Popular heartburn medications such as Prilosec (omeprazole) and Nexium (esomeprazole) may inadvertently up your chances of catching COVID-19, new research suggests.
An online survey of more than 53,000 Americans, all with a history of acid reflux, heartburn or GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) found that many took a proton pump inhibitor (PPI) to lower stomach acid levels.
Here's the bad news: More than 6% of the respondents also said they had tested positive for COVID. So the study team compared COVID diagnoses with medication habits.
The result: Those taking a PPI once a day saw their risk for contracting COVID double. Those taking a PPI twice a day saw their COVID infection risk nearly quadruple. snip There was a twist, however: Higher COVID risk was not seen among patients taking an alternative class of heartburn meds known as histamine-2 receptor antagonists (H2RAs). These include Pepcid (famotidine), Axid (nizatidine) and Tagamet (cimetidine).
