There is a growing body of medical evidence which indicates that some popular heartburn drugs and acid reflux medicines like Prevacid, Prilosec, and Nexium can cause some serious kidney-related side effects. In more detail, the use of these proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) for even just a couple of weeks can result in an increased risk of developing:
Acute Interstitial Nephritis (AIN)
Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD)
End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD)
Severe Renal Impairment
Kidney / Renal Failure
Acute Kidney Injury
A team of medical researchers recently examined the so-called “mechanism of injury” for the long-term use of Nexium — and perhaps other heartburn or reflux medications in the proton pump inhibitor (PPI) class of drugs — apparently causing an increased risk of these various kidney problems, as well as heart attacks and dementia.
Their findings can be found in this recent medical research report, “Proton Pump Inhibitors Accelerate Endothelial Senescence”, it was published online as a Brief UltraRapid Communication by the Circulation Research medical journal during May 2016. As opposed to getting too deep into the details of this recent medical research, here is are a couple of excerpts from the report to provide the “lesson-learned” summary.
From the Introduction part of that report:
Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) like Esomeprazole (Nexium) are widely used drugs for the treatment of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). In the US these drugs are sold over-the-counter and thus medical supervision is not required. Although these agents are effective, they were never approved by regulatory authorities for long-term use. Furthermore, evidence suggests that up to 70% of PPI use may be inappropriate…. [footnote omitted]
And then going to the end of the Discussion part:
To conclude, we find that chronic exposure of human endothelial cells to the PPIs [Nexium (Esomeprazole)] or SCH-28080 [(another H+K+ ATPase inhibitor with a potency similar to omeprazole, IC50 of 2.5 and 4.0μM respectively)] accelerates endothelial aging. This adverse effect appears to be due to an inhibition of lysosomal acidification and subsequent impairment of proteostasis. The accumulation of protein aggregates is associated with an increase in oxidative stress, endothelial dysfunction and senescence. Vascular senescence would provide a mechanistic explanation11-13 for the accumulating evidence that PPIs increase the risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, renal failure, and dementia. In the presence of consistent epidemiological evidence of harm, and a unifying mechanism for the disparate disorders linked to PPI use; and with the knowledge that PPIs are being used by millions of people for indications and durations that were never tested or approved; it is time for the pharmaceutical industry and regulatory agencies to re-visit the specificity and the safety of these agents. [footnotes omitted]
We will continue to monitor the safety profile of Nexium as well as other PPI heartburn drugs such as Prilosec and Prevacid.
We are currently investigating possible drug injury lawsuits for people who have developed any of the kidney-related medical problems listed above. These lawsuits are not limited to Nexium, Prilosec, and Prevacid but, instead, can be based on using any of the brand name proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) heartburn drugs and acid reflux medicines. And these cases involve such pills that were obtained by prescription and/or over-the-counter.
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