Digestive Complaints
DIGESTION AND STOMACH ACID LEVELS EFFECT LOW WEIGHT INFANTS – (03-27-06)
Association of H2-Blocker Therapy and Higher Incidence of Necrotizing Enterocolitis in Very Low Birth Weight Infants
While this study was done in low birth weight infants, it again supports the role of healthy digestion and stomach acid levels in acting as a sterilizing agent to all bugs making it into the stomach. While this inherently makes sense to most people, I have never once had a patient come into my office on acid suppressive therapy (and this is quite a regular occurrence) and get anything remotely akin to informed consent about the potential side effects of this class of drugs.
In adults, studies have shown that acid suppressive therapy in adults contributes to small bowel bacterial overgrowth–a growth of bacteria growing in the small intestine in a location where nothing should be growing.
