Feel free to discuss any topic of general interest, so long as nothing you post here is likely to be interpreted as insulting, and/or inflammatory, nor clearly designed to provoke any individual or group. Please be considerate of others feelings, and they will be considerate of yours.
Anyone tried Bromelain as an anti-inflammitory for MC? My naturapath suggested taking this on an empty stomach. Doing some research it sounds promising. It's a digestive enzyme made from pineapple stem. What is of further interest is that it was also shown to help with E. Coli... there we go again with bacteria and links to inflamation.
Ann Intern Med. 2000 Apr 18;132(8):680. Use of Bromelain for Mild Ulcerative Colitis
To the Editor: Ulcerative colitis is a chronic condition characterized
by inflammation of the mucosal layer of the colon. Despite
multiple treatments, some patients continue to be symptomatic
and seek alternative therapy. We describe two patients
who achieved clinical and endoscopic remission after initiation of
bromelain supplementation.
A 67-year-old woman with a history of ulcerative proctitis
continued to have three to four bloody bowel movements per day
despite adequate doses of sulfasalazine, mesalamine, and topical
steroids. She discovered bromelain at a nutrition/herbal store
after researching “digestive aids” and anti-inflammatory drugs.
Within a week of taking two tablets of bromelain at each meal,
she was having one formed bowel movement per day without
blood or urgency. Endoscopy performed at that time revealed
healed mucosa.
The second patient is a 60-year-old woman with a history of
left-sided disease; her symptoms continued despite azathioprine,
2 mg/kg of body weight, and topical mesalamine. She had heard
about bromelain from a friend who used it for “colonic health.”
After she took several doses, her diarrhea improved. Endoscopy
revealed quiescent disease affecting the splenic flexure.
Bromelain is a proteolytic enzyme isolated from the pineapple
stem. Anecdotal use of bromelain alone includes the successful
treatment of inflamed joints, dental pain, and postsurgical pain
and inflammation, presumably through an anti-inflammatory
mechanism, inhibition of platelet aggregation, or fibrinolytic activity.
Published reports on bromelain use refer to experimental
animal models of inflammation (1) and one double-blinded study
in humans revealing efficacy in healing noninfectious cystitis (2).
Bromelain in the treatment of infectious colitis with enterotoxigenic
Escherichia coli has recently been described (3). This
therapy had a proteolytic effect on the specific receptors of K881
enterotoxigenic E. coli in the small intestines of piglets, thereby
preventing bacterial attachment and subsequent infection. In ulcerative
colitis, bromelain may act by way of fibrinolysis, a mechanism
not unlike that reported in previous trials with heparin (4, 5).
Sunanda Kane, MD, MSPH
Michael J. Goldberg, MD
University of Chicago Hospitals
Chicago, IL 60637
References
1. Smyth RD, Moss JN, Brennan R, Harris JC, Martin GJ. Biochemical
studies on the resolution of experimental inflammations in animals
treated with bromelain. Exp Med Surg. 1967;25:229-35.
2. Lotti T, Mirone V, Imbimbo C, Corrado F, Corrado G, Garofalo F, et
al. Controlled clinical studies of nimesulide in the treatment of urogenital
inflammation. Drugs. 1993;46(Suppl 1):144-6.
3. Chandler DS, Mynott TL. Bromelain protects piglets from diarrhea
caused by oral challenge with K88 positive enterotoxigenic Escherichia
coli. Gut. 1998;43:196-202.
4. Folwaczny C, Wiebecke B, Loeschke K. Unfractionated heparin in the
therapy of patients with highly active inflammatory bowel disease. Am J
Gastroenterol. 1999;94:1551-5.
5. Evans RC, Wong VS, Morris AI, Rhodes JM. Treatment of corticosteroid
dependent ulcerative colitis with heparin—a report of 16 cases.
Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 1997;11:1037-40.
Clin Immunol. 2005 Aug;116(2):135-42. Links Treatment with oral bromelain decreases colonic inflammation in the IL-10-deficient murine model of inflammatory bowel disease.
Hale LP, Greer PK, Trinh CT, Gottfried MR.
Department of Pathology, DUMC 3712, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA. laura.hale@duke.edu
Bromelain is a mixture of proteinases derived from pineapple stem that is marketed in health food stores as a "digestive aid". Orally administered bromelain was anecdotally reported to induce clinical and endoscopic remission of ulcerative colitis in two patients whose disease was refractory to multi-agent conventional medical therapy. However, the potential efficacy of bromelain in colitis has not yet been tested rigorously in either animals or humans. In this study, the clinical and histologic severity of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) was determined in IL-10-/- mice treated orally with bromelain in vivo. Daily treatment with oral bromelain beginning at age 5 weeks decreased the incidence and severity of spontaneous colitis in C57BL/6 IL-10-/- mice. Bromelain also significantly decreased the clinical and histologic severity of colonic inflammation when administered to piroxicam-exposed IL-10-/- mice with established colitis. Proteolytically active bromelain was required for anti-inflammatory effects in vivo. Adverse effects of dermatitis, hair loss, and weight loss due to mucositis were rare, dose related, and were not seen in wild-type mice treated orally with up to 1000 mg bromelain/kg/day for 18 weeks. Although the exact mechanisms by which exogenous proteinases affect bowel inflammation have not yet been determined, the results justify additional studies of this complementary biologically based approach to treatment of IBD.
This just hit me, given that IBD seem to be hitting developed nations more than others. And given that developed nations has so many refined foods, removing everything that is "unappetizing" from our natural food sources (stems, seeds, husks, roots, leaves all the stuff from which these digestive enzymes seem to be created from) that we have removed a source of health/healing for our GI and we get ill. We get sicker as we get cleaner. Hmmmm... :)
Hell, it looks like enzymes in general can help, not just this particular one.
