Ditch Your PPI and Get A Prescription for Nutrition

When you have a holistic nutritionist, a pharmacist and a strong team supporting you through the deprescribing process of medications that may be compromising your gut… What have you got to lose except for bad digestion?

Taking a Proton Pump Inhibitor for a long period of time, longer than 4 – 8 weeks, puts patients at serious risk for serious adverse health affects. The most common reasons a person would be prescribed a PPI is GERD, however the only long term indicated use of these drugs are:

• Barrett’s esophagus
•  Someone being treated with an NSAID
•  Someone with the history of gastric ulcers

These prescriptions create life threatening side effects and disrupt the absorption of critical nutrients like vitamin B12, iron and magnesium, leading to muscle cramping, irregular heartbeat, pneumonia and hip fractures. PPI’s cause serious problems in your body’s most important system, the gastrointestinal system, also known as your digestive system.

Your digestive system is home to billions of bacteria that are responsible for your immune response, energy production, mental health and more. This delicate system, also called the microbiome, can be affected by stress, the food you eat and you guessed it, prescription drugs!

At NutriChem we are advocates for your health, we want to help you answer the question whether these drugs are right for you and support you along the way. The main action of a proton pump inhibitor is to reduce the amount of acid in the stomach to alleviate the uncomfortable sensations of GERD, heartburn and poor digestion.

Here’s the catch, your body actually needs acid in the stomach for proper breakdown of food into smaller particles so your enzymes can further breakdown the food into absorbable nutrients for overall functioning of your body.

Insufficient digestion leads to reduced nutrient absorption and slow transit time resulting in constipation and harmful bacterial overgrowth in the gut. Not only that, adequate stomach acid is required to kill harmful bacteria and parasites from food before making their way into the body.

To help you get back on the road to good digestion, our Clinical Pharmacists will guide you through the deprescribing process, and if you need extra support on the diet side of things, our Nutritionists are equipped with the most up to date information on how to support your gut.

As a Holistic Nutritionist I know how important it is to take the confusion out of food and have a simply laid out and easy to follow plan to set you up for success. Contact our clinic to get started today.

By Laura Mierzwa, Registered Holistic Nutritionist and Culinary Nutrition Expert