Warning About Mixing Heartburn Pills with Blood Thinners

Patients who take popular brands of heartburn pills along with Plavix or another anti-blood clotting medication may be at greater risk of heart attack, a group of cardiologists has warned.

Nexium, Prevacid, Protonix, and Prilosec OTC, commonly called proton-pump inhibitors, and drugs used to treat symptoms of heartburn. However, they may interfere with Plavix or other anti-clotting drugs and increase the risk of heart attack and stroke by 50 percent in patients taking both types of drugs, according to a new study by the Indiana University School of Medicine and Medco Health Solutions, Inc.

The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions warned of the potentially deadly drug complication that was detailed in the study. Since Plavix and other blood thinners may cause abdominal bleeding and acid reflux, as many as half of patients who take Plavix also take a proton-pump inhibitor to treat the side effects, the researchers said.

Plavix, the popular blood-thinning drug that debuted in the United States a decade ago, is given to many patients to prevent blood clotting following surgery to implant a heart stent. About one million people undergo heart-stent surgeries in the United States each year.

Since the combination of blood thinners and heartburn drugs has now been linked to increased risk of heart attack and stroke, patients experiencing heartburn symptoms caused by taking Plavix may consider taking a non-proton pump inhibiting heartburn drug, such as Zantac or Tagamet. The older antacid drugs are cheaper and have not been associated with the same problems linked to blood thinners like Plavix.

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