What stomach medicine can be taken long term?

As the saying goes, medicine is three-part poison. Try not to take medicine if you can. Try to use food supplements if you can. In recent years, more and more people have stomach problems. Many people usually rely on stomach medicine to treat their stomach problems. However, everyone knows that stomach medicine is best not to be used for a long time. Long-term use of stomach medicine is harmful to the body. If you want to take stomach medicine for a long time, it is best to take it under the guidance of a doctor and do not take it blindly.

1. The harm of taking stomach medicine for a long time

The correct name of stomach medicine is antacid, which neutralizes stomach acid. However, commercially available antacid medicines are quite common and are often not single-ingredient medicines, but medicines containing multiple ingredients, including sodium bicarbonate, magnesium, aluminum, calcium, etc. Although stomach medicines containing these substances have corresponding indications, they may also bring different side effects.

Western medicine can easily damage the stomach, so it is best to take stomach medicine with you. However, it is not necessary to take stomach medicine when taking medicine, because sometimes taking them together may affect the absorption or dissolution of other medicines, thereby affecting the efficacy of the medicine or increasing side effects. In fact, not all drugs are harmful to the stomach. Usually they only have a slight effect. If there is an effect, just stop taking the drug or adjust the way of taking it.

2. Stomach medicine that can be taken before meals

Gastric mucosal protective agents: potassium citrate bismuth, colloidal bismuth acid, misoprostol;

Gastrointestinal antispasmodics: propantheline, metoclopramide;

Digestive aids: multi-enzyme tablets, lactase;

Gastrokinetic drugs: metoclopramide, domperidone, cisapride.

3. Why should we distinguish the time to take stomach medicine?

The pharmacology of different drugs for treating stomach problems varies greatly. The processes of absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion in the human body vary greatly. Factors such as gastric juice and food have different effects on the drugs. Therefore, the time of taking stomach medicine has a more significant impact on the efficacy of the medicine.

Some stomach medicines need to be taken before meals, some need to be taken after meals, and some need to be taken once more before going to bed in addition to being taken during the day. For example, the gastrokinetic drug domperidone (Metoclopramide) needs to be taken half an hour before meals because the drug's efficacy reaches its peak during meals, and the gastrointestinal tract begins to move normally under its pharmacological action, which is beneficial to the digestion of food. For those drugs that can protect our gastric mucosa, they should be taken after meals. This way, the characteristics of the drugs can be brought into play, neutralizing stomach acid, absorbing harmful substances, and promoting the regeneration of our gastric mucosa.

Common classification of stomach medicine 1. Prokinetic drugs

Commonly used drugs: Metoclopramide (Metoclopramide), domperidone (Motilium), cisapride (Pribos) or mosapride, etc.

Time of use: It is best to take it half an hour before meals.

2. Antacids

Commonly used drugs: aluminum hydroxide, magnesium oxide, magnesium trisilicate, calcium carbonate, and compound preparations such as Weishuping, Gaiweiping, Weibizhi, and Weider (the main ingredient of which is antacid), etc.

Time to take: 1 to 1.5 hours after meal.

3. Acid-suppressing drugs

Commonly used drugs: There are many types of acid-suppressing drugs, and H2 receptor antagonists and proton pump inhibitors are commonly used. The former include cimetidine, ranitidine, famotidine, roxatidine, nizatidine, etc., and the latter include omeprazole (Losec), rabeprazole, lansoprazole, etc.

Time of administration: Proton pump inhibitors should be taken orally before meals or on an empty stomach. H2 receptor antagonists can be taken before or after meals.