Thursday, September 25, 2008

Prescription Heartburn Medication

Prescription Heartburn Medication: Where to Start

If you suffer from heartburn, at least you can rest assured knowing that there are some effective options for prescription heartburn medication that you can use. If you are trying to find a prescription heartburn medication that works, here are a few of the best ones that you should start with.

One prescription heartburn medication that has proven to work quite well is Zantac. This is in a group of drugs that are known as histamine-2 blockers, and it works by reducing the amount of acid that your stomach produces. This way, not only are you dealing with the heartburn that you presently have, but with this medication you are actually able to prevent heartburn from recurring in the future.

In particular Zantac is used to treat and prevent ulcers in the stomach and intestines, and may also be used for various other purposes.

Another prescription heartburn medication that you may want to try here is Tagamet. This is a drug that is used in promoting the healing of active stomach and duodenal ulcers and in reducing ulcer and heartburn pain. It belongs to a class of drugs known as histamine H2-antagonists and was approved by the FDA in 1977.

Keep in mind that this drug may increase the blood levels of several drugs by reducing their elimination by the liver, and the interaction may occur between this drug and Coumadin for one which is a medication that is often used as a blood thinning agent.

Pregnant or Nursing?

Now if you are pregnant or nursing you are going to have to be really careful here, because you are not able to take the prescription heartburn medication that you normally could. There is heartburn medication during pregnancy that you can take however, just make sure that you work with your doctor on this.

There is also the option of using an all natural remedy for dealing with your heartburn, which will usually be safe even if you are pregnant or nursing.

Heartburn generally gets much worse when you are pregnant, because everything inside of you is all full and squished up, and pressing against your stomach which lets more acid out. It can be tough when you are pregnant or nursing because you have such fewer options in terms of treatment for your heartburn, but remember that you are only pregnant for nine months and so as soon as you have the baby and are done nursing, you can get medication if you still need it.

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