While medication can be effective for treating the symptoms of GERD, it is associated with certain risks and drawbacks.

• Side Effects of Antireflux Medications

• Consequences of Treating Only the Symptoms

• Higher Risk for Pneumonia

Medications and their possible side effects can affect individual people in different ways. Before starting a medication, even if it is an over-the-counter medication, you should speak with your physician.

Antacids
Common side effects include changes in the color of bowel movements, constipation, diarrhea, and stomach cramps. Rare side effects include loss of appetite, vomiting, and weakness.

H2 Antagonists
Common side effects include abdominal pain, diarrhea, dizziness, gas, headache, nausea, sore throat, and runny nose. Rare side effects include agitation, anemia, blood disorders, joint pain, kidney disorders, rapid heartbeat, and sleepiness.

Proton Pump Inhibitors
Common side effects include abdominal pain, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, gas, and headache. Rare side effects include anemia, anxiety, blood in urine, hepatitis, high blood pressure, irritable colon, and rapid heartbeat.

Many studies have recognized the effectiveness of medications for the treatment of GERD symptoms. However, many studies also have recognized that treating the symptoms of GERD is not the same as treating the disease. Leaving the “machinery” broken has disadvantages such as serious health risks, including esophagitis, Barrett’s esophagus, and esophageal cancer, and a lower quality of life:

• Medication treatment has very good results.⁷ However, it only relieves the symptoms; it does not cure the disease.⁷
• Medication does not treat regurgitation.⁷
• 90 percent of people who quit taking medication will have a recurrence of GERD symptoms.⁷
• Medication needs to be taken for life.⁷
• The potential advantage of surgery over medication is that the reduction in stomach acid in the esophagus is greater, by up to 98 percent.⁵
• The direct and indirect costs of GERD add up to $10 billion annually.¹
• 63 percent of the annual cost of GERD can be attributed to medications.¹

The effectiveness of medications that treat the symptoms of GERD has been well established, but medications may have significant drawbacks.¹⁰ Medical professionals believe that acid-suppressing medications reduce stomach acid production to the point that the normally sterile upper intestine can support illnesses.^10,11

Decreased stomach acid production is known to increase risk of oral infections.¹⁰ Studies have been published recently that directly link medications for GERD symptoms to pneumonia.

Pneumonia
People who use acid-suppressing medications, such as H2 antagonists and proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), are more likely to develop community-acquired pneumonia.¹⁰ This is generally not considered a problem, because the likelihood of contracting pneumonia is low.¹⁰ However, groups of people at a higher risk of contracting pneumonia and dying from illness have been identified.¹⁰

The following are at a greater risk of developing pneumonia:

• Children
• Elderly adults
• Asthma sufferers (asthma is a GERD-related illness)
• People who have chronic obstructive lung disease
• People with compromised immune systems