The bone-chilling secret you weren’t supposed to hear about those heartburn meds

Janice Allen wants to play with her grandchildren again. Even if it’s just taking them to the park.

But she’s already fractured both feet, two ribs and an ankle – and she’s terrified of breaking another bone.

Susan Poznanovich has broken both feet, too, and spends her days in “severe pain.”

They’re both part of a growing army of walking wounded – women and men whose bones snapped and shattered without notice.

All after taking the “Purple Pill” to treat their stubborn heartburn.

Now researchers are warning that more than 100 million other Americans who take Nexium, Prilosec, Zegerid, Prevacid and other prescription or OTC heartburn drugs may be at the same risk.

But our government and billion-dollar drug companies have cooked up a scheme to keep you in the dark.

Acid bath

Researchers from the Forsyth Institute, one of the top independent research organizations in America, are sounding the alarm.

Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) for heartburn increase your risk of sudden, severe bone breaks by a shocking 34 percent.

The very acids PPI drugs suppress allow our bodies to regulate the calcium in our blood and transfer it to our bones. Block that acid, according to lead researcher Dr. Ricardo Battaglino, and you’re literally starving and weakening your bones.

That news may come as a shock to millions of PPI patients – but drug makers and the FDA have known about it for years. In fact, they worked together to keep it a deep, dark secret.

You see, the bad news about PPIs and fractures started rolling in years ago. Stories of shattered wrists, ankles and hips were so frightening the FDA required all PPIs to carry a warning about possible fracture risks.

But then, a short ten months later, Big Pharma got a special gift from the agency.

Giving them a loophole the size of Saturn’s rings, the FDA said that it had changed its mind. Suddenly, all those OTC versions somehow magically became “safe.”

So, how did Big Pharma pull that one off? The dosage is the same as prescription drugs that still carry the warnings. In fact, Prilosec OTC at 20.6 mg is over double the strength of the 10 mg prescription pill. And the OTC version is even advertised as the “medicine equivalent” of the “leading Rx.”

It’s all because of the 14-day deception.

The FDA ruled that as long as the OTC package says not to take the drug any longer than two weeks, the fracture warnings are history.

Seriously! Who takes these drugs for only two weeks?

Everyone — the FDA, the drugmakers and even your friend down the street – knows that people are popping these pills every…single…day, for years and years on end. Even the Prilosec OTC commercial says to take “one pill each morning.”

But as long as their packages keep saying to stop taking the pills after 14 days, Big Pharma doesn’t have to tell you a thing. And that 14-day deception may have sentenced millions to shattered bones, agonizing pain, and lost independence.

In fact, here’s just some of what we now know about PPIs and bone breaks:

Using these drugs can increase your risk of hip, wrist, foot and spine fractures.
The risk increases the longer you use them, with those taking them for one year or more at the greatest risk.
Taking a higher dose, even for under a year, also increases the chance of a fracture.
The danger also increases if you have other risk factors for broken bones and are over 50.

Of course, you’ll never hear these warnings from the drug companies or the feds. After all, who takes these drugs for longer than 14 days?

Sources:

“Stomach acid may be a key player in bone health” Salynn Boyles, April 2, 2015, Medpagetoday, medpagetoday.com

“Fracture warning nixed for OTC proton pump inhibitors” Robert Lowes, Medscape, Medscape.com