Does Omeprazole Have Side Effects?

If there is one thing profound about the medicines that we use every single day is that they all have some untoward or not so harmful side effects. If there is something even more interesting it is that although all these drugs have harmful side effects, not all human beings will get these side effects. The same thing applies to the Omeprazole side effects. Omeprazole, known most ordinarily as sodium bicarbonate is normally prescribed to treat ulcers and or infection of the stomach. It normally takes about four to eight weeks to treat the ulcers and ten to twenty eight days to cure infected pylori of the stomach. The Omeprazole side effects in question are therefore side effects that arise from its long term use.

The most common Omeprazole side effects that are seen in about one of each five patients using it are diarrhea and or vomiting. There are however rare cases in which there will be more adverse or merely more quantitatively manifesting symptoms. One must bear in mind also that the form, powder, capsule, tablet or suspension, does not in anyway influence the Omeprazole side effects that one is vulnerable to.

For those rare cases that the Omeprazole side effects are much more than just diarrhea and vomiting and seem to persist, the body system s that will be affected are widely varied. One of the most rarely affected of these systems would be the cardiovascular system. Should the cardiovascular system be affected however the Omeprazole side effects would be angina and varied cardiac arrhythmia.

One of the most occurring Omeprazole side effects when it comes to the body systems is on the gastrointestinal system. Omeprazole has been seen to change the pH in the stomach by raising the amount of gastrin that is produced. This if kept up for a very long time then rarely, approximately one out of ten cases of people being treated with 20-40mg daily would have to deal with its side effects. The Omeprazole side effects that would occur would be stomach polyposis. A stomach polyp is a benign growth that protrudes out over the stomach mucosa. Most of these cases of stomach polyposis will even go undetected for a very long time because when they make you feel anything you would likely regard it as a stomach upset. There are some times when these stomach polyposis caused by the Omeprazole side effects would be cancerous but this is a one in a million occurrence. 

The Omeprazole side effects on the hormone system are also not a very common occurrence. When there are side effects affecting this system they would lead to breast tenderness and enlargement. If the case is very severe then one might have gynecomastia. This however is very rare too.

If the Omeprazole side effects get to attack the hepatic system then these would be very fatal. Patients have been known to die from fatal fulminate hepatic failure due to the elevations in serum transaminases and bilirubin. As with the rest this will hardly ever occur but if it does it must be countered as soon as possible to avoid the loss of a life.

The rest of the Omeprazole side effects that are still left are the rarest and doctors can go whole careers without seeing them occurring in their patients during treatment with this drug. For example the side effects of Omeprazole on the blood system would be hemolytic anemia and thrombocytopenia. To the psychological system we would have the Omeprazole side effects ranging from depression and nervousness to hallucinations. Others may have insomnia and dream disturbance because they have anxiousness.