Why Pregnant Women Should Think Twice Before Taking Heartburn Meds
There’s no shortage of health advice being thrown your way when you’re pregnant. Whether it’s your mother-in-law‘s tsk-tsk of your longing glances at a wheel of Brie or your doctor’s insistence that donuts don’t actually constitute a meal, we know pregnant ladies are juggling a lot of concerns. A new study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology is adding to that wealth of health knowledge.
The study, from the Universities of Edinburgh in the UK and Tampere in Finland, is actually a review of eight previous studies that involved 1.3 million children. Researchers analyzed the medical records of pregnant moms and their children, using health care registries and prescription databases. They discovered that women who were prescribed medicine for acid reflux when pregnant were more likely to later turn to doctors for help managing their child’s asthma symptoms.
While this might raise some alarm for pregnant women, it’s still WAY too early to toss out your heartburn medication. Professor Aziz Sheikh, co-director of the Asthma UK Centre for Applied Research at the University of Edinburgh, said, “It is important to stress that this association does not prove that the medicines caused asthma in these children and further research is needed to better understand this link.”
The US government’s Office of Women’s Health suggests that pregnant women with heartburn should consider eating smaller meals and steering clear of trigger foods like citrus juice and spicy foods. They also advise acid reflux sufferers to avoid drinking fluids during meals or lying down immediately after their meal ends. If symptoms persist, they encourage pregnant women to talk with their doctors about medication for their heartburn. Considering all the hard work your body is doing, growing a whole new human and all, we’d say it definitely deserves some heartburn relief!
Pregnant moms, what’s your go-to heartburn cure? Tweet us @BritandCo and let us know!
(Photos via Getty)