Lactulose - Side Effects

Side Effects

When used at low dosage and as a food additive, galactofructose is known for its good acceptance, with limited side effects, similar to many food products.

At higher dosage, in pharmaceutical usage, common side effects of lactulose are abdominal cramping, borborygmus, gas and pungent flatulence that some people find difficult to control in social situations. Excessively high dosage can cause explosive and uncontrollable diarrhea. In normal individuals, overdose is considered uncomfortable, but not life threatening. Uncommon normal side effects are nausea and vomiting.

In sensitive individuals, such as the elderly or people with reduced kidney function, excess lactulose dosage can result in dehydration and electrolytic disturbances such as high sodium levels.

Although lactulose has less potential to cause dental caries than sucrose, there is a minimal potential because it is a sugar. This should be taken into consideration when taken by people with a high susceptibility to this condition.

Read more about this topic:  Lactulose

Famous quotes containing the words side and/or effects:

    “Never yield to that temptation, which, to most young men, is very strong, of exposing other people’s weaknesses and infirmities, for the sake either of diverting the company, or of showing your own superiority. You may get the laugh on your side by it for the present; but you will make enemies by it for ever; and even those who laugh with you then, will, upon reflection, fear, and consequently hate you.”
    —Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)

    “Oh that my Pow’r to Saving were confin’d:
    Why am I forc’d, like Heav’n, against my mind,
    To make Examples of another Kind?
    Must I at length the Sword of Justice draw?
    Oh curst Effects of necessary Law!
    How ill my Fear they by my Mercy scan,
    Beware the Fury of a Patient Man.”
    —John Dryden (1631–1700)