Gastrointestinal bleeding is a potentially life-threatening condition.
It is often linked to the use of medications like non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDS, like ibuprofen and naproxen, aspirin, and blood thinners.
Proton pump inhibitors, or PPIs, are generally prescribed by physicians to help treat digestive issues like gastroesophageal reflux disease.
But in a new study from Michigan Medicine, researchers found that the drugs’ role in the prevention of gastrointestinal bleeding is often overlooked.
PPIs have gotten a lot of press lately because they’ve been linked to things like kidney disease, diarrhea and certain mineral deficiencies. But it is far from clear that they actually cause these conditions.
In the study, the team interviewed the physicians about how they prescribe PPIs, as well as the factors they feel serve as barriers when it comes to using them for bleeding prevention.
They found many physicians overlooked the effectiveness of PPIs for bleeding prevention and weren’t aware of guidelines that recommend them for this purpose.
As a result, thinking about PPI gastroprotection rarely got prioritized in busy clinic visits, when patients may have many other pressing issues.
In addition, concerns about the adverse effects from PPI use created a reluctance for some physicians to prescribe these drugs.
The team notes that for patients who may see many different medical specialists, it can often be unclear who should be responsible for considering whether a PPI is needed for bleeding prevention.
If you care about gut health, please read studies about a major cause of fatty liver disease, leaky gut, and the stuff in gut linked to depression, bipolar disorder.
For more information about health, please see recent studies about ‘gut bugs’ that could drive prostate cancer growth, and results showing this diet may boost your gut health and weight loss.
The study is published in the Annals of Family Medicine, and was conducted by Jacob E. Kurlander et al.
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