Your stomach is your best friend — yet millions of people treat it like their worst enemy.

They fill their guts with lousy food, and then at the first sign of heartburn or acid reflux, they carpet-bomb their bellies with dangerous drugs that not only won’t solve the problem… they can actually make it worse in the long run (while putting the rest of your body at risk to boot).

That’s no way to treat a friend!

Now, a leading consumer group is calling on the FDA to put black-box warnings on proton pump inhibitors such as Nexium, Prilosec and Prevacid because of all those risks — including the notorious “rebound” acid problems.

Public Citizen says people who take these meds often end up in a cycle of dependency: When they try to stop, that rebound kicks in — leaving them more miserable than ever. Eventually, what started as a short-term remedy becomes a lifelong addiction.

And even if the drugs manage to keep the reflux at bay for a little while, they’re slowly and silently doing far more damage in your gut than the drug industry will ever admit.

PPIs can destroy the delicate balance of stomach acid and gut bacteria, block the absorption of key vitamins and nutrients, and set you on a collision course for problems far worse than acid reflux.

Long-term use of these meds has been linked to severe and potentially deadly conditions such as magnesium deficiencies, heart problems, bone breaks, and infection.

PPIs can actually increase the risk of ulcers in hard-to-treat regions of the small intestine when taken with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.

Despite all those risks, these are some of the nation’s best-selling meds. And the worst part? Most of the people who take them don’t even have the stomach conditions they’re prescribed for.

One recent study found that up to 70 percent of all PPI prescriptions are completely unnecessary. That number might sound high, but I’d say it’s more like 100 percent, because the fact is, you don’t need to turn to risky drugs to get your stomach under control.

Alternative medicine pioneer Dr. Jonathan Wright literally wrote the book on this. It’s called “Why Stomach Acid Is Good for You,” and the dozens of five-star reviews on Amazon.com should tell you everything you need to know about his advice.

Despite what you’ve heard, most people don’t have too much stomach acid — they have too little!

For more information, visit Dr. Wright’s website — and start treating your stomach like a friend again.

It’s the worst of both worlds: People who suffer from acid reflux now are at higher risk of bone breaks later.

But it’s not the condition that’s the problem — it’s the treatment. A new study again finds a link between proton pump inhibitors and bone breaks.

But who are we kidding here? The link between PPIs such as Prilosec, Nexium and Prevacid and brittle bones is so well known that the drugs even carry a warning label for it. Not that it has stopped docs from dishing them out left and right.

So while I doubt it will change a thing, let’s take a look at the new warning in the Annals of Family Medicine.

Korean researchers ran the numbers from 11 studies published since 1997 and found that people who take PPIs had a 29 percent increase in overall fracture risk — including a 31 percent increase in the risk of hip fractures and a 54 percent boost in the risk of vertebral fractures.

Again, no surprises here.

We even know why the drugs are so dangerous: They block the absorption of the calcium needed for healthy bone.

But calcium doesn’t work alone — it gets help from magnesium… and another recent study found that PPIs can block that, too.

And when it comes to magnesium deficiencies, fracture risk is only the beginning: People with low levels of this essential mineral also face muscle spasms, seizures, heart problems, and death.

Ready for the most outrageous part? These drugs don’t even work in the first place — because too much stomach acid is rarely the cause of stomach acid problems.

That may sound counterintuitive after years of commercials that show little cartoon stomachs bubbling over with acid, but the facts speak for themselves: Most people actually have too little stomach acid… not too much.

Suppressing it even further only leads to worsening heartburn, reflux and GERD down the road — which is why long-term PPI users ultimately experience a surge in symptoms, especially if they stop taking their meds.

For more on this, read Dr. Jonathan Wright’s groundbreaking book, “Why Stomach Acid Is Good for You.” You can get it from Amazon.com, a local bookstore, or even your library.

In the meantime, for some quick relief, try deglycyrrhizinated licorice or DGL (not to be confused with licorice candies).

Unlike PPIs, it can relieve your symptoms now without setting you up for more pain later.

I still don’t understand why most people take heartburn meds.

