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digestion 101


Caz

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I typed for one and a half hours all that I had learned about digestion, and then the baby crawled into the study, and banged the computer and the computer shut down and I lost everything!!!

 

There must be a lesson to learn, but right now I am mad as ######!!!

 

I don't think I can type it all again, but to summarize, I have recently recieved some test results for my son, both amino acid profile (7 out of 21 below reference range - 8 more within 10% of bottom of reference range and the rest below middle of reference range) This is after he has had months of eating protein with every meal and taking a protein drink with breakfast. How could this be???

 

Then his fatty acid profile was completed. He has been taking fish oil for 12 months, but his profile showed very little epa and next to no dha. But his saturated fats were off the scale high - where was he getting all the saturated fats? Apparantly from the fish oil. They are only 30% epa/dha so what is the rest? Well 40% approx is saturated fats.

 

If you look into how the body processes fish oil you will see that it is actually quite complicated - they come as a triglyceride - and through digestion in the stomach and gut and being emulsified by bile salts, and the pancreatic enzyme lipase, you have to break these down into the tri part (with is 3 molucules of fattty acids) and they glycerol part - then these parts cross into the epitheliel cells of the villi, then they are re-synthesised and combine with proteins, travel in the lymph system and are then later carried into the blood.

 

With problems with either low stomach acid, pancreatic insufficiency , low bile salts or damaged villi in the gut, you would have problems getting sufficient fatty acids into your cells, where you need them.

 

This is even before you start looking at delta 5 and delta 6 desaturase enzymne activity and the elongase enzymes which "processes" fatty acids into their end products which are epa and dha etc etc , the bits that are then turned into prostaglandins etc.

 

At the height of all this research, I went a bit dippy - the human body is such a complex thing.

 

What I learnt from all of it probably relates mostly to my own kid, but I realized that health store bought fish oil may not be the best way to get dha and epa into our kids, unless you know that all of their other body systems are working well.

 

We can't get them here in Aus, but I believe there are products that are high dha or epa, in a much better ratio to saturated fats than we can get here. The manufactures here in Aus do not even have to list that they contain so much saturated fat.

 

Another intereting thing is that unless you have enough omega 6, your body has trouble dealing with its saturated fats, and if you are niacin deficient, you also have trouble with this.

 

For us, how does this relate to his amino acid profile being so low?

 

2 weeks ago I took him to a friend who had just finished her studies to become a naturopath, and she does iridology. First thing she said when she looked into his eyes was "he has low stomach acid". I often thought this whole thing was like reading tea leaves - a bit witch doctor like, but it was fascinating. She said lots about him, but one of the main things was that his toxins are affecting his brain. Duh!!!???!!!

 

I looked into stomach acid, and it needs b1, zinc and the amino acid histadine as well as chloride that comes from sodium chloride (salt).

 

My son was extremely low in histadine - so that kind of fits. (This low somach acid becomes a vicious cycles, and if you dont have enough, you cant break the food down and absorb the nutrients needed and so you become deficient in the very things you need enough of to make more)

 

What I found is that if you do not produce enough stomach acid, you cannot activate pepsin - the enzyme that begins the digestion of protein. Then when the contents ot the stomach are released into the small intestines, they should trigger the release of pancreatic enzymes to continue breaking down protein, and others to begin the process of breaking down carbs, sugars, and fats.

 

If you do not produce enough enzymes, the foods remain only partially digested, and then they become a breading ground and a haven for the "unfriendly" microflora. Also the bile salts are not stimulated enough, and this causes other probelms. This then leads to toxins that then overburden the liver and other organs, causing trouble with them.

 

When the body does not get enough nutrients, it then has trouble with so many other areas and enzyme reactions that it is like a cascading effect....

 

Again low stomach acid would suggest that your pancreatic enzymes wouln't be stimulated enough, so your lipase (fat digesting enzymes) would not work so well, and you would not be breaking the fish oils down as well and hence not having enough of then in your cells. Apparantly the body finds it easier to "cleave" the saturated fats from the triglycerol, rather than the omega 3 or 6's. I could not find this referenced anywhere, but the guy at the lab told me that, so this may be another reason my sons profile was so squewed in the area of saturated fats.

 

Well, we are now stimulating his digestion with betaine hcl, and this and a few other things we are trying (like chelation of heavy metals and olive leaf extract for microbial imbalance) seem to be making a difference - touch wood - I know TS waxes and wanes, but for us, right not things seem to be on the improve.

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Oh Caz,

 

How frustrating! I have actually typed my posts a couple of time in a word file or my email (which autosaves every few minutes) for precisely that reason.

 

Pfeiffer told us to do Pro DHA (Nordic Naturals makes capsules of it). This has disproportionate DHA, as you mentioned.

 

I am deficient in Vit E after supplementing for months, so I think I mentioned that I started supplementing with Houston Neutriceuticals for it. (I read that vit E defic. is rare, but can be related to poor ability to digest fats). With all the fuss on Vit E lately, I didn't want to raise my supplement level). I personally notice a difference with enzymes and digestion.

 

Betaine HCL, is that an enzyme? It sounds so familiar, I will need to read my enzyme labels.

 

Pfeiffer mentioned free form amino acid supplementation if deficient--I think I posted this. But I still haven't researched it. Have you? I am wondering if there are risks. I wouldn't mind adding it on days of low protein for my son.

 

Thanks for your time in posting what you have learned. Digestion certainly is at the 'heart' of much of this, isn't it?

 

Claire

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Oh Caz,

 

How frustrating! I have actually typed my posts a couple of time in a word file or my email (which autosaves every few minutes) for precisely that reason.

 

Pfeiffer told us to do Pro DHA (Nordic Naturals makes capsules of it). This has disproportionate DHA, as you mentioned.

