Supps that help digestion/absorption?

[BodyMachine]

Do you know of any supps that help with digestion and absorption of food? My gi track seems slow and I hate the bloat and infrequent of bowel movements.

[Dr. D]

You need healthy bacteria.... Probitotics. Digestive Enzymes as well. What are you eating that is causing the bloating?

[BodyMachine]

Thanks for the reply. For the past 5 years I've hd difficulty maintaining a regular bowl movement, Metamucil helps. When I get "backed-up" I feel bloated and produce excess gas. My diet for the past year has been extremely clean though I eat a lot of dairy (milk, cottage cheese). Needless to say because I'm bodybuilding I also take in a fair amount of protein, and few veggies. I avoided yogurt due to the sugar content but have recently added it back in, though I haven't noticed a whole lot of improvement. Be it from food or a supp, what do you recommend? 

[Alex23]

Try Papaya enzymes + probiotics.

Also I know it's sounds roto rooter but a good enema + a day cycle of metamucil helps clean up and increase absorbtion.

[24KT]

Bodymachine,

If I were in your position, I would tackle it from a nutritional standpoint, prior to resorting to a supplementation regimen, by including alot of grains in the diet. I don't know how you're going to do it if you're strict about your carb intake, but 12 grain bread would be good for that.

If calories are a concern, you might want to include celery... lots of it.

Pineapple is good for digestion as are various herbs and tinctures. If you have a knowledgeable herbalist or health food shop near you, they should be able to recommend something that will work without throwing off your routine.

ps - It's quite possible too frequent use of Metamucil and other laxative type preparations might actually be the cause of the problem, and may infact be exascerbating your problem. Over time, your bowels lose the ability to function as they are suppose to, requiring you to purchase even more Metamucil. It's a vicious cycle.  Upping the fibre content of your diet is more economical, and it can only be beneficial as far as regularity goes.

pps - you might also want to reconsider the amount of dairy, as well as watching your wheat gluten intake

Hope That Helps,

[Dr. D]

Thanks for the reply. For the past 5 years I've hd difficulty maintaining a regular bowl movement, Metamucil helps. When I get "backed-up" I feel bloated and produce excess gas. My diet for the past year has been extremely clean though I eat a lot of dairy (milk, cottage cheese). Needless to say because I'm bodybuilding I also take in a fair amount of protein, and few veggies. I avoided yogurt due to the sugar content but have recently added it back in, though I haven't noticed a whole lot of improvement. Be it from food or a supp, what do you recommend? 

I would take it from this approach. I would eliminate all dairy ( unless it's raw) from your diet.
Don't drink liquids while eating. Reasons being you dilute the Hydrochloloric Acid in your stomach which you need to break down food. I would drink plenty of water 30 minutes before your meal ( water with celtic sea salt which will stimulate HCL production.) and then wait another 30 minutes to drink again. It's ok to sip some water during the meal, but when drinking too much you dilute HCL.
Chew your food until it's a complete mush. We all have the tendency to just shove food in our mouth and swallow it, chew it down till there is basically nothing left. This will allow your stomach to break down the food faster and easier.
Eat as natural as you can, lay off processed stuff for awhile.
You will need probiotics ( especially if you have been consuming a great deal of pastuerized dairy), digestive enzymes and possibly HCL, but I wouldn't do that unless you had the Heidelberg test.
Start with these basics for awhile and see if there is any improvements. Also, rotate your foods every four days or so to give your pancreatic enzymes a rest.

[akers1021]

Basicaly look for an Enzyme that has the follwing:

Beataine Hydrochloride
Amylase
Protease
Bromelain ( take an extra Bromelain if your Protein is HIGH)
Papain
Pepsin
Ox Bile
Lipase
Cellulase

Also can't say enough about Fiber intake keep it good and over 40 grams a day.  Bromelain works great for protein digestion as well as being an anti-imflammatory too   

[Alex23]

what bout inulin (not a typo)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inulin

[ripitupbaby]

Basicaly look for an Enzyme that has the follwing:

Beataine Hydrochloride
Amylase
Protease
Bromelain ( take an extra Bromelain if your Protein is HIGH)
Papain
Pepsin
Ox Bile
Lipase
Cellulase

Also can't say enough about Fiber intake keep it good and over 40 grams a day.  Bromelain works great for protein digestion as well as being an anti-imflammatory too   

Most good Vegetarian Digestive Enzyme complexes will have these in them, so you can take all of this in just a couple of pills. 
You also may want to consider an Acidophilis supplement, which is a live organism and needs to be kept in the refrigerator.

[flexingtonsteele]

http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/now/super.html

its a very good enzyme.

Also some hydrochloric acid will do the trick in conjuction with the enzyme above.

[jhanks]

Wow look at this!  First result on google:

http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-and-supplements/lifestyle-guide-11/slideshow-digestive-health

[benchmstr]

http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/now/super.html

its a very good enzyme.

Also some hydrochloric acid will do the trick in conjuction with the enzyme above.

I took that for a while..solid product

Bench

[hrspwr1]

My doc put me on probiotics and L-glutamine for my digestion problems.

[BAST]

Thanks for the reply. For the past 5 years I've hd difficulty maintaining a regular bowl movement, Metamucil helps. When I get "backed-up" I feel bloated and produce excess gas. My diet for the past year has been extremely clean though I eat a lot of dairy (milk, cottage cheese). Needless to say because I'm bodybuilding I also take in a fair amount of protein, and few veggies. I avoided yogurt due to the sugar content but have recently added it back in, though I haven't noticed a whole lot of improvement. Be it from food or a supp, what do you recommend?  

that's likely the problem.   also try drinking 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar diluted in a cup of water.

[latiuss]

Black pepper and cinnamon

[Necrosis]

Ginger does me solid every time, fennel is good as is chamomile.


carminitives get the bowels contracting correctly, creates handsome poops.

[Roger Bacon]

I like this, I'm going to try it.

Any recommendations on dairy free brand names? Like the vegetarian one ripitupbaby mentioned?

[Dicki_Nurmom]

My doc put me on probiotics and L-glutamine for my digestion problems.

snake oil

[Necrosis]

snake oil

Both are used in medicine, or are you just unaware of the literature?