The common misconception that medications can impair and upset the stomach led to an excessive consumption of about 1.7 billion antacid tablets in the nation last year, which stacked together would be nearly 6,700 times the height of Taipei 101, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday.
Citing IMS Health statistics, FDA Division of Medicinal Products Deputy Director Tai Hsueh-yung (戴雪詠) said Taiwanese consumed a total of 2.2 billion pills to assuage stomach-related discomfort last year.
“The antacids combined cost about NT$1.3 billion [US$43.3 million]. Assuming each pill is about 2mm thick, the combined total height of the antacid pills that Taiwanese took last year is nearly 6,693 times as tall as the 508m Taipei 101,” Tai told a press conference in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
Tai said a telephone-based survey conducted by the ministry from Aug. 22 to Aug. 24 also indicated over-reliance on antacids.
Of the 1,072 respondents, 26.6 percent said they ask their doctors to prescribe them antacids to assuage the potential discomfort that other medications could cause their stomachs, Tai said.
“More alarming is that 20 percent of those polled did not read the medication instructions before taking antacids and nearly 70 percent are clueless about the long-term health risks posed by the drugs,” Tai said.
Taiwan Society of Health System Pharmacists director-general Wang Chun-yu (王春玉) said many effervescent antacids contained sodium bicarbonate, a substance that can affect people’s blood pressure.
“Most medications do not irritate the stomach. Besides, such discomfort tends to gradually go away without the assistance of antacids,” Wang said.
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