From:
Steve Austin
Date: 2002-08-22 19:08:42 UTC
Subject: Interesting Helicobacter article
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <20020822.153436.3548.3.kazpat1@juno.com>
The article is about the use of strong anti-acid drugs
that actually turn off the acid pump (proton pump) in the stomach to
raise
the pH. These drugs are used a lot in medicine and it the article
is suggesting that docs take care when prescribing them because
by raising the stomach pH they don't allow for growth of helicobacter
but do allow for growth of other bacteria that can cause inflammation
and abnormal gastrin production. By treating the bacteria infection
in lab animals with antibiotics the gastrin production returned to
normal.
Some of these proton pump inhibitor drugs are known as prilosec,
prevacid, and others. Ferrets don't get these. The over
the counter H2 blocker type drugs like Zantac and Pepcid dont
turn off the acid pump so they don't have the same side effect
of allowing for the bacterial overgrowth. Ferrets most commonly
are either treated with carafate for suspected ulcers and a bland
diet. For those suspected of helicobacter an antibiotic combo
treatment is used. Some people may use H2 blockers, but I think
it is not standard of care,
Patty
http://www.hhmi.org/news/merchant.html
> I was just on Howard Hughes Medical Institute site (www.hhmi.org) and
> found a summary of a January 2002 article on treatment of patients
> with long-term acid blockers for helicobacter. The suggestion is
> that long-term treatment will lead to other problems (overgrowth of
> other bacteria due to changed pH in stomach) that ends up causing
> problems of equal seriousness. > Melissa
________________________________________________________________
GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO!
Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less!
Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit:
http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/.