Diabetes Talking

Question:

Sorry for always posting such goofy questions, but someone told me that because antacids neutralize your stomach acid, you don’t process or digest your food properly, thereby causing your body to absorb and retain the calories, which equals weight gain if taken for an extended period.  ( The bottle of Tums do say not to take for more than 2 weeks…)

Never heard that. But antacids like cimetidine (tagamet), omeprazole (prilosec), and famotidine (pepcid) can aid weight loss because they block H-2 histamine receptors. Here’s a medline: Acta Physiol Scand 1997 Dec;161(4):489-494 H2-receptor antagonist reduces food intake and weight gain in rats by non-gastric acid secretory mechanisms. Stoa-Birketvedt G, Lovhaug N, Vonen B, Florholmen J Laboratory of Gastroenterology, University of Tromso, Norway. The H2-receptor antagonist cimetidine reduces appetite and weight in overweight healthy subjects and in overweight subjects with type II diabetes mellitus. The aim of this study was to characterize the mechanisms of this effect in rodents. Drugs were administered three times a day, 30 min before 1 h periods of free access to food. In one group of rats (n = 9), cimetidine (8 mg) treatment resulted in significantly lower cumulative food intake than in a control group (n = 9). The total intakes of food during the observation period of 22 days were 325.3 +/- 29.1 g and 346.3 +/- 16.7 g in the cimetidine and control groups, respectively. During the observation period, the weight gain in the cimetidine group was 63.3 +/- 15.8 g, which was significantly lower than the weight gain of 74.8 +/- 14.2 g in the control group, i.e. the cimetidine induced a 15.4% reduction in the weight gain during the observation period of 22 days. The weight gained per weight of food ingested was 0.20 +/- 0.04 (g/g) and 0.22 +/- 0.04 (g/g) in the cimetidine and control groups, respectively (NS). In other experiments, ranitidine (3 mg) and famotidine (0.4 mg), but not omeprazole (0.4 mg), taken three times a day for 8 days reduced the weight gain when compared with a control group (n = 7 in each group). We therefore conclude that the effects of the H2-receptor antagonists are not mediated by inhibitory mechanisms on the gastric acid secretion. PMID: 9429656, UI: 98091491 As an aside, antihistmines used for allergies block H-1 histamine receptors, and can cause weight gain. Barbara Barbara Hirsch, Publisher Obesity Meds and Research News OMR Web Site: http://www.obesity-news.com

Response:

Sorry for always posting such goofy questions, but someone told me that because antacids neutralize your stomach acid, you don’t process or digest your food properly, thereby causing your body to absorb and retain the calories, which equals weight gain if taken for an extended period.  ( The bottle of Tums do say not to take for more than 2 weeks…) Can these really affect the way we digest food?

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