The risks of taking omeprazole for a long time – 09/11/2023 – Balance and Health

Available on the market for over 30 years, omeprazole promises quick and effective relief from that burning sensation in the belly and chest caused by excess acidity.

Along with pantoprazole, lansoprazole, dexlansoprazole, esomeprazole and rabeprazole, it is part of the pharmaceutical class of proton pump inhibitors (also known by the acronym PPI).

To get an idea of ​​the popularity of these medications, the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) calculates that 64.9 million units of omeprazole were consumed in the country in 2022 alone.

What many people don’t know is that, in general, these medications should only be used for a very short period of time, a maximum of two or three months.

There are exceptions: for people with some health conditions, such as cancer patients, health professionals recommend the continued use of omeprazole or other medications in this class.

As you will understand throughout this report, the consumption of PPIs for prolonged periods — as many people end up doing on a daily basis without guidance from a health professional — is related to imbalances in the digestive system and difficulties in absorbing vitamins and minerals.

Some studies suggest that this imbalance caused by the abuse of these drugs can cause even more serious diseases, such as osteoporosis, cancer and dementia. But these health repercussions are not yet a consensus in the scientific community and need to be studied in depth, as experts interviewed by BBC News Brasil point out.

Too much acidity

In high school chemistry classes, we learned what pH is, a numerical scale that determines whether a solution is acidic or basic/alkaline.

In our stomach, we depend on an acidic environment for the digestion process.

Gastric juices (which are very acidic, by the way) begin to “break down” food into smaller and smaller pieces, which will then be absorbed by the small intestine.

However, in some people, this acidity is too much: the stomach liquid has such a low pH, or is in such a large quantity, that it becomes corrosive to the digestive system itself.

In some, this burning sensation may appear in the stomach itself in the form of gastritis and ulcers — wounds that form on the internal walls of this organ.

For others, the problem is higher up. A defect in the valve that separates the stomach and esophagus causes acidic contents to rise toward the chest and throat — the condition is known as gastroesophageal reflux.

As the esophagus is much less prepared than the stomach to deal with acidic substances, it becomes injured. Individuals affected by reflux experience heartburn, burning from the stomach to the throat, coughing and even intense chest pain, which can sometimes be mistaken for a heart attack.

“In the case of reflux, the ideal would be to have a medicine that corrects the defect in the valve. But, as we don’t have this type of treatment, what we do is deal with the acidity”, says doctor Joaquim Prado Moraes Filho, from the Brazilian Federation of Gastroenterology (FBG).

That’s where PPIs, like omeprazole, come in: they reduce the acidity of gastric juice. As a result, the damage to the walls of the stomach and, especially, the esophagus becomes less intense.

“These medications block the production of acid, prevent injuries and alleviate those burning symptoms”, summarizes Moraes Filho, who is also an associate professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of São Paulo (FMUSP).

The doctor remembers that, in many cases, the use of omeprazole and company needs to continue for four to eight weeks. This information even appears in some leaflets for this drug.

“Generally, the recommended dose of omeprazole varies between 10 mg and 20 mg, administered before breakfast and during a period that can range from a single dose to 4 weeks of treatment”, says the text of the leaflet, which can vary according to each manufacturer.