Health, Weight Loss & Diet Plans General Blog: If You're Into Spicy Foods

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<img alt="Spicy Food And Your Kidneys" src="http://www.prevention.com/sites/prevention.com/files/styles/article_main_image_2200px/public/articles/2016/02/gettyimages-103772162-kidneys-roger-harris.jpg?itok=RLgilSbr" title="Spicy Food And Your Kidneys" typeof="foaf:Image" /></div>
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                                <section class="field-body">If a dose
 of Nexium (or Prevacid or Prilosec—really any proton pump inhibitor) 
precedes your five-alarm chili or extra spicy enchiladas, you may want 
to reexamine your game plan. New research shows that your go-to PPIs—the
 little pills that allow you to eat all the fiery foods and chocolate 
and caffeine you want—could have a serious effect on your kidneys. (Heal
 your whole body with the 12-day liver detox for total body health!)<br />

The study, published in <em>JAMA Internal Medicine</em>,
 found that PPI use is associated with a higher risk of chronic kidney 
disease (CKD)—a condition that affects about 14% of adults in the US and
 is characterized by a gradual loss of kidney function.<br />
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Researchers examined the health records of 10,482 participants in the
 Artherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study and found that the 
322 people using PPIs had a nearly 12% risk of developing CKD over 10 
years, while those who had never used the medication had an 8.5% risk. 
Another batch of records from 248,751 patients from the Geisinger Health
 System in Pennsylvania were also examined. Over the course of 10 years,
 the 16,900 patients using PPIs had a 15.5% risk of developing CKD, 
compared with a 14% risk in non-PPI using patients. And within each 
group that used the medication, twice-daily PPI use was associated with a
 higher risk of CKD than using the medication once daily.<br />

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Proton pump inhibitors were first introduced in 1990 with the promise of giving heartburn and indigestion
 the boot. Now, more than 15 years later, PPIs are one of the most 
commonly prescribed medications in the United States—despite studies 
that have linked PPIs to other health issues, such as hip fractures, pneumonia, and <em>C. difficile</em> infections, according to the <em>JAMA Internal Medicine</em>
 study. What's more, an estimated 25 to 75% of all PPI prescriptions are
 unnecessary, and patients are known to take them beyond the recommended
 guidelines.<br />

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<img alt="Spicy food" class="media-element file-default" src="http://www.prevention.com/sites/prevention.com/files/styles/article_main_image_2200px/public/gettyimages-594835973-spicy-food-jeanninemcchesney.jpg?itok=oKyNBbCp" title="Spicy food" typeof="foaf:Image" /></div>
<span class="photo-cred">Photograph by Jeannine McChesney/Getty Images</span></div>
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So what can PPI-taking, acid reflux sufferers do? Make sure you 
really need the meds in the first place, suggests Jamie Koufman, MD, 
founder of the Reflux Center and Voice Institute of New York. "If you're only having occasional symptoms and you know they're caused by a bad diet, you can probably stop your own acid reflux by rethinking when you eat and how you eat," Koufman says. In her book, <em>Dr. Koufman's Acid Reflux Diet</em>, she suggests eating more avocados, fish, and rice, while nixing "trigger" foods like onions, citrus, and chocolate.<br />

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And if you've been taking PPIs for a while, you may want to start 
considering your exit plan. "On average, patients shouldn't be on a PPI 
for any longer than 1 to 6 months if they have severe acid reflux; 
they're not for long-term use," Koufman says. If you're wary of PPIs but
 still want a medical fix for your chronic heartburn, ask your doctor 
about H2 blockers (like Zantac), which aren't quite as strong as PPIs 
but offer fewer side effects, suggests Koufman.</section></section>                        </div>
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If You're Into Spicy Foods, Your Kidneys Would Like You To Read This

Photograph by Roger Harris/Getty Image ...