Oldtimer - you've been hoodwinked by a few shysters it seems. I like you but you should do research on the "natural" rememdies you are taking.
Enzymes added to a diet are useless. Once most enzymes hit the stomach acid they break down into protein chains. Enzymes that are useful are produced by the body and are beyond the digestive tract. Wasted money.
There is no good proof that adding bacteria to the diet does anything to aid health. In fact many bacterial agents are harmful. The only bacteria our body needs to aid digestion is E-Coli which is native to the gut and you don't want any more believe me.
A good diet can assist building enzymes but don't waste all that cash trying to stuff more in you. It's becoming expensive poop.
Hi,
this isn't the solution for everyone, but if it fits it might be worth looking into WITH A DOCTOR.
I have had problems with IBS/Chronic Diahreah for a long time. After speaking with a geneticist and doing some research of my own ... I am very motivated in researching this topic because... IBS can turn you into a shut-in lickety split - you afraid to go out because you might have an acccident......... I have had some luck with a supplement called 5-HTP.
Here's the research I've done in speaking with my neurologist and a geneticist and gastroenterologist and my daughters gastroenterologist. She has the opposite problem - chronic contstipation.... The geneticist says that we may have some serotonin gene that is expressing itself differently but the root cause genetically may be the same.
Here's what is I have found:
That Serotonin plays a HUGE role in the regulatation of digestion and moving waste through the intestines. One of its most important roles is regulating the amount of water recycled into your system or passed down through the instesitines as waste. Too much water retained and recycled into your body and you've got water retention and constipation..... if you are not recycling enough water back into you body you are passing it down through your intestines and it comes out in the form of diahreah. This is a very delicate balance some where between 94 and 97 percent retained is in the ideal range..... so it has the serotonin must available and working correctly to be pretty accurate within this 4% or so range.
If you've read some of my other posts, you probably know that I have a severe serotonin deficiency. The only true treatment for thisis l-tryptophan which metabolizes into serotonin and melatonin (yep that's right I have no melatonin either which means I don't sleep). Unfortunately because the drug companies (this is conjecture on my part) have a very stong reason to keep the old OTC supplement off the market and some stupid senator with no medical background bought into it.....L-Tryptophan has been illegal in the US since about 1989. You can't even get it by prescription so your options for no to low serotinin are now certain narcotics like oxycodone, Ritalin (good if you also have ADHD which serotonin is also thought to play a huge part in) or Elavil. In my opinion these are all a worse solution because properly monitored the naturally occuring l-trypotphan is a lot nicer to you body than these other drups which are known to have some serious side effects and are really putting bandaid on the solution. Unfortunately for me, I need the band aid the size of a maxi-pad and I'd still be bleeding through them. (poor euphimism for taking a ton of drugs and still having major issues)
SSRI's will not help you AT ALL is your serotonin is low enough or you don't have any for the multiplicative effect of serotonin to work (zero times zero is still zero).
Anyway the next metabolite down from l-tryptohan is 5-hydroxy tryptophan (5-HTP and it has seemed to absolutely cure my diarheah, calm me down and help with the sleep. You can get this at GNC or the Vitamin Shoppe.
PLEASE REMEMBER I AM NOT A DOCOR AND THAT THIS IS NOT THE ANSWER FOR EVERYONE. I AM ONLY POSTING THIS BECAUSE I THINK for some of you it may be WORTH CHECKING THE SEROTONIN LEVELS TO SEE IF THIS MIGHT BE PART OR ALL OF YOUR PROBLEM. PLEASE GET YOUR LEVEL CHECKED BEFORE TRYING THIS BECUASE TOO MUCH SEROTONIN IS BAD ALSO AND CAN ACTUALLY BE FATAL.
(Which is the reason the pharma companies have lobbied to get it off the market - however my opinion is you can OD on aspirin easier than this, so why not at least let it be available by RX and let your physician monitor it. Oh but then again, those senators - whith the exception of one - I am sure they've all passed their medical boards and are experts in neurotransmitter chemistry.) So people like me have been suffering for years, when there was at least some suspicion that l- trypophan may have helped.
So if you feel your SSRI's are not releiving your depression. You may be right. Get your serotonin level checked. It has take me 20 years or so on SSRI's to find this out and actually someone checked my serotonin level...... so it turns out I've been burdening my my liver and kidneys for 20+ years - -for absolutely no reason..... also please don't take this as advice to just quit ssri's or any of your meds without supervision...... even if you think they aren't working your body has gotten used the them being there and at the very least you need to wean off or substiute something else...
Hope this helps somone, but remember it's not the answer for everyone.
Still looking for peace.
Take both before meals.
Digestive enzymes
good bacteria
Helps have a healthy Gut.