Where To Start With Enzymes??
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Where To Start With Enzymes??
| Thu, 10-13-2005 - 3:17pm |
I was reading a post down below where the usage of enzymes was mentioned. I would love to get my son started on these, but is there anything I should know? Where can they be purchased?
Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. I am also thinking about trying the GFCF diet, but would like to start this first I guess.
Thanks! :)

I don't really know where to get enzymes or which are better over others, but I do have a little advice......go slow.
Sam was on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet for a year (pre dx; trying to figure out what was going on with this kid!) Lots of parents on one of the lists I visited experienced alot of regression of behavior when introducing a new supplement, probiotic (the cultures in yogurt) or enzymes; the last two especially. Enzymes and probiotics change the make up of enzymes and bacteria in our stomach and intestines. Probiotics kill off some of the bad guys in exchange for better, more helpful ones but they will battle it out and create alot of icky by-products which can do funky things to the brain. I assume any chemical change that occurs with the addition of enzymes can create a similar situation until the body adjusts.
If you add the enzymes gradually the change should be slower and less tumultuous and cause less behavior regression or change. So, if the bottles says 1 tsp a day, give 1/4 tsp a day to start and work your way up to the full dose over several weeks or even months. You can open those vegi-cap things and stir any powder into apple sauce, smoothies, oj......whatever.
Good luck.......it's definately worth a try. I got some No Phenol samples free from Houston....maybe that's a good place to start.
Chrystee
I started using Houston's which was really effective for my dd. Going slow is the best advice, I agree. I used one dose of peptizyde for 2 meals a day. The first dose made her very hyper! This is a low energy child prone to chronic fatigue due to her seizure medication. That sure was surprising so I wouldn't recommend sending the child off to school on a day like that. LOL After that first dose, the hyperactivity didn't happen again. I didn't see any difference in her cognition or improvement-wise that first month, but I knew I was starting low. After a month, I did 2 doses per meal. We had already been doing SCD for 8 months before that so she had also a lot of easily digestible meals before we started enzymes. After I increased the amount, the change in her was like "WOW!" I noticed the change was with the peptizyde. I didn't notice any changes with the zyme prime so I dropped that. I use No-Fenol once a day. Sometimes not. But I use the peptizyde religiously. The No-Fenol seems to affect my oldest daughter more (ADHD).
Without exaggeration, even above SCD, enzymes were pivotal in the changes we've seen in her this past year. In fact, I've been able to stray from SCD thanks to enzymes.
It's been almost a year since we've started using digestive enzymes and I haven't seen the same dramatic improvements that I did in the first months. I am not sure if her intestines have healed or are still healing. I have been considering dropping them, but my husband (who was resistant to them at first) is now insisting that we keep her on them.
Not everyone reacts the same to them though, so starting slow and low is the best advice.
The most extensive website with information that is non-commercial is www.enzymestuff.com but Karen does seem to believe Houston's is the best from reading her posts on the yahoo group.
I'm currently trying Enzymedica right now (along with Houston's). Just started that and going slow with it. I haven't noticed anything new about it's results. It had more lipase so I was hoping that would help with the lipids, but like I said, don't know if we've reached the "maximum capacity" for healing with these already.
LR