Does the Little Purple Pill Heal Too Well?
Some years ago my husband went to the doctor heartburn. He prescribed Nexium, you know, "the little purple pill that heals". Not long after, when he was still having trouble and they were calling it GERDS, they did an endoscope and found that he had H-Pilory. They gave him an antibiotic for that and for several years, he was feeling better. On every doctor's visit, he told them that he was still taking Nexium and asked if there was any risk to taking it on a long term basis. He was always assured that it was perfectly safe and they instructed him to keep taking it. Eight years and several doctors later, he began having acid reflux symptoms once again. Again, he inquired as to the wisdom of taking Nexium on a long term basis. He was again assured that the Nexium could not be the problem. They decided that it was his gallbladder, so he had it removed. He did feel much better after his surgery, but he still experienced heartburn and acid reflux symptoms every time he ate. He decided that he had to be one of the medications that he was taking, so he quite taking them, one at a time. When his problems didn't end, he would resume the medication that he had stopped and try another one, until finally Nexium was the only one left that he hadn't tried discontinuing. As soon as he stopped taking the Nexium, his difficulties ended. His stomach pain disappeared and he began to feel better. My theory is that he originally needed the Nexium because the H-Pilory was wreaking havoc with his system. By continuing on the Nexium, I think that it continued to do its work until my husband wasn't producing enough acid and that's why he began to have the symptoms once again.
Nexium is a proton pump inhibitor used to treat GERDS or acid reflux, ulcers, erosive esophagus and other conditions that result from the production of too much stomach acid. Unlike other proton pump inhibitors, such as Prilosec, Previcid, Protonix, etc..., Nexium is advertised as the little purple pill that heals, claiming to not only reduce the production of stomach acids, but also to heal the damage done by their overproduction. Based on my husband's experience, I would venture to say that these claims are true. The endoscopy showed that my husband did have considerable damage to both his stomach and his esophagus. Considering that he did get better for a period of time, after treating the H-Pilory and embarking on Nexium therapy, I would say that the little purple pill did indeed do its job. However, I surmise that once that job was finished and the damage was healed, continuing on Nexium caused his stomach to produce too little acids, (stomach acid production decreases as you age anyway), creating an environment where his food could not digest properly, causing him pain once again, with the extra symptom of diarrhea (A listed side effect of Nexium).
Because of his experience, I would caution medical professionals, who didn't think that taking Nexium long term would hurt anything, that there hasn't been enough research done for them to really know what the long term effects might be. It has only been in production since 2001, which was only a short time before it was first prescribed for my husband. Dr. Ray Sahelian, M.D. states that,
"By preventing high acidity in the stomach, it is theoretically possible that chronic use of this drug may lead to the Nexium side effect of a higher rate of gastrointestinal infections since not enough acid is available to kill germs in the stomach....Taking a heartburn medication such as AstraZeneca's Nexium increases the risk of diarrhea blamed on the Clostridium difficile bacteria. Nexium reduces gastric acid, allowing for bacteria to multiply in the digestive system...Exposure to Clostridium difficile bacteria, which causes infection and inflammation of the intestine, previously occurred mostly during hospital stays, but cases have increasingly been contracted in community settings." (1)
I believe that Nexium is a very good drug that actually does what they claim, reducing stomach acid and repairing the damage done, but I think we must be careful about using this or other proton pump inhibiters on a long term basis. At the least, we need to have more studies done before these medications are prescribed on a long term basis.
1. http://www.raysahelian.com/nexium.html