Common heartburn drugs are under fire, as a series of studies from the Archives of Internal Medicine released on Monday demonstrating serious side effects such as increase in fractures and bacterial infections.

Collectively, these drugs are called proton pump inhibitors, but they are better known as Nexium (AstraZeneca), Prilosec (AstraZeneca), Protonix (Pfizer), and Prevacid (Takeda).  These medicines have a total U.S. sales of 13.9 billion annually, as an estimated 113 million prescriptions are filled each year.  Dr. Michael Katz, director for the San Francisco Department of Public Health, states that 60 to 70 percent of people taking proton pump inhibitors do not need to be on them.  This problem is augmented by people being unaware of the risk until now.   (more…)

This Christmas season, I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to serve the community as a guide, coach, and teacher of health and healing. I’ve been seeing more and more mental lightbulbs turn on this year as people are beginning to take charge of their health, and understand that pharmaceutical companies are not benevolent-driven, but are profit-driven enterprises.  (more…)