Sugar Malabsorption

[mle_ii]

Ok, I got back some lab results. It appears I'm deficienct in some B vitamins and low in antioxidents. All that aside I also show a sensitivity to fructose according to the lab results. Not news to me, but at least backs up what I found via eliminating frustose and doing trials. So this lead me to wonder why, one possible reason that I still need to test for (I have the test kit I just need to get over my cold first) is bacterial overgrowth. So this led me to wonder about other possible reasons.

Another reason is "disaccharidase deficiency", meaning I could lack the enzymes for breaking down disaccharides (fructose, lactose, sucrose, etc). Ok, so why might I be low in these enzymes? Well, there are hereditary causes, could also be damage done to the villi in the small intestine (IBD, Celiac, etc), and one more reason which led me to write this message. And what might that be?

Well take a look at this:
Regulation of sucrase-isomaltase gene expression in human intestinal epithelial cells by inflammatory cytokines.
http://www.jbc.org/cgi/reprint/271/2/1237

To summarize for those who don't want to read. IL-6 and INFgamma cause our bodies to produce less of the enzymes needed to break down these sugars. And guess what, our disease is inflammitory and does produce INFgamma (not sure about IL-6, but I'm guessing it does as well).

I'm not sure how localized this is or our disease is, so perhaps this might not be a reason for sugar malabsorption (intollerance) for us. Since it appears that this disease is mainly in the large intestine, whereas production of these enzymes is in the small intestine. But this could be one of the reasons why I don't do well with sugars anymore.

What may also not be clear to some folks is that maldigestion of sugars can cause digestive problems further down the GI. Specifically for us diarrhea.

So in the end it appears that this might be reversable, unless it's the hereditary version. It would reverse via lower inflammation and via regeneration of the villi and production of these enzymes that may be lacking in some of us.

Thanks,
Mike

[artteacher]

Hi, and thank you for the information,

I just finished a book on celiac in children, and read a section on disaccharide intolerance. Unfortunately, I took it back to the library. Next time I'm there I'll get it again and look up that page to see if it has anything relevant to share with you.

See ya, Marsha

[mle_ii]

You're welcome. And thanks Marsha!

[mle_ii]

Here are a couple more things that can lead to disaccharide intolerance, Vitamin A, or Iron deficiency.

Vitamin A exerts its activity at the transcriptional level in the small intestine.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/quer ... med_DocSum

Decreased sucrase and lactase activity in iron deficiency is accompanied by reduced gene expression and upregulation of the transcriptional repressor PDX-1.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/quer ... med_DocSum

[tex]

Mike,

I'm not entirely convinced that MC is a disease mainly restricted to the colon. I think it just happens to be diagnosed there, as a matter of convenience, (and because that's how the disease was originally defined). Maybe I'm a celiac, but my small intestine was very much affected, during my reactions.

If the small intestine were not significantly affected, we wouldn't have serious malabsorption problems, because virtually no nutrients are absorbed in the colon - only water.

Interestingly, while I was reacting, fructose was the only sugar that I was able to tolerate - all the others made me sick, because I wasn't producing the necessary enzymes. Proving once again, that we're all different.

Tex

[mle_ii]

It also appears that Rotavirus can cause a disaccharide intolerance.

Boy this virus has been rearing it's head a lot in the research I'm doing. Found to be perhaps related to diabetes, Celiac Disease to name a couple of recent findings.

Thanks,
Mike

[mle_ii]

Mike,

I'm not entirely convinced that MC is a disease mainly restricted to the colon. I think it just happens to be diagnosed there, as a matter of convenience, (and because that's how the disease was originally defined). Maybe I'm a celiac, but my small intestine was very much affected, during my reactions.

If the small intestine were not significantly affected, we wouldn't have serious malabsorption problems, because virtually no nutrients are absorbed in the colon - only water.

Interestingly, while I was reacting, fructose was the only sugar that I was able to tolerate - all the others made me sick, because I wasn't producing the necessary enzymes. Proving once again, that we're all different.

Tex

Actually I did stumble over one study that pointed to the effect being systemic, so perhaps it's not that far off. That and I agree with you about it affecting more of the GI than just the colon. It's just that most of the time it normally only associated with the colon; I was more questioning the systemic effect of this reduction in enzymes.

Also, I misspoke, I should not have included fructose as that's a monosaccharide not a disaccharide. The mechanisms for fructose malabsorption are different. Fructose can be brought directly into the bloodstream given sufficient glucose among other things. So you would still apply to all this.

Mike