I can understand why folks want relief from heartburn and acid reflux, because they’re miserable conditions. But to me, using these heartburn meds is a lot like trying to rid your garden of weeds by setting the whole thing on fire.

Yes, it’s that bad. You might get temporary relief from your heartburn, but at what cost?

The latest bad news on heartburn meds should be especially disconcerting to seniors: Many of these drugs can lead to an increase in bone fractures, in particular those frightening hip fractures that have robbed so many older folks of their mobility and independence.

In fact, using certain heartburn meds for just two years – really no time at all when you consider how frequently some people use these drugs – can increase the risk of a hip fracture, according to a study presented at Digestive Disease Week 2009, held in June.

I’ve always warned that messing with your stomach’s acid level is an invitation to problems.

Remember stomach acid is crucial to your digestion. While these meds may offer some limited and temporary physical relief, they are harming you on the inside.

Few people have too much acid in their stomach. Most heartburn problems are actually caused by too little acid – and if you take a heartburn drug, you can reduce the amounts of acid further, to levels that are unhealthy and even dangerous, and interfere with your digestion.

When your stomach doesn’t digest food in a normal, healthy way your body may not get all the nutrients it needs from the foods you eat.

In this case, heartburn meds seem to interfere with your stomach’s ability to absorb calcium.

So while you may be enjoying calcium-rich foods, your body may not be getting any of the benefit when you take these drugs.

And that leads to bone problems such as these bone fractures and even osteoporosis.

The study’s authors say folks suffering from or at risk for osteoporosis should talk to their doctors about alternatives.

But I say why stop there?

Everyone should think about alternatives to these overused drugs. Both the over-the-counter and prescription versions of these meds have too many side effects and dangers.

My colleague, Dr. Jonathan Wright has done some groundbreaking work in this field, and if you suffer from stomach acid problems such as heartburn, pick up his book, “Why Stomach Acid Is Good for You.”

I know I’ve mentioned this book before, but that’s because it works better than most drugs. And I’ve never seen someone get a bone fracture from reading a book.

If you’re taking medication to relieve acid reflux, you might be getting something a whole lot worse in the bargain.

The FDA is forcing makers of metoclopramide, which is widely known as Reglan, to include a black box warning with the drug because it has been linked to muscle spasms. Not sometimes or rarely, but a shockingly high percentage of the time.

The study showed that the longer you take the drug, the higher your risk of developing these symptoms. And based on information gathered by the FDA, 20 percent of the patients on Reglan who develop this side effect take it for at least three months. Other recent studies suggest that metoclopramide is the leading cause of pharmaceutical-related movement disorders.

And that’s not even the worst news of all. No, the worst news is that once you get dyskinesia, it’s an unwanted gift that keeps on giving. Even if you stop taking the drug, the spasms will usually stay with you. Those spasms include uncontrollable movements of the limbs, face, and tongue.

If you’re one of the 2 million Americans taking any form of this medication, talk to your doctor as soon as you can to find out if you can do without it. Stomach acid conditions are often overmedicated to begin with – in part because people want quick relief from something that can be incredibly uncomfortable.

Many times, that leads to medications that relieve symptoms without touching the underlying cause.

But as it turns out, a high percentage of stomach acid conditions aren’t caused by too much acid, but too little. An overproduction of stomach acid is actually quite unusual. So these drugs that keep your stomach from producing a healthy amount of acid are actually hurting you.

If you’d like to stop taking all those medications and live better and healthier at the same time, there’s a book I’d like to recommend that many of my friends have found life-changing. It’s called, Why Stomach Acid Is Good for You by Dr. Jonathan Wright and Dr. Lane Lenerd.

You may be used to thinking of stomach acid as your natural enemy, but once you read this book you’ll realize how important it is not just to your digestion, but overall health. And then instead of trying to neutralize or eliminate those acids, you’ll learn how to keep them functioning properly and in synch with the rest of your body.

Not only is it a great book, but it’s cheaper than a box of many popular heartburn medications.

And once you read it, you might be able to do away with those drugs for good.