The negative affects of pepsin are gastrointestinal discomfort, allergic reactions, gastritis, medication interactions and long term dependency are some risks with pepsin.
The negative effects of pepsin mainly occur when the pepsin escapes your stomach as a result of acid reflux or when you take pepsin supplements in excess, in which case it damages the sensitive mucosal tissues and can trigger ulceration, inflammation and gastrointestinal distress.
If you have too much pepsin it can result in and cause severe tissue damage, gastrointestinal distress as well as inflammation as pepsin is a powerful stomach enzyme that breaks down proteins.
Although often confined to your stomach, excessive or too much pepsin can sometimes backflow and adhere to sensitive respiratory and throat tissues.
Complications that can occur from too much pepsin are gastritis and ulcers, pan and nausea and even reflex and throat damage.
When the pepsin escapes your stomach through reflux, the pepsin can attach to the delicate tissues of your airways and throat, which is known as Laryngopharyngeal Reflux or silent reflux.
Even if the stomach acid is neutralized, pepsin can still remain in your throat for hours and can reactivate whenever you consume acidic foods or beverages, and once reactivated, the pepsin breaks down the proteins in your throat and vocal cords, triggering of inflammation.
Common symptoms of reflux and throat damage are chronic sore throat, hoarseness, a persistent cough, postnasal drip and difficulty swallowing.
The erosion from the excess pepsin can also lead to indigestion, a burning stomach sensation, nausea, bloating and mild pain.
And an over abundance of active pepsin in your stomach can erode your protective mucosal lining.
If you have too little pepsin, what happens is your body struggles to break down the dietary proteins.
The inefficiency of too little pepsin, triggers a cascade of digestive issues, nutritional deficits and physical discomfort.
When you have too little pepsin, it leads to poor digestion, increased infection risk and nutritional deficiencies.
With too little pepsin, large protein molecules are not cleaved into absorbable peptides.
This also causes food to linger in your stomach, fermenting and producing gas.
And pepsin and stomach acid are also required to extract and absorb critical nutrients like iron, vitamin B12, calcium and magnesium.