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Possible link between heartburn drugs and asthma in babies

New research suggests that pregnant women who take drugs for heartburn may be increasing the risk of their child becoming asthmatic.

An analysis of 1.3 million children showed that if their mothers had been prescribed drugs to treat the acid reflux they experienced during pregnancy, they were more likely to need treatment for asthma during their childhood.

Acid reflux is a common complaint during pregnancies. It is caused by hormonal changes and the pressure put on the mother’s stomach by the growing foetus. The drugs used for the treatment of acid reflux are proton pump inhibitors and H2-receptor antagonists. They were safe for mothers to take as they do not affect child development. But, the recent research has thrown this into doubt, although the study’s researchers at the University of Edinburgh emphasise that other factors could not be ruled out and that further research is required.

Dr Samantha Walker, the director of policy and research at Asthma UK, said, “We don’t yet know if the heartburn medication itself is contributing to the development of asthma in children or if there is a common factor we haven’t discovered yet that causes both heartburn in pregnant women and asthma in their children. The study points us towards something that needs further investigation, which is why we need to see more research carried out into the causes of asthma, a condition that affects 5.4 million people in the UK alone.”

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