Widely used heartburn drugs are associated with increased risk of death, and the longer a person uses the drugs, the greater the risk, new research suggests.
Proton pump inhibitors or PPIs, have been tied to a wide range of side effects including fractures, dementia, heart disease, pneumonia, and kidney disease, the study’s senior author, Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly of Washington University’s School of Medicine in St. Louis, told Reuters Health in a telephone interview.
“We took it a bit further and asked is this class associated with a higher risk of death, and the answer is yes,” he said.
