lost are just considered collateral damage in name of unfettered capitalism.

3

@2: Oh, you think you're so smart. But your not.

Unless consistent heartburn is addressed by Rx or over-the-counter products in consultation with a doctor, it can run the risk of esophageal cancer.

4

I seem to recall seeing this photo on Slog before. It's a really good one. I don't recall you mentioning that you'd lost your brother to cancer at such a young age though. So sorry to hear that, Mudede.

5

@3 You are not as smart as you think, but keep on believing. Just because you say shit does not make it true. Here is what actual scientists say:

Long-term maintenance therapy with proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs) was shown to be associated with an increased risk for esophageal cancer, even in patients taking PPIs for indications not previously associated with this cancer risk.

Look it up asshole. Oh wait, you only demand others provide proof about what they say here right? Anyway, you can't prove something that isn't true, now can you. Fuck off.

6

Heartburn drugs tied to fatal risks (random selection of links as there are literally thousands of them). Oh and I said hundreds of thousands before, but it's actually SIXTY MILLION PEOPLE in this country who are prescribed these drugs. We are supposed to believe that SIXTY MILLION PEOPLE have TOO MUCH ACID IN THEIR STOMACHS AND NEED IT TO BE CONTROLLED BY DRUGS. UH HUH.

https://www.webmd.com/heartburn-gerd/news/20190606/heartburn-drugs-again-tied-to-fatal-risks#1

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171031202203.htm

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190219133003.htm

https://www.cancercenter.com/community/blog/2019/06/long-term-use-acid-reflux-drugs-cancer

https://www.sciencealert.com/acid-reflux-drug-proton-pump-inhibitors-medication-risk-stomach-cancer-helicobacter

7

A very beautiful memory, Charles. Thank you for sharing. I remember how my dad's oncogist would regularly have to cede time to grad student aged drug reps trying to get him to partake in drug trials, but the person was devoid of compassion and didn't seem to belong there. After the left, the oncologist more or less hinted we didn't have to subject my dad to it, but it was bizarre that we waited three hours after our appointment in the waiting room only to share equal time with this drug rep. Now the FDA under Trump has even more lax drug testing requirements before they hit the market. I am not surprised people lose faith in Western medicine and turn to placebo and mysticism, if only because healthcare now commodifies human life and seeks profits over safety and efficacy. My heart goes out to you and yours.

8

My "say shit" is actually the advice of one of Seattle's top doctors and own personal physician.

Only amateurs say "look it up". No link provides "proof".

9

@8
Forget proof: without evidence you don't even have an argument. All we have is you saying shit. See how that works?

10

@9: I don't need an argument. Re-read @3, paragraph 2 and @8.

We're not debating politics.

13

@12 No, I believe in science and scientists have proven a) tens of millions of Americans do not need to be taking these drugs because tens of millions of people do not have too much acid in their stomachs and b) these drugs are fatal

I don't believe in natural cures for anything. I do believe that drugs handed out like candy in the profit driven "health care" industry are dangerous and kill people. Truth matters. Facts matter. Scientific studies and statistics prove that these drugs harm people and in many cases kill them. Why do you think Zantac was taken off the market recently? (that's a rhetorical question, but one you might want to consider). How many drugs have been taken off the market after killing people? (again rhetorical).

I've been dealing with GI doctors and their bullshit for a decade now and have given up. They do not have solutions. They have drugs and if you refuse to take the drugs they say there is nothing they can do for you. Why on earth should I take a drug that will give me cancer or kill me because a doctor says to do so when there are reams of scientific studies proving them wrong?

14

Charles, I am sorry for your loss. May his memory be a blessing.

It's not all for acid stomachs. Lots of folks get prescribed multiple meds for various conditions. Many of the drugs are hard on the stomach (and kidneys and liver and and and). So ranitidine was very commonly taken to counteract that. We dropped ranitidine like a hot rock when this study came out, but after years of use.

15

@13: Yes, overprescription is a problem especially in regard to the opiate crisis but it seems implausible that your are castigating all prescribed drugs. It also seems implausible that you don't take prescriptions yourself. If not, and you're doing well, that's great. I think it should be the goal, taking hypertension for example, to improve health and get off medications.

I don't think you want people to suffer, from heartburn or anything else, and would encourage them to see a doctor. And I don't think you would want them to ignore their physician's advice.

16

There's a bit of chicken-and-egg problem with trying to determine if the zantac caused the cancer, or if the underlying problem (the chronic acid reflux) caused the cancer, and the zantac was just an unhelpful bystander. Or perhaps it was a perfect storm of the two: a damaged upper GI tract combined with a tainted drug. It doesn't help that surely the disease caused its own pain, which prompted the consumption of more zantac.

To all the folks debating which is worse, acids or antacids: you're all right. Metabolic antacids, like proton pump inhibitors (prilosec, nexium, etc) and antihistamines (zantac, tagamet, etc) are definitely overprescribed, and given to people who don't have chronic inflammation or acid reflux and who will recover just fine without them. That said, there are those of us who have chronic, recurring, sometimes debilitating upper GI pain and who are at increased risk of esophageal, stomach and duodenal cancers as a result of inappropriate acid production and movement, and antacid drugs can be essential to living some semblance of a normal life and reduce the risk of cancer down the road.

17

@13 Overprescription is a problem with many medications, not just opioids and PPIs.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6731049/

https://www.statnews.com/2019/04/02/overprescribed-americas-other-drug-problem/

https://www.healthcare-management-degree.net/overmedicated/

https://khn.org/morning-breakout/perspectives-americans-are-prescribed-too-many-drugs-and-its-being-driven-by-pharma/

Yes, as I have a progressive, degenerative, ultimately fatal neuromuscular disease I am on medications - to control spasticity and neurogenic bladder.

