So after a few months on a gluten-free diet, I went out with some friends yesterday and consumed a very large, very tasty, incredibly decadent gluten-full pizza.

Today I feel like a bus chased me and ran me over. I called my internist in the morning and confessed all and he said I should get digestive enzymes for the occasional accidental (not stupid and on purpose like mine..) gluten ingestion. He said they block gluten absorption and help the body deal with it better so you get less symptoms after...

What are these digestive enzymes? Does anyone here on a gluten-free diet for celiac use them? Do they really work?

Hope this finds everyone well!

Ziggy

hi Ziggy - wondering why you didn't ask your doctor what they are since he reccomended them but sorry you haven't had a reply here.
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i'm not a coeliac but i take different digestive enzymes for allergies, arthritis and when I eat a big meal - getting older and teh digestive powers weaken naturally. I use wobenzyme -**and sometimes betaine hcl with added pepsin which you can get at any health food store or**
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Also I eat a diet high in raw foods to get enzymes naturally - notice how fruit and veg starts to digest itself when bruised?

I think bruised fruits and veggies are rotting. They are being destroyed by bacteria and fungi.

Also people do not realize that most vegetables are still alive in a sense. They consume oxygen and carbon dioxide and continue to ripen after picking. They give off water vapor too, as they live on. All living things contain enzymes. Not all enzymes are digestive. There are enzymes composed of cofactors (either a mineral or vitamin like B12) that produce energy in your body's cells, and repair tissue, etc.

This is an overview and explanation of what the word "enzyme" means:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enzyme

Most enzymes are made of proteins, and as such are vulnerable to the high pH of the stomach (very acidic). As such they do not survive and many are digested there.

H Seachangeau and thanks for your reply. I did ask my internist but he didn't seem to know much about them other than what I wrote here, hence my asking here!

Thanks MrsD! I think I'm beginning to understand this enzyme business...! :-))

Ziggy

Hi, Ziggy. Since I last posted to you, I've been using a liquid yogurt called Kefir. I don't know what brands you have where you live, but the one I have in US has 12 probiotic organisms in it to help heal and keep the GI tract healthy.

I was having alot of pain, gas, diarrhea, and burping this summer, which may have been gall bladder related, or just nasty bugs. I was taking metformin at the time, and that is notorious for making upset GI tracts.

So I started 4 oz of Kefir, daily and really feel so much better.
It has been a miracle for me.

This is the brand I am using:
http://www.lifeway.net/

If you can find something like this where you live, you might want to try it. Healing up the GI tract may improve your malabsorption issues.

Oooooh! Thank you Mrs D.!

We actually had kefir grains back home, and used to put them in milk to make kefir but they multiplied so fast and had to be washed and changed every single day we couldn't really handle it after a few months.

Unfortunately kefir doesn't seem to exist where I live, commercially at least (supermarkets, health food stores etc). I wonder if it would be safe to get some kefir grains from back home and just make kefir at home?

Sounds like a wonderful idea to get probiotics! Plus it's so tasty...!

Ziggy