Can Proton Pump Inhibitors Accentuate Skin Aging?

Skin aging has long been important to human beings and in recent years this field has received tremendous attention by both researchers and the general population. Cutaneous aging includes two distinct phenomena, intrinsic aging and photoaging, and is characterized mainly by the loss of collagen fibers from dermis.

PPI's (by inhibiting the stomach's hydrochloric acid secretion) raise the pH of the stomach juices and surrounding environs to a markedly more alkaline milieu.... and increase intralysosomal (inside the lysosome) pH. By changing the original acid base balance to a more basic medium TGFB secretion is decreased and lysyl oxidase which needs copper to do its job in cross linking collagen to make new skin can't do it's enzymatic best because it may not get the "copper on demand" it requires even though the supply is there.

With this new information on how proton pump inhibitors can accentuate skin aging, they should no longer be viewed as a safe first line therapy for acid reflux.It has been known for some time that PPI's prevent the absorption of certain vitamins (specifically B12)and minerals (specifically calcium) promoting osteoporosis. What we tend to forget is that they primarily prevent normal digestive processes from occurring leading to a myriad of gastrointestinal problems, physician visits and other prescription drug usage with their attendant side effects.

To your health,

Dr. David Blyweiss

WHAT IS AGE MANAGEMENT?

Age Management is a proactive, preventative health care specialty committed to the creation of optimum human function and quality of life at every age.

Its goals are to slow, reverse and/or moderate the process of aging as it relates to age-related disease and disability. This is accomplished through initial extensive medical history, lifestyle assessment and physical exam as well as initial and ongoing laboratory analyses.

Treatment plans include patient education towards a life-enhancing diet, exercise and stress management techniques and appropriate medical interventions including, but not limited to, nutrition and supplementation, appropriate hormonal balancing, weight management and other medical modalities to establish a personalized youth-enhancing program that allows our patients to live at their maximum potential at every age.