Suggest Treatment For Arthritis In The Shoulders

Posted on Mon, 11 Sep 2017

Question: My wife has suffered from acid-reflux problems for the last 15 years. If she doesn't take medication she suffers severe bouts of vomitting. The medication she has been taking for the last 15 years is omeprazole. However, over the last four years she has starting to experience a variety of arthritis types of problems: severe arthritis diagnosed in both shoulders, deterioration of the bottom three discs in her spine, contraction of the sinews in her wrists ... She is worried that the long term use of the proton-pump inhibitor might be playing a part in the developments of these symptoms. Might she be right in this supposition and are there alternatives to the omeprazole?

Answered by Dr. Dr. Michelle Gibson (42 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
not a known side effect

Detailed Answer:
HI, thanks for using healthcare magic

It is understandable to be concerned regarding the long term use of any medication.

Omeprazole and other PPI (proton pump inhibitors) are associated with some side effects with long term use such as vitamin deficiencies including calcium.

The decrease in calcium may then increase the chance of osteoporosis but it does not play a role in arthritis so it would not be having an impact on or causing the arthritis or spinal changes that she is experiencing.

It is also associated with deficiencies in magnesium, vitamin b12 and iron but none of these would cause arthritis or spinal changes

There are other long term effects but these tend to occur in the minority of persons using the medication and none would cause arthritis.
Some of the other rare complications are kidney disease and infection

I hope this helps, feel free to ask any other questions

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar