If you can’t enjoy dinner without having a purple pill nearby, or if you rely on heartburn meds to get you through each meal, you’re taking a huge gamble.

And the risks you face run much deeper than heartburn.

A package of five studies published in the Archives of Internal Medicine show the real dangers of proton pump inhibitors, or PPIs. These meds, which include Nexium, Prevacid and Prilosec, are being linked to everything from an increased risk of infection to a greater risk of bone fracture in post-menopausal women.

Two of the studies found that these meds increase your risk of battling the dangerous bacteria Clostridium difficile. I’ve written to you before about this little monster: C- diff causes a tough-to-beat stomach infection that’s especially frightening when it strikes seniors. (Read, “New bacteria on the rise.”)

In one study, researchers found that daily PPI users who are hospitalized for any number of conditions have a 74 percent increase in C-diff risk. And people who took PPIs more than once a day had more than double the risk of infection.

The second study found that PPI users treated for C-diff infections were 42 percent more likely to experience a relapse.

And another newly published study found that PPIs increased the risk of spine fractures by 47 percent in postmenopausal women. These meds were also linked to a 25 percent increased risk of forearm and wrist fractures.

That’s a lot of risk–and almost all of it is unnecessary. An editorial accompanying the studies estimates that 70 percent of all PPI patients don’t need the meds.

And I think that’s being conservative, because everyone seems to be taking a PPI lately–113 million prescriptions each year, good enough for $13.9 billion in sales.

Hidden among those numbers are an alarming–and growing– number of children. In fact, the number of kids on these meds increased by 147 percent between 2001 and 2009, according to the Medco 2010 Drug Trend Report.

Some doctors are even giving these powerful drugs to babies to treat plain old everyday colic, which is just about as irresponsible as medicine gets.

And if your pediatrician suggests this, find a new doctor– and fast!

Yet despite all those millions of people taking these meds, despite all the money being spent, despite all that risk, there’s an even bigger reason to skip them: They simply don’t work.

I know some people swear by their heartburn drugs and many people even feel some immediate relief. It’s a trick– because while these drugs are pretty good at controlling the initial symptoms of heartburn and reflux, they’re quietly making the underlying condition worse.

Despite what you’ve been told, most people with heartburn and reflux problems don’t have too much stomach acid.

They have too little.

These meds suppress those levels even further–which is why your problems will often come back with a vengeance when you stop taking your PPIs.

Fortunately, there are safe, effective drug-free alternatives. Dr. Jonathan Wright, author of “Why Stomach Acid Is Good for You,” is a pioneer in this field–and some of his best advice is available for free on his web site. Just search his newsletter archives for “heartburn” to uncover the real answers.

And then ditch those purple pills for good.
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This is very serious. Doctors are prescribing PPI’s for just about anything that comes along.

Gwen

With a posse still hot on his trail,
He was tempted by nookie for sale;
So the Kid went to bed
With a price on his head
With a girl with a price on her tail

Thanks for thinking of me and my girls. Evelyn has been wonderful. She is taking the girls on an education tour of the Netherlands. We have been communicating with laughter at your Cat monologues. Trop funny.

It is wonderful the way you lighten up the atmosphere. God knows that we really need it sometimes.

Love

Ruth

During a free-asssociation testing session, a psychiatrist waved a photograph of massed clouds n front of his patient. “Quick, what did that make you think of?

“Pussy,” asnwer the man.

The Medical man blinked, then flashed a picture of a crowded street and the patient repeated, “Pussy.”

Next wa an ocean-shore-line scene and the response was, “Pussy that time, too.”

“You really have a fixation on the female pudenda,” said the shrink. “But now let’s try to narrow your reaction down. Is it a particular–er–pussy that comes to mind?”

“Your receptionists’s”

“Why? You’ve never seen the girl before.”

“that’s true, but ever time you wave a picture a me, doc, I can smell your fingers.”