Short excerpt from a YouTube video by Dr. Tabatha Barber warning that commonly prescribed heartburn medications (e.g., Prilosec, Nexium) can mask symptoms rather than treat the underlying cause. The speaker states that heartburn is often due to H. pylori infection or relaxation of the esophageal sphincter allowing stomach acid into the esophagus, not necessarily excess stomach acid overall.
Prilosec, nexium, all these heartburn medications, these are one of the biggest problems that we have going on in the country because it masks the symptom of heartburn. So you feel better temporarily. Your doctor's proud that they fixed you, but unfortunately, that isn't the problem. The problem is you probably have an H. Pylori infection, or the sphincter between your esophagus and your stomach is relaxing and allowing stomach acid to get in your esophagus where it doesn't belong. And that's why feel the burning pain. So it's not that you have too much stomach acid, it's that you have it in the wrong place or you have the wrong bacteria causing issues in your stomach.
