Long-term Use of Antacids Linked to B12 Deficiency, High Risk of Dementia, Nerve Damage

Million Americans who suffer from heartburn resort to antacids for relief. But could they, by taking some antacids, unwittingly, be making themselves candidates to another even more serious range of healthy problems.

Well, at least, it is what a recent Kaiser Permanente study suggests. Kaiser scientists have found reasons to believe that there's a link between long-term use of a popular type of antacid medication and vitamin B12 deficiency - a condition that when untreated can increase the risk of dementia, nerve damage, anemia and other potentially serious medical problems.

Published online on Tuesday on Journal of the American Medical Association, the study is the first large-scale look at indigestion relief drugs.

The study found that participants who took a class of drugs known as proton pump inhibitors - sold under brand names such as Prilosec, Prevacid and Nexium - for more than two years had a 65 percent increased risk of B12 deficiency.

Dr. Douglas Corley, Kaiser Gastroenterologist and the senior researcher on the study, said: "It's not that people should stop the medication. It raises the question of whether they should check with their physician to be screened for this vitamin deficiency."

Among the most commonly prescribed medications in the United States, Proton pump inhibitors account for more than 100 million prescriptions a year and about $14 billion in sales. While many are available by prescription only, some of these drugs, including Prilosec and Prevacid, are sold over-the-counter at lower doses.

The drugs, which became popular in the 1990s, are commonly used to treat heartburn, stomach acid reflux disease and gastric ulcers. They are typically recommended for short-term use - up to eight weeks - but some people take these drugs for years.

Unlike chewable antacids like Tums, which work to neutralize stomach acid after it has already formed, these drugs go after the source. They shut down the cells in the stomach responsible for producing acid so they can no longer do their job.

"But the same cell that makes stomach acid also makes a little protein that helps vitamin B12 be absorbed," said Corley, explaining how vitamin B12 would be considered a unintentional casualty in the process.