It is a common knowledge in medicine that stomach ulcers appear because of excessive amount of gastric acid produced by special cells in the stomach lining. Though this acid is necessary for proper digestive process, it may harm the stomach under the certain circumstances and cause ulcers, bleeding, or even perforation of our major digestive organ.
Consequently, the primary strategy in treating ulcers is to reduce the amount of aggressive acid produced in stomach. This can be done in a couple of ways – using H2-receptor antagonists is one of them. For the time being, the most widely-known and commonly prescribed medications from the group of H2-receptor antagonists are:
- Cimetidine (Tagamet, Dyspamet)
- Famotidine (Pepcid, Fluxid)
- Nizatidine (Axid)
- Ranitidine (Zantac)
- Ranitidine bismuth citrate (Pylorid)
Scientists started to explore and develop the first H2-antagonist medications in the 1960th. At that time it was already known that histamine, one of the human neurotransmitters, is the substance, which “orders” particular cells in the stomach to produce acid. Under normal condition, such orders should be sent only when acid is necessary for breaking down the food. However, when something goes wrong, histamine starts stimulating acid-producing cells even without a reason (for example, between meals), and the only thing left for acid todestroy is stomach lining. This is how ulcers appear.
H2 antagonists works by blocking the “orders” sent to the acid producing cells. In other words, these medications shut down acid production in the human stomach, thus reducing acid concentration and volume of gastric secretion. When acid amount and concentration in stomach is reduced – the risk of developing ulcers significantly drops down, as well as the favorable condition for existing ulcers healing is created. This is how H2 antagonists help in treating or even healing stomach ulcers.
It is important to note that all H2 antagonists work in the same way. So, if a patient does not respond well to one medicine, he will probably not respond to another representative of the same class. The only difference between medications is their potency. Thus, cimetidine is considered to be the least potent, and Pepcid and Fluxid are said to be the most potent.
Zantac, which is one of the most popular H2 antagonists these days, starts working in as soon as 1-3 hours and it stays effective for about 15 hours. So, this medication creates pretty long time frame, letting the organism to heal the existing ulcers in the stomach. In general, doctors say that all of H2 antagonists are roughly equivalent from the point of view of their ulcer-treating rates, as well as of their side effects.
Finally, it is worthy to mention that nowadays the popularity of such medications as Zantac, Pepcid, Fluxid and other H2 antagonists decreases, because of recent appearance of brand-new class of anti-ulcer medications, called proton-pipe inhibitors (Prilosec, Nexium and others). However, Pepcid, Fluxid, and Zantac are still available in OTC formulations and many doctors still prescribe stronger doses of H2 antagonists as the proven and well-tested remedy against stomach ulcers.
Nick
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