You clearly keep ignoring the fact that there is scientific evidence that there are NOT 60 million people suffering from heartburn and therefore do NOT need to be on these medications. Does heartburn exist? Yes. Is what most people experience and consider "heartburn" actually too much stomach acid? No. Is the overprescription of "heartburn" medication the cause of other health problems (including bacterial and parasite infections, cancers, and even death), YES.

People who believe doctors are all knowing and/or that they care about their patients are delusional. If people do not do research and engage in critical thinking and make informed decisions WITH their doctors, they are risking their lives. There are more bad doctors than good ones and I say that based on personal experience (so ultimately it's just my personal opinion).

I have had over 1200 doctors' appointments with over 80 (nearly 100) doctors in the last 14 years because of my Primary Lateral Sclerosis. That includes 9 neurologists. The first and second neurologists who saw me when I first got sick while living in Seattle thought I had MS. In fact, the second doctor, an MS specialist not only misdiagnosed me, but threatened me saying that if I did not start injecting myself with Copaxone immediately (a toxic drug, effective only for relapsing-remitting MS - when my progression had been non-stop with no remittance - and cost roughly $12,000/yr at the time she misdiagnosed me - and was not covered by insurance) that I would get MUCH sicker, VERY quickly. She was 1000% percent wrong. I've met other people with PLS (and HSP, it's hereditary, genetic equivalent) who were misdiagnosed with MS and injected themselves with toxic MS drugs. Who knows what those drugs did to their bodies.

Ultimately, I went through extensive testing (and this was after 9 months of already having ever test known to man that resulted in my misdiagnosis - even the 2 tests that prove one has MS or not - both of mine were negative - no lesions on my brain and a normal spinal tap) at the ALS center at Columbia Presbyterian in NYC and was diagnosed with probable ALS.

Having only upper motor neuron symptoms (as opposed to both upper and lower which = ALS or just lower which = SMA), the diagnosis is probable ALS until you pass a certain # of years (some neurologists say 4, some say 6, some say 8, some say 10 - I think they just keep moving the goal post to cover their asses should you ultimately develop ALS). I have PLS. It's been 12 years since I was diagnosed, 13 since saw my first neurologist, and 14 or 15 since my initial symptoms. The typical span of PLS is 20 years (vs. ALS which is 2-5 years).

The progression of my illness in the last two years has been the worst it has been other than the initial presentation. Having a neuromuscular disease affects all muscles in your body and all systems in the body regulated by the brain such as breathing and your heart beating). I have seen every doctor there is and I have been offered every drug there is. Amazing how much I have survived and/or resolved without taking prescriptions I was assured were absolutely necessary for my health and well being. THIS INCLUDES PPIs. My symptoms have vastly improved and I have not taken those medications, though I have been told again and again and again I need to take them. I do not need to take them. And the issues that I have are caused by my neuromuscular disease - something the western medical system is thoroughly incapable of helping me with. A GI doc has zero understanding of neurology. A neurologist has zero understanding of the GI system. Every specialist I see exists in a box where they only know what they know and they have no concept of how to help a patient that is experiencing issues that they can't "fix" with their usual plan of treatment. I stupidly had my gallbladder removed because I believed a doctor who told me I needed to (after two bouts of horrific pancreatitis). Well guess what. I still have all of the same problems (and more) that I had before they ripped out my gallbladder and it's likely due to the neuromuscular disease I have and how it is affecting my internal organs and about which they truly KNOW NOTHING.

I mean we're looking at nearly 100 years of trying to find a cause, treatment and cure for ALS and they are no closer today that then they were the day Lou Gehrig died.

Believing that people are not killed by unnecessary medications they are prescribed is denial of reality. It is easy to research how many drugs have harmed people and killed people and ultimately been recalled.

https://www.mdlinx.com/internal-medicine/article/4008

https://medshadow.org/bitter-pills-popular-drugs-pulled-market/

https://www.alexanderlaw.com/blog/2019/07/prescription-drugs-that-kill-another-kind-of-drug-problem/

18

I've used ranitidine occasionally myself. I kept a bottle I had after the initial reports of problems because the articles I read said that the danger was when the pills were exposed to high temperatures which made the ingredients dangerous and my pills were never exposed to high temperatures.

Later I read some other articles that said the pills could be dangerous if they were old too so at that point I decided enough is enough and threw away the pills. It was the most effective acid reducer I ever tried by far, it's just a shame that it caused cancer.

My condolences for your brother, Charles. I hope you find justice somehow.

19

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGpgljFdD7Y

20

My brother just passed away April 19, 2020 from taken all those medicine prescribed by his Dr. He was diagnosed with esophagus cancer, I actually told him to try fiber such as prunes or ginger for acid, but instead he kept believing his dr, even when the medicine never work, the Dr kept upper the dose .He went in to ER January 29, 2020 because he was coughing up blood , they sent him home with more acid medicine, even though,now his blood count is low because he could not eat because of the acid, in his stomach, he kept going back and forth to Dr, still going to work in discomfort,now they want to order a endoscopy, which should have been done first before prescribing acid medicine, now he has stage 4 cancer , hospital called and said they are going to order hospice because there is nothing they can do, but hospital order acid medicine and other medicine for him to take home, now hospice gave refill on same medicine with morphine, now the medicine damage him and they were still prescribing it, he lasted two weeks and passed away in my arms, so please do not let the Dr's push these medicine on you and family members,I so afraid of Dr's, now

22

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23

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