Big Data Analysis Suggests Common Antacids May Greatly Increase Heart Attack Risk
2015-06-11
Adults who use proton pump inhibitors such as Prevacid, Nexium and Prilosec are between 16 and 21 percent more likely to experience a heart attack than people who don’t use the commonly prescribed antacid drugs, according to a massive new study by Houston Methodist and Stanford University scientists.
An examination of 16 million clinical documents representing 2.9 million patients also showed that patients who use a different type of antacid drug called an H2 blocker have no increased heart attack risk. The findings, reported in PLOS ONE, follow a Circulation report in 2013 in which scientists showed how — at a molecular level — PPIs might cause long-term cardiovascular disease and increase a patient’s heart attack risk.
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