Bromelain For Digestion
Bromelain is a popular natural digestive aid due to it’s ability to digest proteins. It’s used for bloating, gas and other digestive symptoms and for conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome. Bromelain is often used alone or in combination with other enzymes such as lipase, which digests fats, and amylase, which digests starch. There is little research, however, on the safety or effectiveness of bromelain for digestion.
It may also affect protein turnover in the body including proteins found in joint tissue. Bromelain has been the subject of over 200 scientific studies in medicine, dentistry, and animal research over the past 30 years.
Called a proteolytic enzyme, it is believed to help with the digestion of protein. The “benefits of bromelain” are awesome. It is a mixture of enzymes found naturally in the juice and stems of pineapples.
Some of these bromelain enzymes appears to be absorbed by the body intact, so it’s also thought to have effects outside the digestive tract. In fact, it is often marketed as a natural anti-inflammatory for conditions such as arthritis. Bromelain is one of the most popular supplements in Germany, where it is approved by the Commission E for the treatment of inflammation and swelling of the nose and sinuses due to surgery or injury.
Bromelain is present in all parts of the pineapple plant (Ananas comosus), but the stem is the most common commercial source, presumably because it is readily available after the fruit has been harvested. Pineapples have had a long tradition as a medicinal plant among the natives of South and Central America. However, just eating pineapple will not give you a great deal of extra bromelain, because it is most highly concentrated in the stem, which is not nearly as tasty.
This proteolytic (protein-digesting) enzyme is also an important supplement for respiratory diseases from sinusitis to bronchitis and pneumonia. Taking this mixture of enzymes has been shown to improve lung capacity and function in people with bronchitis. It works by reducing and thinning the phlegm and, so, clearing up lung congestion. It also suppresses that nasty cough.
Bromelain Anti-Cancer Effects
The most exciting recent discovery about bromelain is that it’s one of the most promising of all the anti-cancer nutrients. It activates the immune system and has anti-cancer effects and fights cancer at many levels. It increases the macrophages’ ability to kill tumours.
Other bromelain benefits…It has the important ability to stimulate cell differentiation, which normalizes the cell. It helps both during the early promotional stage and the late stage of metastasis or spread.
One of the most intriguing things about bromelain is that it seems to be able to break down the protective coating that tumours use to hide from the immune system, allowing the immune system to target them more effectively. Bromelain also increases the effectiveness of chemotherapy.
Bromelain side effects
Bromelain supplements do not seem to have any obvious side effects. The use of a bromelain supplement at 800 mg a day was used on a group of patients for a period of 12 weeks without any significant side effects reported.
Enzymes For Digestion!
