Most people who fail to come off a PPI fail for the same reason: they stop too fast, get hit by rebound acid two weeks later, and conclude they needed the drug after all. The rebound is real, it’s predictable, and it passes — but only if you know …
PPI Taper Schedule: A Week-by-Week Plan to Come Off Read More
Of all the long-term PPI safety concerns, this is the one with the best evidence behind it. It’s also the only one confirmed by a large randomized trial: over three years, people taking pantoprazole had significantly more enteric infections than those on placebo. Every other outcome that trial measured …
PPIs and Infection Risk: C. diff, Pneumonia and SIBO Read More
Long-term PPI use is associated with a modest increase in fracture risk — somewhere around 20–30% in relative terms for fractures overall, with the strongest signals in people who already have other risk factors for breaking a bone. But here’s the finding that reframes the whole question, and that …
PPIs and Bone Density: Do They Really Cause Fractures? Read More
The kidney question is the strongest of the PPI safety concerns — stronger than the dementia one, and worth taking seriously. Several large observational studies have found that long-term PPI users develop chronic kidney disease at higher rates than non-users, with hazard ratios generally in the 1.2 to 1.5 …
The short answer: on the current evidence, proton pump inhibitors probably do not cause dementia. The headline that frightened everyone came from a single German claims-data study in 2016, and the better-designed research that followed has largely failed to reproduce it. An umbrella review published in 2026 — a …
Do PPIs Cause Dementia? What the Research Actually Shows Read More
Cricopharyngeal spasm is a sustained, involuntary tightening of the cricopharyngeus — the ring of muscle that forms your upper esophageal sphincter, sitting right at the base of your throat. It feels like a lump, a band, or a hand squeezing your neck. It typically eases when you eat or …
Cricopharyngeal Spasm vs Globus: Reflux Causes & Relief Read More