Take Reflux Drugs or Antacids?
Welcome to our health & self help blog.
In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.
Today's post: Tuesday, 9-5-2006
Take Reflux Drugs or Antacids?
If you do take drugs to protect you from acid reflux or if you take effective antacids to protect you from heartburn & do it often,
you may be at considerable risk from accelerated aging, senility & mental decline, & heart disease. Ouch !!
Even worse, this knowledge is relatively new; & in my own recent experience, most doctors, even reasonably good ones, don’t yet know it.
It’s in these four parts.:
1. High homocysteine levels tend to cause or accelerate or do both for these conditions:
Aging;
Age onset mental decline both directly & from reduced blood flow;
Alzheimer’s disease;
& cardiovascular & heart disease.
Most doctors are at least familiar with this part.
2. Homocysteine readings of 9.0 & higher are high enough to tend to do these things. (See my source below.)
And, many, if not most, doctors & some labs still think 11.0 readings & lower are “normal.” Readings of 6.0 to 7.9 are the desirable range to shoot for.
3. Most doctors today do not know yet that if you take drugs to protect you from acid reflux or if you take effective antacids to protect you from heartburn & do it often, you no longer digest B vitamins well enough to protect you from increases in & high levels of homocysteine. And, you should be tested & take corrective supplements as a result.
Some doctors are aware that elderly people with quite low stomach acid may no longer digest vitamin B12 well & need extra B12. And, many doctors know that vitamin B12 is essential in preventing high homocysteine levels.
Unfortunately, most doctors have not yet learned that less severe reductions in stomach acid caused by these prescription drugs to combat acid reflux & over the counter drugs to combat heartburn have a similar & dangerous effect.
4. Part of the problem is that most doctors do not yet know what supplements reliably bring down homocysteine.
The methyl form of B12 in 500 mg or 1,000 mg doses per day; & folic acid in 800 mg doses daily -- added to a good multivitamin plus mineral tablet AND a good B complex supplement will help most people.
The combination of a good multivitamin plus mineral tablet AND a good B complex supplement will have significant amounts of B6 which is also very important, possibly more than 50 mg a day but not much more. Amounts of over 100 mg of B6 a day have produced nerve problems & should be avoided. But if the multivitamin & the B Complex you take have less than 50 mg a day total, adding 25 mg more B6 may be helpful.
If that fails to lower homocysteine enough, adding the supplements TMG &
n-acetylcysteine, or NAC, can lower homocysteine further.
Food components & supplements that donate methyl radicals are apparently, critical to avoiding excess homocysteine. (TMG is trimethyl glycine.)
Some doctors do know these things.
Over this past week-end I discovered a book called The Better Brain Book by David Perlmutter, MD.
(It’s currently available on Amazon & in many bookstores in a quality paperback edition.)
He treats people who develop brain problems & makes it quite clear that each of these 4 things is true. And, his experience & the research he’s read make him quite certain.
We’ll post his other major & separate point about a second side-effect of many drugs that can damage you in other ways.
Meanwhile, if you have not had your homocysteine level checked yet -- or you’ve requested it & been turned down, Doctor Perlmutter’s book is a source you can use to inform your doctor.
In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.
Today's post: Tuesday, 9-5-2006
Take Reflux Drugs or Antacids?
If you do take drugs to protect you from acid reflux or if you take effective antacids to protect you from heartburn & do it often,
you may be at considerable risk from accelerated aging, senility & mental decline, & heart disease. Ouch !!
Even worse, this knowledge is relatively new; & in my own recent experience, most doctors, even reasonably good ones, don’t yet know it.
It’s in these four parts.:
1. High homocysteine levels tend to cause or accelerate or do both for these conditions:
Aging;
Age onset mental decline both directly & from reduced blood flow;
Alzheimer’s disease;
& cardiovascular & heart disease.
Most doctors are at least familiar with this part.
2. Homocysteine readings of 9.0 & higher are high enough to tend to do these things. (See my source below.)
And, many, if not most, doctors & some labs still think 11.0 readings & lower are “normal.” Readings of 6.0 to 7.9 are the desirable range to shoot for.
3. Most doctors today do not know yet that if you take drugs to protect you from acid reflux or if you take effective antacids to protect you from heartburn & do it often, you no longer digest B vitamins well enough to protect you from increases in & high levels of homocysteine. And, you should be tested & take corrective supplements as a result.
Some doctors are aware that elderly people with quite low stomach acid may no longer digest vitamin B12 well & need extra B12. And, many doctors know that vitamin B12 is essential in preventing high homocysteine levels.
Unfortunately, most doctors have not yet learned that less severe reductions in stomach acid caused by these prescription drugs to combat acid reflux & over the counter drugs to combat heartburn have a similar & dangerous effect.
4. Part of the problem is that most doctors do not yet know what supplements reliably bring down homocysteine.
The methyl form of B12 in 500 mg or 1,000 mg doses per day; & folic acid in 800 mg doses daily -- added to a good multivitamin plus mineral tablet AND a good B complex supplement will help most people.
The combination of a good multivitamin plus mineral tablet AND a good B complex supplement will have significant amounts of B6 which is also very important, possibly more than 50 mg a day but not much more. Amounts of over 100 mg of B6 a day have produced nerve problems & should be avoided. But if the multivitamin & the B Complex you take have less than 50 mg a day total, adding 25 mg more B6 may be helpful.
If that fails to lower homocysteine enough, adding the supplements TMG &
n-acetylcysteine, or NAC, can lower homocysteine further.
Food components & supplements that donate methyl radicals are apparently, critical to avoiding excess homocysteine. (TMG is trimethyl glycine.)
Some doctors do know these things.
Over this past week-end I discovered a book called The Better Brain Book by David Perlmutter, MD.
(It’s currently available on Amazon & in many bookstores in a quality paperback edition.)
He treats people who develop brain problems & makes it quite clear that each of these 4 things is true. And, his experience & the research he’s read make him quite certain.
We’ll post his other major & separate point about a second side-effect of many drugs that can damage you in other ways.
Meanwhile, if you have not had your homocysteine level checked yet -- or you’ve requested it & been turned down, Doctor Perlmutter’s book is a source you can use to inform your doctor.
posted by David at 1:20 PM
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