Heartburn remedies like Nexium, Pepcid and Prilosec may increase the risk of pneumonia, possibly by reducing the stomach acids that normally kill germs, Dutch researchers found.
Other acid-fighting drugs, including Tagamet, also were associated with a higher pneumonia risk in the study of more than 300,000 patients.
Writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the researchers found that there were 5,551 cases of pneumonia among 364,683 patients studied -- 185 of them in patients taking the acid-suppressing drugs.
The highest risks occurred with the powerful proton pump inhibitor drugs, sold under the brand names Nexium, Pepcid and Prilosec. The researchers said the risk was small but measurable.
In an accompanying editorial, James Gregor of the University of Western Ontario noted that the study doesn't prove the drugs cause pneumonia.
