If you can’t enjoy dinner without having a purple pill nearby, or if you rely on heartburn meds to get you through each meal, you’re taking a huge gamble.

And the risks you face run much deeper than heartburn.

A package of five studies published in the Archives of Internal Medicine show the real dangers of proton pump inhibitors, or PPIs. These meds, which include Nexium, Prevacid and Prilosec, are being linked to everything from an increased risk of infection to a greater risk of bone fracture in post-menopausal women.

Two of the studies found that these meds increase your risk of battling the dangerous bacteria Clostridium difficile. I’ve written to you before about this little monster: C- diff causes a tough-to-beat stomach infection that’s especially frightening when it strikes seniors. (Read, “New bacteria on the rise.”)

In one study, researchers found that daily PPI users who are hospitalized for any number of conditions have a 74 percent increase in C-diff risk. And people who took PPIs more than once a day had more than double the risk of infection.

The second study found that PPI users treated for C-diff infections were 42 percent more likely to experience a relapse.

And another newly published study found that PPIs increased the risk of spine fractures by 47 percent in postmenopausal women. These meds were also linked to a 25 percent increased risk of forearm and wrist fractures.

That’s a lot of risk–and almost all of it is unnecessary. An editorial accompanying the studies estimates that 70 percent of all PPI patients don’t need the meds.

And I think that’s being conservative, because everyone seems to be taking a PPI lately–113 million prescriptions each year, good enough for $13.9 billion in sales.

Hidden among those numbers are an alarming–and growing– number of children. In fact, the number of kids on these meds increased by 147 percent between 2001 and 2009, according to the Medco 2010 Drug Trend Report.

Some doctors are even giving these powerful drugs to babies to treat plain old everyday colic, which is just about as irresponsible as medicine gets.

And if your pediatrician suggests this, find a new doctor– and fast!

Yet despite all those millions of people taking these meds, despite all the money being spent, despite all that risk, there’s an even bigger reason to skip them: They simply don’t work.

I know some people swear by their heartburn drugs and many people even feel some immediate relief. It’s a trick– because while these drugs are pretty good at controlling the initial symptoms of heartburn and reflux, they’re quietly making the underlying condition worse.

Despite what you’ve been told, most people with heartburn and reflux problems don’t have too much stomach acid.

They have too little.

These meds suppress those levels even further–which is why your problems will often come back with a vengeance when you stop taking your PPIs.

Fortunately, there are safe, effective drug-free alternatives. Dr. Jonathan Wright, author of “Why Stomach Acid Is Good for You,” is a pioneer in this field–and some of his best advice is available for free on his web site. Just search his newsletter archives for “heartburn” to uncover the real answers.

And then ditch those purple pills for good.

When was the last time someone spoke to you about insulin levels?

Unless you’re a diabetic, you probably don’t hear much about it. And that’s a problem, because so much of our poor health can trace its roots back to insulin levels that were allowed to spin out of control.

One new study even links high insulin levels in postmenopausal women to an increased risk for breast cancer.

I touched on this startling information just a few weeks ago, when I mentioned how the high-carb lifestyle can increase your risk for breast cancer.

Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in New York looked at data on 5,450 women. The researchers found that postmenopausal women in the upper third of insulin levels were twice as likely to develop breast cancer as women in the bottom third.

Not only that, but because the researchers had access to insulin readings on these women taken repeatedly over a number of years, the connection appears to be especially strong.

Some folks might say that women with high insulin levels are more likely to be overweight, and obesity is already known to be a risk factor for breast cancer in post-menopausal women.

But in this study, the researchers found that the link to high insulin levels and breast cancer was actually stronger in thin women – a clear indication that the insulin levels are a risk factor of their own.

The results of this study were published in July online in the International Journal of Cancer.

All the mainstream diet advice revolves around fat and calories, but none are willing to talk about the role of insulin and the importance of keeping those levels in check. Poor diets high in carbs – including those worthless low-fat diets – lead to high insulin levels and a host of health problems, starting with obesity and diabetes.

As this new study shows, it can even increase your risk for breast cancer.

I’ll have more details on the role of insulin in your body in the September issue of Health Revelations, including five simple things you can do to slash your insulin need. Subscribe now, and you’ll get complete access to our online archives, too.

There, you can look at my article in the June issue on the body’s fat-making switch – and how to turn it off for good.

As the latest research shows, high insulin can harm you even if you’re not overweight. Whether you’re a man or woman, get those levels under control today to save yourself from a world of hurt tomorrow.

We know what poor eating habits will do to your waistline.

But for women, new research shows how the high-carb lifestyle can harm you in other ways: These foods, and foods that rank high on the glycemic index, can increase the risk of breast cancer.

Swedish researchers analyzed data collected on 61,433 women who answered food questionnaires in the late 1980s, and examined their medical histories over the following 17 years.

The researchers found women who ate a lot of carbs, women who ate foods high on the glycemic index (these are often the worst of the carbs), and women with a high overall glycemic load (which measures both the glycemic value of food and the portion size) all faced an increased risk for breast cancer.

The women who ate high-index foods had a 44 percent greater risk of breast cancer than women who ate foods at the lower end of the index. Women who had high glycemic loads had an 81 percent greater risk of developing tumors, and women who had the highest amounts of carbohydrates in their diets had a 34 percent increased risk.

The study was published in July in the International Journal of Cancer.

Another study out in July in the online version of that same journal found that postmenopausal women with elevated insulin levels also have an increased risk of breast cancer.

Researchers in this study found that women in the upper third of insulin levels had twice the risk of breast cancer as women in the lower third of insulin levels.

Not only that, but the researchers found that even lean postmenopausal women with high insulin levels had a higher risk of breast cancer – suggesting that even if you are at or near your ideal weight, you still need to be careful about what you put into your body.

And that means avoiding food high on the glycemic index, as well as those bad carbs that make up the bulk of the modern American diet.

These high-carb processed foods aren’t just responsible for an increased risk of cancer, but many of the health problems that we as a nation are facing, from obesity and diabetes to heart disease and stroke.

There are lots of reasons to eat right, but avoiding this illness epidemic and reducing your risk for breast cancer are pretty good ones. It doesn’t take much work, involves no pricey drugs, and will almost certainly save you money at the supermarket.