Study relates increase in diarrhea risk to intake of stomach acid drugs

Study relates increase in diarrhea risk to intake of stomach acid drugs

Drugs such as the highly popular anti-heartburn drugs like proton-pump inhibitors which blocks the production of stomach acid, increases the risk of being infected by a strain of diarrhea which is commonly infectious, claim researchers.

Common drugs like Nexium & Losec or their other versions, manufactured by AstraZeneca is slated to triple the risk of having diarrhea. The study blames this on the Clostridium difficile bacteria.

These drugs work by reducing gastric acid, thus clearing the way for the bacterium to rapidly multiply in digestive systems.

Author of the study, Sandra Dial from Montreal's McGill University, wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association that for patients above the age of 75, Clostridium was the third-most common infectious type of diarrhea. This bacteria causes the intestine to inflate and catch infection.

The study also states that previously this mostly happened during stays at hospitals, but lately more and more cases have been observed in community settings, and while only 1 in 10,000 contacted it in such setting in 1994, it rose to 22 for every 1000 in 2004.

Outbreaks in parts of US and Quebec, a province of Canada, had led previous researchers to believe that the bacteria strain is turning deadlier.