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American Morning
Heartburn Medication Can Reduce Risk of Ulcers From Anti- Inflammatory Drugs
Aired October 17, 2003 - 09:43 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Medication to ease the pain of arthritis can often lead to another kind of pain, ulcers. Now, though, a new study says a popular heartburn drug could solve the problem. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is back with us from the CNN Center with details. Hey, Sanjay.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad. Yes, trading one pain for another, that's no fun. But that's exactly what happens to a lot of people who take these common anti-inflammatory medications. Often times, more times than not, they get ulcers. I should say that risk of ulcers actually increases about four times when taking these sorts of medications.
So some researchers at the University of Michigan actually decided to find out which of some of the medications that are out there are the best to sort of prevent this sort of pain. And I should point out that the study was in part funded by a company that makes the drug Nexium. Nexium was one of the pills that was looked at.
Let's take a look at the specifics of the study: 573 patients were specifically looked at. These were people who had a history of ulcers but did not have ulcer at the specific time.
They're all aged 60 or older. That's the population of people most likely to develop this problem. High risk of developing ulcers because of their past history. And they were taking anti-inflammatory drugs at least five times a week.
Now what they found with this particular study was that if they were taking the anti-inflammatories in addition to the drug, the Nexium drug, which is a proton pump inhibitor -- and I'll tell you what that is in a second -- they had a 60 percent reduction overall in ulcer incidence. Very significant reduction.
And actually the best group, the best group who took both anti- inflammatories and this medication were those taking medication known as a COX-2 inhibitor, also called VIOXX.
Real quick, what are these medication proton pump inhibitors? These are medications basically designed to cut down on the amount of gastric acid in your stomach. They also include, beside Nexium, include Prevacid and Prilosec.
COX-2 inhibitors, that's a medication that a lot of people talk about, as well. There are examples of that. VIOXX is one of them. They are anti-inflammatories that are supposed to have lower side effects.
Again, Soledad, you know, this has been a concern for doctors for a long time. A lot of people take anti-inflammatory drugs because of arthritic type pain, because of joint type pain. The chance of developing ulcers is a significant problem. Again quadrupling. You can cut that in everybody, and this was a high-risk population of people. You can cut that risk dramatically by taking one of these medications -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Some good news there, obviously. Sanjay, thanks.
GUPTA: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Inflammatory Drugs>
Aired October 17, 2003 - 09:43 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Medication to ease the pain of arthritis can often lead to another kind of pain, ulcers. Now, though, a new study says a popular heartburn drug could solve the problem. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is back with us from the CNN Center with details. Hey, Sanjay.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad. Yes, trading one pain for another, that's no fun. But that's exactly what happens to a lot of people who take these common anti-inflammatory medications. Often times, more times than not, they get ulcers. I should say that risk of ulcers actually increases about four times when taking these sorts of medications.
So some researchers at the University of Michigan actually decided to find out which of some of the medications that are out there are the best to sort of prevent this sort of pain. And I should point out that the study was in part funded by a company that makes the drug Nexium. Nexium was one of the pills that was looked at.
Let's take a look at the specifics of the study: 573 patients were specifically looked at. These were people who had a history of ulcers but did not have ulcer at the specific time.
They're all aged 60 or older. That's the population of people most likely to develop this problem. High risk of developing ulcers because of their past history. And they were taking anti-inflammatory drugs at least five times a week.
Now what they found with this particular study was that if they were taking the anti-inflammatories in addition to the drug, the Nexium drug, which is a proton pump inhibitor -- and I'll tell you what that is in a second -- they had a 60 percent reduction overall in ulcer incidence. Very significant reduction.
And actually the best group, the best group who took both anti- inflammatories and this medication were those taking medication known as a COX-2 inhibitor, also called VIOXX.
Real quick, what are these medication proton pump inhibitors? These are medications basically designed to cut down on the amount of gastric acid in your stomach. They also include, beside Nexium, include Prevacid and Prilosec.
COX-2 inhibitors, that's a medication that a lot of people talk about, as well. There are examples of that. VIOXX is one of them. They are anti-inflammatories that are supposed to have lower side effects.
Again, Soledad, you know, this has been a concern for doctors for a long time. A lot of people take anti-inflammatory drugs because of arthritic type pain, because of joint type pain. The chance of developing ulcers is a significant problem. Again quadrupling. You can cut that in everybody, and this was a high-risk population of people. You can cut that risk dramatically by taking one of these medications -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Some good news there, obviously. Sanjay, thanks.
GUPTA: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Inflammatory Drugs>
