The Beauty of Digestive Enzymes
I’ve written in past posts about my troubles with excessive stomach bloating – bloating that I’ve lived with for over ten years of my life. During these ten years, I visited many-a-doctor offices only for them to tell me I have IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome). What a load of crap!
You can’t really tell me what’s wrong, so you diagnose me with some vague syndrome that doesn’t really have a definitive solution. I’ve even so much as rid my intestines of all their bacteria (under doctor supervision, of course) in an effort to replace them with good bacteria. Worked – but only temporarily.
I searched high and low for long-term solutions and finally I think I’ve found it.
I had been complaining to a colleague at work one day about my horrific symptoms, when she suggested I speak to a nutritional therapist she’s dealt with in the past. The woman lives in New Zealand, so I scheduled a Skype call. It was a pretty amazing discussion – I mainly spoke about my history with food and she was able to gather a few things:
I most likely have an intolerance to dairy
I may have an intolerance to fructose
My natural digestive enzymes were not working correctly
And so I set out to make these changes. I had already cut out dairy from my diet – so no major changes there. I stopped eating fruits, although half my diet (and fridge) consisted of them. And finally, I began taking digestive enzyme supplements. [Note: she had also told me to eat a lemon a day – she felt my acidity levels in my stomach were off and so the lemon’s acidity would counteract that and in turn help digestion, but that lasted a few days so I can’t really comment on the effectiveness].
I am normally wary about taking supplements and to be honest I’ve never really been good about taking supplements in the past. But this could be a tipping point in my life and so without question I started taking a digestive pill every day along with my largest meal.
A year down the line, the quality of my life had improved. Not only did I never have to deal with the excessive bloating that used to make me look pregnant and kept me under home arrest but I lost weight – without even trying! And in the meantime, I’ve gone back to eating fruits – in small quantities – and have re-introduced dairy – mostly in the form of yogurt. Cheese still affects me and so I only allow myself a few nibbles on special occasions. All the while taking my digestive pills.
Recently, I decided to go off of them. It’s been about 2.5 months – my body felt great but I did notice there were days when I was slightly more bloated than usual and then more recently I had a few consecutive days of severe bloating. I have an inkling that it might be due to the amount of watermelon I’ve recently eaten, but I didn’t want to take any chances. So I am back on the pills – it’s only been about 2 days and I am already feeling better, but I am also not eating any fruits again.
Please do note, these digestive pills are not meant to allow you to eat what your body obviously negatively responds to. The purpose of these pills is to support your natural digestion by giving it a boost of extra enzymes.
I am a true believer that the stomach is at the core of human health. When you treat it well, when you feed it well and when you aid its homeostasis, the rest of our body reaps the rewards.
I found a very interesting article on the Dr. Oz website describing in detail the role of enzymes and their positive effects on the body when they are working at optimal levels. You can read the article here: http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/boosting-your-immunity-enzymes
*As these pills are not FDA approved, it is under your discretion that you undergo digestive enzyme supplementation.
