"The bad bacteria thrives in the acidic environment, and doesn't do well in the alkaline environment." - your words.
That is what we do not agree on. How could we have differing opinions about this when we both believe
Antibiotics are the trigger for infection? It is the acid-alkiline thing.
I have consistently heard the opposite about C-difficile. Even the Montreal hospital staff said this, on TV, I recoreded it actually.They say the
Antibiotics kill off everything [agree with you], and the ALKALINE conditions allow the stronger BAD bugs to infest us [disagree with you].
You say "I think its just the opposite". Now lets figure it out eh? No need to argue, or be in contentioious moods over this ok?
quoted from your link - "Other patients who become carriers of C. difficile may not have symptoms until they start taking
Antibiotics . Diarrhea can occur within one week of starting
Antibiotic therapy. Antibiotics destroy the normal bacteria of the intestine, allowing C. difficile to overgrow in the gastrointestinal tract. "
So maybe its got nothing to do with acidity? Neither of us believe that!!
They start antibiotics and then get C-difficile. The reports I heard said antibiotics LOWER the guts acid,and that allows the bug, if present, to infect you.
***To back up this, today there was this article:***
"Widely used heartburn and ulcer drugs such as Nexium, Pepcid and Prilosec can make people more susceptible to pneumonia, probably because they reduce germ-killing stomach acid, Dutch researchers found in a study of more than 300,000 patients."
[link below]
WOW, I hit the nail on the head there. But thats not what Health Canada is saying, they do not mention acidity at all.[2nd link] Its an evolving idea I guess, and the medical authorities are not yet on board.
I really think we have been misled and now we must accept our gullablity and change our way of thinking about stomach acid. Lowering it wont be a good thing for our health - and thats exactyly why the rumor got started - they are trying to cause disease, chronic disease. Low acid is one way to do that. Sure it radical, but I can point out worse things we ["they"] have done to ourselves too.
I wonder if we have been mislead for so many years than now we are spouting the old brainwashed ideas to see if they are still "true"?
Now, I could start a flame by saying you appear to be doing the work of the 'they' who would harm us. But I don't think you mean to. Its just manipulation, and I could have been there a year ago myself. Sometimes, dis-information can cause diseases, and there is a concerted effort, a conspiracy, to create diseases.
We have to figure this out, leave out the ego thing that I am prone to, and look at it clearly. These 'arguments' start like this between people who agree, and that is part of the plan to keep the masses powerless.
Please, lets find common ground,no harm in learning new things, no shame in admitting a mistake [or we would never get better]
Karlin.
--------------------------------------------------------
Pasted article from 1st link:
Heartburn Drugs Linked to Pneumonia
By LINDSEY TANNER
AP Medical Writer
October 27, 2004, 6:12 AM EDT
CHICAGO -- Widely used heartburn and ulcer drugs such as Nexium, Pepcid and Prilosec can make people more susceptible to pneumonia, probably because they reduce germ-killing stomach acid, Dutch researchers found in a study of more than 300,000 patients.
The highest risks occurred with more powerful acid-fighting drugs called proton pump inhibitors, which are sold in the United States under such brand names as Nexium, Prevacid and Prilosec. Over nearly three years, users of these drugs faced almost double the risk of developing pneumonia compared with former users.
Users of another class of acid-fighting drugs that includes cimetidine and famotidine -- sold in the United States as Tagamet and Pepcid -- also faced an elevated risk.
The study was led by researcher Robert J.F. Laheij at University Medical Center St. Radboud in Nijmegen, Netherlands, and appears in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.
The acid in normal stomach fluids generally kills harmful bacteria; suppressing it with drugs to treat heartburn and ulcers may make the body more hospitable to such germs, which may then infect the lungs and cause pneumonia, the researchers said.
These heavily promoted medicines are among the most widely prescribed drugs worldwide, with almost $13 billion in sales in 1998 alone, according to a JAMA editorial. Millions of Americans take these drugs, which are heavily advertised in "ask your doctor about ..." TV commercials.
Older patients and those with asthma and other chronic lung ailments are especially vulnerable to pneumonia. In light of the latest findings, the researchers said such patients should use these medicines "only when necessary and with the lowest possible dose."
Among the 364,683 patients whose medical records were studied, 5,551 cases of pneumonia were diagnosed -- 185 of them in people taking acid-suppressing drugs.
The researchers said their findings translate to about one case of pneumonia for 226 patients treated with the more potent acid-fighting drugs and one case per 508 patients treated with the other drugs.
Users of the more potent drugs were 89 percent more likely than former users to develop pneumonia. Patients using the less potent drugs were 63 percent more likely to develop pneumonia than former users of those drugs.
Nevertheless, the findings are reassuring because the apparent increase in the risk of pneumonia was small, said Dr. James Gregor of the University of Western Ontario.
Moreover, the study does not actually prove that the drugs cause pneumonia, said Gregor, who wrote the JAMA editorial and was not involved in the research. Regardless of which medication a patient is taking, heartburn, or acid reflux disease, can cause a person to accidentally inhale regurgitated stomach acid, increasing the risk of pneumonia, he said.
* __
On the Net:
Archives:
Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-heartburn-drugs-pneumonia...
http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/msds-ftss/msds36e.html