Prilosec/Prevacid side effects

[beentrying2quit]

I'm new to this  forum and was wondering  if someone might be able to tell me if abdominal pain, constipation and gas are side effects of PPI's.  My neighbor is a doctor and prescribed me prevacid, I took them for 2 weeks, and began to notice these problems.  I told him this and his response was "Prevacid does not have those  side efffects." but when I search "Prevacid side effects" these symptoms show up on every page.  ANy direction woudl be appreciated.

[girlvet]

Hi Beentrying..had to chime in with CalGal.  PPIs do in fact attribute to GI issues, and plenty of data out there shows this to be true.  Studies are also showing PPIs to have a direct link to GI bacterial infections such as C Diff, as CalGal's explanation states - upset gut flora and low acid is a party in your tummy for bacteria.  May be time to find a new doc if your problems continue/worsen.  Best of luck.

[CalGal]

The doc is not being entirely honest. All of the PPIs carry side-effects and many of them can be directly attributed to the fact that with the lowering of acid in the stomach a person ends up with less true 'digestion' of their food in the stomach. Because of this, a lot of food passed 'unchanged' iinto the small intestine. Since the enzymes in the small intestine do not 'recognize' what's coming through, further digestion is not possible. Due to that, a lot of food is not absorbed and it passes into the large intestine largely undigested and the bacteria there have a 'field day.'