Anybody using proteolytic enzymes?
 

Apparently this is a supplement used on certain diets aimed at identifying and controlling auto-immune or inflammatory responses to food.

I'd never heard of them before a friend asked me about them, so I thought I'd consult my pool of experts here.

Thanks.

I've taken bromelain (enzyme) along with quercetin (flavinoid) mainly for sinusitis and allergy-induced asthma during the pollen season (heightened when combined with allergies to pets and foods). It works well to stop inflammation and histamine reactions and was how I was able to get off of my 3-yr daily Claritin & Sudafed habit and stop using inhalers. I only take it when symptomatic and my symptoms don't last for more than a day or two (as opposed to weeks), with my ability to breathe normally restored in 1-2 hrs after taking the supplements.

I haven't tried bromelain without the quercetin, however.

Mercola has an interesting article:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/a...ial-report.aspx

All my food allergies seem to be related to proteins, so it makes sense that a proteolytic enzyme would be the one to help me even though I didn't know bromelain was proteolytic when I first read about the enzyme.

Thank you, Deirdra. This is exactly what I'm looking for.

Thanks, Mod, for moving this post to the right place. Perhaps if I surf around the Supps threads, I can find some more info about this subject.

It's an interesting topic. There are some studies done with hydrolyzed protein--basically, pre-digested before you even eat them, it protects against diabetes in a rat model of autoimmune type 1.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20853098



I guess this general idea makes sense of why so many of the common allergens are also plant proteins, with a lower digestibility than most animal proteins.

Casein impairing gut barrier is interesting. Maybe the problem with people who have problems with both gluten and casein isn't the one making them more sensitive to the other, so much as a parallel problem, poor digestion of protein causing reactivity and excess zonulin in both cases.

I've also read that casein is more allergenic than whey, though I haven't looked into it enough to vouch for the accuracy. But that also makes sense, bodybuilders advocate both whey and casein, whey because it's quickly digested, so there's more of an acute rise in muscle protein synthesis, casein because it's a much slower digested protein, so better at reducing muscle protein breakdown. So if it really is more allergenic, again there's a protein that's more resistant to digestion being a potential problem.

Thanks, Teaser. This is another Big Topic in my exploration of the world of nutrition. Clearly, the answers aren't simple, let alone universal.

My friend has apparently subscribed to a system, so is paying for information and resources. Hope that works out. It appears to me that the enzyme protocols I've read so far involve eating whole, raw foods, and that couldn't be too bad.

Steak tartare anyone?

I just discovered proteolytic enzymes ~4-5 months ago and the difference is amazing... It's the only thing that helps my lifelong arthritis pain and I've tried everything.... I've used Wobenzym and Vascuzyme.. Both are good, but the Vascuzyme has less odor