6 replies to this topic

[JohnDoe999]

Hi

 

I am thinking of including a probiotic supplement and digestive enzyme supplement to ensure adequate utilization of my other supplements.

 

Can prolonged usage of such supplements interfere with the body's "normal" regulation of these substances, i.e. if I use such supplements for x years, and then stop, will the body's utilization of supplements and food be in line with what it was before I started on probiotics/digestive enzymes, or will it be less effective?

 

 

[Boris_Badenoff]

I am not a big believer in taking enzymes unless you have a known deficiency like lactose.  But I do think a good probiotic will only help particularly if you have frequent digestive issues.  If possible try eating fermented foods like sauerkraut, or Kimci  and you can skip the probiotics too.

[niner]

Probiotics can alter the gut microbiota, but often it's only temporary. The major determinant of your microbiome is what you feed them. If you have the right diet, then a good microbiome will follow, but probiotics might be useful to seed it. I wouldn't take digestive enzymes without a good reason. They will not help other supplements be used more efficiently. They have nothing to do with supplements, with perhaps a few obscure exceptions.

[deeptrance]

I'm going to add another voice to the negative views on supplemental enzymes. I recently began taking a potent enzyme formulation and ever since then I've been having a lot of gurgling in my gut, along with flatulence and a bit of diarrhea. I don't know why i bought them in the first place, other than "compulsive supplement shopping syndrome," and the reason I am still taking them is "fear of letting something I bought go to waste." But now that I've seen the comments above, I think I'll stop taking them. 

 

As for probiotics, they're awesome. You might want to do some reading on prebiotics, which are foods that help nurture a healthy intestinal biome, as well as maybe looking into some of the cool recent research showing how certain microbes affect everything from mental health to obesity. We are self-contained ecosystems. Nobody here but me and a few hundred microbial species. Maybe one of them is controlling what I write, and wants to convince you to make life better for its species. 

[Boris_Badenoff]

Hey Deeptrance, what's the big idea letting out our secret plot to rule the world by getting everyone to ingest probiotics?  Really funny stuff, I am going to have to use those last 3 lines you wrote sometime.

[deeptrance]

I bet some of our specific food cravings are a result of thousands or millions of years of evolution of gut bacteria influencing brain chemistry. Science is only beginning to uncover some of these effects. But it totally makes sense, to the point where I don't see how it could NOT be happening, that our appetites would be affected by bacteria that thrive on different types of food. This might also reinforce whatever diet we happen to consume, so that we're less inclined to want to make changes. Whatever we eat regularly is making certain microbes happy and others unhappy. The happy ones multiply and dominate, and they want us to keep doing what we've been doing.

 

This could also explain why we keep reelecting the same ass clowns to represent us in the democracies of the world --- the people who are doing well want things to stay the same, and they usually have a larger influence on the process of getting people elected. Homeostasis. 

[APBT]

Is eating behavior manipulated by the gastrointestinal microbiota?