Is Your Heartburn Medicine Wo... Video Transcript

Participants

AGA , Hashem B. El-Serag MD, MPH, Steven R. Peikin M.D., Stuart Spechler MD

Summary

How do you know which heartburn medicine will bring you the best relief? Researchers studying acid reflux can tell us how they measure relief. But what does that mean for the millions of people who suffer occasional heartburn? Listen to gastroenterologists describe what they know about quelling the discomfort of heartburn.

Webcast Transcript

ANNOUNCER: An estimated 60 million Americans experience heartburn. That means many trips to the drugstore and supermarket for over-the-counter medicines.

STUART SPECHLER, MD: I think most people do self-medicate. It's very hard to know exactly how many people are self-medicating, but certainly the surveys on this issue do suggest that most people with heartburn are self-medicating.

ANNOUNCER: With scores of heartburn products available, how is a person to know which ones will bring him or her the best relief?

One test is very simple.

HASHEM B. EL-SERAG, MD, MPH: If your symptoms are provoked by meals, by eating, and you take the pill with the meal or just before the meal and then the symptoms that predictably happen don't happen anymore, or they happen to a very reduced severity, then you know that they're working.

ANNOUNCER: "Working" when it comes to heartburn relief has several measures. One is "onset" and the quickest relievers are usually antacids.

STEVEN PEIKIN, MD: The benefit of an antacid is that it works immediately. You don't have to wait for it to be absorbed by the body. It works quickly.

ANNOUNCER: Another measure of relief is "how long." Drugs called H2 blockers and Proton Pump Inhibitors generally provide longer relief by curbing the production of acid.