Med Hypotheses. 2006 Jul 24;
Where do the immunostimulatory effects of oral proteolytic enzymes ('systemic enzyme therapy') come from? Microbial proteolysis as a possible starting point.
Biziulevicius GA.
Laboratory of Immunopharmacology, Institute of Immunology, Vilnius University, 29 Moletu plentas, LT-08409 Vilnius, Lithuania.
Enteric-coated proteolytic enzyme preparations like Wobenzym((R)) and Phlogenzym((R)) are widely used for the so-called 'systemic enzyme therapy' both in humans and animals. Numerous publications reveal that oral proteolytic enzymes are able to stimulate directly the activity of immune competent cells as well as to increase efficiency of some of their products. But origins of the immunostimulatory effects of oral proteolytic enzymes are still unclear. The hypothesis described here suggests that it may be proteolysis of intestinal microorganisms that makes the immune competent cells to work in the immunostimulatory manner. The hypothesis was largely formed by several scientific observations: First, microbial lysis products (lipopolysaccharides, muropeptides and other peptidoglycan fragments, beta-glucans, etc.) are well known for their immunostimulatory action. Second, a normal human being hosts a mass of intestinal microorganisms equivalent to about 1kg. The biomass (mainly due to naturally occurring autolysis) continuously supplies the host's organism with immunostimulatory microbial cell components. Third, the immunostimulatory effects resulting from the oral application of exogenously acting antimicrobial (lytic) enzyme preparations, such as lysozyme and lysosubtilin, are likely to be a result of the action of microbial lysis products. Fourth, cell walls of most microorganisms contain a considerable amount of proteins/peptides, a possible target for exogenous proteolytic enzymes. In fact, several authors have already shown that a number of proteases possess an ability to lyse the microbial cells in vitro. Fifth, the pretreatment of microbial cells (at least of some species) in vitro with proteolytic enzymes makes them more sensitive to the lytic action of lysozyme and, otherwise, pretreatment with lysozyme makes them more susceptible to proteolytic degradation. Sixth, exogenous proteases, when in the intestines, may participate in final steps of food-protein digestion. The resulting food-borne peptides have recently been shown to be potential activators of microbial autolysis. The main question that needs to be answered in order to verify the hypothesis is whether oral proteases are able (and to what extent) to lyse/mediate lysis of intestinal microorganisms in situ. Methods based on up-to-date molecular biology techniques to allow investigation of the influence of exogenous proteases on microbial lysis processes in vivo (in the intestines) need to be developed. Research testing of this hypothesis may have an important impact in development of novel preparations for the systemic enzyme therapy.
It is very interesting how bacteria is continually linked to inflamation. I know I have bad bacteria overgrowth from the stool test I took. Unfortunately my system is too sensitive to do anything about it. It seems some people can get their systems straightened out with time and avoiding their intolerences...that's assuming that bacterial overgrowth was the problem trigger for them. I hope you let us know how it goes if you try the Bromelain.
I'm going to try bromelain for sure, starting tonight. I just bought some. :)
What is also interesting about inflamation and bacterial is that they think that IBD is partly due to the body trying to fight off the good bacteria of the gut.
I hadn't heard that about trying to fight off the good bacteria...interesting because my stool test also showed I had too much of the good bacteria as well. I guess I'm just full of it. So is the body just confused ..or why do they think the body starts turning on the good guys?
The concept of the immune system attacking the good bacteria in the colon has been the "officially recognized" basis for MC, for some time, now. That's why it's classified as an autoimmune reaction. It's claimed to be the result of a corrupt immune system.
Some of us, (myself included), have some doubts about this theory, (I say theory, because I'm not aware that it has ever been proven). Some of us suspect that it's an immune reaction against a virus, (and the virus, in turn, is reacting against certain food triggers, such as gluten, etc.). You can read more about this virus theory on Dogtorj's site, if you are interested, and/or in this thread:
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
Tex, What's interesting is that I'm now having thoughts that there is no such thing as Autoimmune, well I was before, but even more so now.
For example, the bacteria in the colon, even though it is a part of the digestive system it is indeed not part of self, so in that regards attacking the bacteria is not an autoimmune response. I'm even thinking that it's not even an "incorrect" response. It is a real response to a part that isn't part of the body therefore it is the correct response. My guess is that something set off the immune response and that something or some other mechanism is not letting it stop; it is continuously protecting itself even at its own demise. The body is on high alert protecting itself from all matter that it thinks doesn't belong.
Related to this, I just read the first two chapters of Dr Greens new book "Celiac Disease, A hidden Epidemic", where he describes celiac as autoimmune and describes the sequence of events that lead to the distruction of the villi. What is odd is that reading the response made sense, and didn't sound at all like an autoimmune response. It sounds like the system is working perfectly well in protecting itself from an attack.
Look at what it does:
1) Body sees something that doesn't belong, doesn't belong in that it's trying to get into the body via the mucosa, the thing is made of protein much like other invaders (virus) or perhaps even has a pathogen along for the ride.
2) The body starts an immune response to regect and attack the object.
3) Part of the immune response is to create antibodies (which do no good) and to creat inflamation.
4) This inflamation destroys the villi. But this is a bad thing right? Well look at this way. The body is reducing the attack surface (destroying villi), making itself impenetrable (inflamation) and sending in the troups to attack (hormones, chemicals, etc).
How was any of that autoimmune? The body did not attack itself, it protected itself and does a pretty damn good job. If only the brain attached to that body would listen and stop ingesting the object it's trying to attack/repel.
