Digestive enzymes?

[jazzharmony]

Does anyone have a favorite brand of digestive enzyme or know what I should look for?

Sorry if this topic has recently been discussed - I don't have a search function on the app I'm using.

Sent from my itypo

[bcblondie]

Kefir!!! Oh my goodness, homemade kefir. Love.

[sbgrace]

I had no clue Kefir had enzymatic activity! Wow. How did I miss that all this time?

We use Houston's enzymes. I've not tried any others as I'm happy with Houston's and the research they put into them. I've seen people mentioning Amy Yasko's enzymes. She includes pancreatic enzymes. I showed them to my doctor and he felt they had less enzyme activity (per numbers anyway) than the Houston's but it would be hard to quantify what the pancreatic added. I didn't switch partly because I was unsure of the effect of adding pancreatic but I know people have had success with them.

[bcblondie]

Well. I'm not a scientist. All my knowledge on kefir I got from google. lol. But I DO know that it definitely helps break down food, absorb nutrients, and digest food better in general. And isn't that the function of digestive enzymes? Definitely worth a try, I think. :)

[HawaiianBlesing]

I use Duozyme from Karuna and love it.  I used to have horrible indigestion and haven't had any since taking it.  I've even used it during pregnancy and have managed to curb most heartburn.

My nutritionist put me on it.  He likes it much better than the others because it is dual stage meaning it has a gastric phase and a duodoneal phase.  I've been very, very happy with it.

[treeoflife3]

subbing

[deditus]

This is the best site for enzyme info: http://enzymestuff.com/

What kind/brand of enzymes kind of depends on what you need them for. Enzymedica is fabulous. I also really like Klaire Labs products. Dd used to take Houston enzymes.

We try to do lots of ferments for their enzyme activity also. No kefir because we are dairy free, but we drink kombucha with meals and eat lots of fermented veggies.

[joybird]

I'll second (third?) the recommendations for Houston's and Enzymedica.  We've used both with great success.  

[tanyalynn]

We started with Yasko's special digestive enzymes which have pancreatin (her website is holisticheal.com) and pretty soon switched over to Source Naturals Pancreatin 8x (sold places like iherb, and while they're lower dosage, that's fine for us--we don't need the dosage of Yasko's digestive enzymes).

My son had some, um, interesting reactions to starting them (started on Yasko, switched to Source Naturals and didn't see a change or lessening of the good things), he was a bit hyperactive for a few days and his poop was forest-green, really odd, but both kids had browner, firmer poop (too loose before, or with DS it was sometimes loose, sometimes just erratic).  With either, I'd start slow--my kids get vits/mins to help with the stress of making digestive changes and still my son was noticeably hyperactive.  I've read that the pancreatin can (worded at my understanding level) force digestive changes faster than non-pancreatin-including digestive enzymes, but it can also suppress natural pancreatin production.  I'd already started them and just stuck with them because we had a lot of things going on that were causing digestive upset.  DD has stopped them and we're on to other things that I think are helping, I may start DS on them again, but they were helpful for a time.

It's the only kind of digestive enzyme we've used, so I can't compare it to anything else. 

http://www.iherb.com/Source-Naturals-Pancreatin-8X-500-mg-100-Capsules/6199?at=0