Study vitamin B12 deficiency by acid blocker

Acid blockers may cause vitamin deficiencies

12/11/2013

Medications such as omeprazole and pantoprazole are prescribed to prevent, for example, gastric and duodenal ulcers, or to treat reflux disease. The so-called „Proton pump inhibitors“ (or „antacids“) actually protect the stomach by suppressing the formation of stomach acid. Apparently, there is also a downside to the coin, because scientists have now found that the drugs cause a vitamin B12 deficiency and could possibly even lead to psychosis and dementia.

Use in gastric ulcers or heartburn
Whether omeprazole, pantoprazole or lansoprazole: so-called „Proton pump inhibitors“ are among the top-selling medications worldwide and are used for the treatment or prophylaxis of gastric and duodenal ulcers or heartburn. The remedies are actually considered as „stomach protectors“, because they ensure that a certain enzyme in the parietal cells of the stomach (proton potassium pump) is inhibited and thereby the formation of gastric acid is suppressed.

Concentration disorders and anemia due to vitamin B12 deficiency
Now, however, US scientists have found that the drugs may do more harm than good in the long run. Because these are taken over a longer period of time, they can apparently lead to a lack of vitamin B12, which manifests itself in, among other things, in impaired concentration, anemia and severe fatigue, there are also indications of an increased risk of dementia and psychosis.

US researchers are investigating causes of vitamin deficiency
The research team around Jameson Lam and Douglas Corley of the „Kaiser Permanente Division of Research“ In Oakland, a recent study looked into what could cause vitamin B12 deficiency, which is primarily found in animal foods such as meat, fish, eggs and dairy products, including fatty acid breakdown and blood formation , The researchers concluded that 12 percent of the more than 25,000 patients whose vitamin B12 levels were too low regularly „stomach protectors“ - it became clear that the more patients took the drug, the higher the risk of vitamin deficiency: „Those who took the remedy for more than two years increased their risk of vitamin B12 deficiency by 65 percent, "said Douglas Corley in the study's report „Journal of the American Medical Association“(JAMA).

Prescription boom in proton pump inhibitors
In contrast, patients taking antihistamines (including histamine receptor blockers) such as ranitidine, famotidine or cimetidine for the treatment of allergies or gastritis showed a lower risk of vitamin B12 deficiency. But compared to the proton pump inhibitors, the proportion of these gastric drugs is low and has also been decreasing for years. The proton pump inhibitors, however, are experiencing a veritable prescription boom, which is viewed with skepticism by the US researchers: „Although the reflux disease in the industrialized nations is increasing, but certainly not fourfold in the last ten years, to explain this continuous increase in the regulation. "

Prescription of the drugs should be closely examined in each patient
„The use of past and present gastric acid inhibitors could be significantly linked to the presence of a vitamin B12 deficiency. These findings should be considered when weighing the risks and benefits of using these medicines“, so the recommendation of the authors.

Although the use of omeprazole, pantoprazole and similar medicines in some cases quite helpful - but with regard to the possible side effects should be closely looked at each individual patient and not automatically prescribed for each heartburn, acid regurgitation or other diseases.

3 billion daily doses a year
According to the Scientific Institute of the AOK (WIdO), in Germany alone nearly 3 billion daily doses of these funds were recorded in 2012. „The prescriptions of proton pump inhibitors have increased fourfold in the last 10 years. [...] In the absence of other therapeutic concepts, proton pump inhibitors are presumably also used for the very common irritable stomach syndrome, although the scientific evidence is almost absent for this indication“, says Joachim Rössner in the Drug Disposal Report 2013. (nr)