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OTTUMWA, IOWA -- For Thursday's Facebook Story of the Day, you told us you wanted to know more about heartburn medications and whether they are safe to use in the long term.

The safest and most immediate options are Tums or Rolaid, which is recommended for most elderly folks who may be on other medications, pregnant women, or as a calcium supplement. They are followed by H2 blockers like Zantac that will control the amount of acid the stomach produces. The most potent options are Prevacid, Prilosec and Nexium that will prevent the stomach from producing any acid at all.

All of the above mentioned medicines are available over-the-counter, except for Nexium.

However, it is not good to take any of the medicines for more than two weeks without consulting a doctor.

"I do want to caution people that if they do use them over-the-counter, you're really only supposed to use them for up to two weeks without being supervised by a doctor," said Ron Harman, physician with NuCara Pharmacy. "With long-term use... certain foods you need stomach acid to digest them appropriately, so if you use them long-term, you can get dietary problems because of that, without being monitored by a doctor."

Those dietary problems include bloating, diarrhea and constipation.

One of our Facebook fans asked about herbal medications and whether they are a safe alternative to over-the-counters or prescriptions.

"The problem with home remedies and herbal remedies and stuff like that is, for the FDA, they don't consider them to be a drug, so the manufacturers that produce them don't have to do studies showing they're going to be safe and productive," Hartman said. "So you really have to be cautious, especially if you're on a lot of blood pressure medication, cholesterol medication, stuff like that, you have to be really cautious using home remedies because... they may not be safe to use and there wouldn't be studies to prove whether they're going to interact with your medicines or not."