Does esomeprazole, an acid reflux med, affect bone health long-term?

They help with food absorption.

Hi, @mac786 - welcome, and glad you posted.

Here is some Mayo Clinic information on the medication you mentioned:
- Esomeprazole (oral route) https://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements/esomeprazole-oral-route/description/drg-20074322

When were you diagnosed with acid reflux? Did your doctor mention any short or long-term side effects to keep an eye out for with the esomeprazole?

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10248387/
Side effects

I was told any of the ppis after long term use can cause bone problems by my orthopedic doctor. I asked what he meant by long term? He said 5 years or more. I did get necrosis in my left knee a few years ago. Luckily with cure decompression d surgery it healed the bone after about a year! I was on Nexium for a very long time.

I can share my mom's experience. She was on Prilosec first, and then Nexium for several years. Not only did both of her hips break (they broke first and then she fell - she didn't fall and break them), and she couldn't fight off bacterial infections and she had two serious ones. Basically the last three years of her life were sheer hell and then she died. I would try anything else before using one of those drugs. They really shouldn't even make them, as far as I'm concerned. From what I've read and heard, if you have acid reflux, you generally aren't producing enough stomach acid and you could try hydrochloric acid (betaine HCL) or even ox bile. I'm not a doctor, but I've done a lot of research on it. I've cured my acid reflux, at least for now, by restricting my diet quite a bit. I had to get rid of some very strange things, like sweet potatoes and coconut milk yogurt. I can't seem to tolerate probiotics anymore. I'm hoping it's temporary. Good luck!

drugs.com says plainly that a side effect can be fracture. Proton pump inhibitors drastically reduce the amount of acid in the stomach. The acid is needed to break down food so the nutrients are readily available. If anyone is on PPIs long-term (and I would think that is more than one year) they should at least monitor their kidney function, B12 level, and bone markers CTX and P1NP so if they are suffering a side effect they can catch it before too much damage. the best option though is to manage reflux through diet and lifestyle changes. Dr. Jamie Koufman has a free web site with lots of info.