Medications That Shouldn’t Be Taken Long-term (With Natural Alternatives)

Dr. Leonid Kim helps us avoid hurting our organs and more:

Swaps to consider

Body

• PPIs (usually prescribed for heartburn): drugs like omeprazole and esomeprazole reduce stomach acid but long-term use is associated with kidney injury, magnesium deficiency (on which note, do be aware of: How’s Your Magnesium Depletion Score?), and a 65% increased odds of vitamin B12 deficiency after 2 or more years. If you are going to supplement B12, by the way, that’s a good idea for a lot of people, but do avoid making a common mistake that many make in this regard: Which B Vitamins? It Makes A Difference ← in short, the most common vitamer of B12, cyanocobalamin, isn’t that effective, and you might want to spring for methylcobalamin, hydroxycobalamin, and/or adenosylcobalamin, all three of which are active vitamers of B12 that the body can use much more efficiently. You may be wondering why, then, cyanocobalamin is the most common: simple, it’s cheaper to produce!
  • Heartburn alternatives: reduce visceral fat to lower stomach pressure, practice diaphragmatic breathing to strengthen the lower esophageal sphincter, and improve gastric emptying with walking after meals, and ginger tea. See also: Acid Reflux After Meals? Here’s How To Stop It Naturally
• Z-drugs (sleep medications): drugs like zolpidem act on the GABA system to induce sleep but can lead to dependence within weeks, and are linked to complex sleep behaviors like sleepwalking, cooking, or driving while asleep. Needless to say, those things are not good for the health.
  • Sleep alternatives: maintain consistent sleep and wake times and get morning light exposure within 30 minutes of waking to regulate your circadian rhythm. If you do want something to take, though, swing by: Safe Effective Sleep Aids For Seniors
• Anticholinergics: drugs like diphenhydramine, oxybutynin, and amitriptyline are used for allergies, bladder issues, sleep, and depression and are associated with a 46% increased risk of dementia after 3 or more months of use, with risk increasing alongside cumulative exposure.
  • Anticholinergic alternatives: switch to second-generation antihistamines when appropriate (see: Antihistamines’ Generation Gap) and use bladder training and pelvic floor muscle training, which can reduce incontinence episodes by 60 to 80% in women. You might also want to take note of: Foods Linked To Urinary Incontinence In Middle-Age (& Foods That Avert It)
• Gabapentin: originally approved for seizures and postherpetic nerve pain but widely used for other conditions, with long-term use associated with cognitive slowing (we wrote about that here: The Painkiller That Increases Cognitive Impairment Risk By 85%), dizziness, impaired balance, and physical dependence.
  • Neuropathy alternatives: address underlying causes like blood sugar control, improve insulin resistance with diet and exercise, and correct vitamin deficiencies to reduce nerve damage and pain (learn more: Peripheral Neuropathy: How To Avoid It, Manage It, Treat It).

For less on all of this, enjoy:

Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!

Want to learn more?

You might also like:

Are You Taking PIMs? Getting Off The Overmedication Train ← “PIMs” stands for “potentially inappropriate medications”, be they prescribed in error, or to treat a side effect of some other medication, or to treat something that has now long-since passed.

Also, for that matter:

Before You Reach For That Tylenol… ← Tylenol (paracetamol/acetaminophen) is intended for occasional use only, and can cause severe problems if used chronically (not to mention death, if overused)

And while we’re doing painkillers, you might also want to check out:

The Commonly-Prescribed Painkiller That Barely Works (And Is Dangerous)

Take care!