According to a presentation at this year’s Digestive Disease Week 2009, even short-term use of popular acid-reducing heartburn drugs may raise the risk of hip fractures.The increased risks appeared two years after patients started taking proton pump inhibitors such as Prevacid and histamine-2 receptor antagonists, or H2RAs, such as Zantac and Tagamet. Other proton pump inhibitors include popular brands such as Nexium, Prilosec, Protonix, and Aciphex.

Dr. Douglas Corley, who led the study, explains that “the increased risk with short-term use of acid-suppressing drugs suggests that even relatively brief periods of use may be associated with increased risk of hip fractures.”

For the study, Dr. Corley and colleagues analyzed data on nearly 40,000 patients taking acid-reducing drugs, and compared them to more than 130,000 patients not taking the drugs. People aged fifty to fifty-nine who had been on proton pump inhibitors for more than two years had the biggest increase in fracture risk with taking the drugs.

Digestive Disease Week – June 2009.

www.ddw.org