 

I am deficient in Vit E after supplementing for months, so I think I mentioned that I started supplementing with Houston Neutriceuticals for it. (I read that vit E defic. is rare, but can be related to poor ability to digest fats). With all the fuss on Vit E lately, I didn't want to raise my supplement level). I personally notice a difference with enzymes and digestion.

 

Betaine HCL, is that an enzyme? It sounds so familiar, I will need to read my enzyme labels.

 

Pfeiffer mentioned free form amino acid supplementation if deficient--I think I posted this. But I still haven't researched it. Have you? I am wondering if there are risks. I wouldn't mind adding it on days of low protein for my son.

 

Thanks for your time in posting what you have learned. Digestion certainly is at the 'heart' of much of this, isn't it?

 

Claire

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Betaine HCl is actually betaine (trimethylglycine) with hydrochloric acid - to supplement the bodies naturally made stuff. INtersting that it actually tmg that is good for the undermethylated person.

 

Anyway it is only the HCL form that helps with the stomach acid, not the plain form.

 

Just recently we started with free form amino acids, rather than protein that the body has to break down.

 

We are going low low dose of this just to see if there is any reaction, as it contains phenalanaine and stuff.

 

I'll keep you posted.

 

Caz

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The Betaine HCL is not an enzyme itself, but comes in a product called protein digestive aid by natures sunshine. I got it from the Health Food Store, but had to ring around to find one that carried it. It contains 325g betaine Hydrochloride and 65mg pepsin, which when activated by the stomach acid begins to break down protein. (Pepsin only works when the stomach acid is a ph of 2 - very acid)

 

From the stuff I have read - pepsin is an endopeptidase enzyme which means it hydrolyses peptide bonds in the middle of the polypeptide chain of protein. This means that it begins to break down the bond in the protein commencing its necessary digestion into its individual amino acids.

 

This stimulates the pancreatic endopetidases and they digest the proteins and peptides (from above) and make them even shorter in the duodenum. Different endopeptidase enzymes cut the protein sequences at different places on the peptide chain because they target different amino acid sequences. This way there are many free ends on the chains for the next enzymes to work on.

 

Exopeptidases are enzymes in the membrane of the ileum epithelial cells that complete the digestion of the short peptides into its individual amino acids.

It is somewhere around here that once broken down into its individual bits, they are absorbed into the blood stream and then transported around the body.

 

It is also here that if all of the above doesn't work properly, the protein is not broken down sufficiently - eg some of them remain as shorter chain peptides rather than as their individual amino acids, that if there is a leaky gut problem the peptides are absorbed into the blood rather than as individual amino acids.

 

You know the human body is amazing - really if there was no leaky gut or microflora imbalance, then even these larger peptides would not cause such an issue, we would just be somewhat devoid of amino acids. But these not completely digested amino acids cause other problems if there is not complete flora balance in the gut. They encourage certain flora to flourish, and this can then cause its own issues.

 

My son for example on this cdsa showed a possible protein maldigestion problem with an imbalance of short chain fatty acids in his gut. It is the microflora in the bowel that create short chain fatty acids. these are different from the long chain fatty acids like omega 3 and 6 - these short chain do different jobs in the body. But if you do not digest your protein well, then these short chains are imbalanced, and this can also cause a cascade of trouble.

 

Hopefully for us, getting the hydrochlic acid in the stomach right can like a cascade effect fix some of these other troubles, and it can also help correct the microflora issues.

 

I have read that insufficient stomach acid is one of the biggest reasons people have candida yeast issues!

 

If I have not bored you to tears so far, have a read of this link

 

http://www.thorne.com/altmedrev/fulltext/hcl.html

 

Caz

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Sorry Ausclare - I forgot to mention that this particular product would not be suitable for vegetarians as the pepsin is from pigs I believe.

 

Other forms without the pepsin are available.

 

Some of the things you recommended to me weeks ago like lemon in water and applecider vinegar are reported to stimulate the stomachs hydrochloric acid as well. I got a hold of Sandra Cabots book on liver health and read that info in there on low stomach acid.

 

Caz

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Thanks guys for the info,

Caz you are amazing with the amount of reserch you do. I love looking into that sort of stuff too, just haven't had time recently.

 

I have been looking at the enzymes for a while, but the animal products part has been putting me off. I'm not a vegetarian! I had looked at a bromelien ( I think the spelling is wrong) it's similar to the pineapple enzymes or may even be made from them. I'ts 4.30 am and I can't think straight! Anyway they were about $50 a bottle and it would only have lasted a month, I couldn't afford that with all the other vitamins I had to buy for the boys, but maybe if I give them the enzymes, it will cut out the need for the others?

I was facinated with your explanation on the EPA's and DHA's.

 

I suffer perpetually with candida, so much that I was almost contemplating taking a drug that you need a govenment permission number for, I think it was made for AIDS patients. One of my friends had one tablet and didn't have thrush for 2 years. I asked her what the side effects were and she hadn't asked! Didn't care because it worked!

 

Even though I get candida so often, I still don't think I would be able to swallow the tablet if it were in front of me!

 

I've tried all the diets and vitamins for it, but can never shake it entirely. Although I did feel a lot better after going on that fasting retreat a few weeks back.

 

I've still given up sugar, so maybe things will improve.

 

Gotta get back to tending the sick, my breaks up!

 

See ya

Clare

 

Ps Claire thanks for the info. I'm coming to Texas in Feb 2005 for 6 days could you suggest some cheap pharmacy shops that I should visit and the brands you suggest, I would like to try the threelac is that the brand name?

 

Would love to catch up with some of you guys, but I don't know the schedule yet, I'm coming for a conference. I know America and Canada a miles apart, but you never know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Clare

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