Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Use of Heartburn Medication in Pregnancy and Asthma Risk

A recent article published in the January 2017 online issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology looked at whether children born to mothers who have taken heartburn medication (proton pump inhibitors, H2 receptor antagonists) during pregnancy have an increased risk of developing childhood asthma.  Researchers Devine, McCleary, Sheikh, and Nwaru did a systematic review of 8 previous studies which involved more than 1.3 million children. The researchers found that any use of heartburn medication in pregnancy was associated with the resulting children having a higher risk of asthma development in comparison to children who were born to mothers that did not take heartburn medication during pregnancy   As well a higher dosage of heartburn medication in pregnancy was associated with a further higher risk of the resulting children developing asthma.  The information in this article helps to highlight the importance of integrating safe supports for managing heartburn during pregnancy.   From a naturopathic perspective, safe supports include eating smaller, more frequent meals, aiming to avoid heartburn triggering foods (which include spicy food, mint, citrus, tomatoes, onions, garlic, caffeine), integrating a liquid calcium magnesium supplement.  

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