Amino Acid Supplementation For People With Poor Digestion

[Kehaar]

I just took the plunge and ordered the impower aminos. I have been struggling with digestion for the past few years and have made some progress, but I'm still struggling particularly with digesting protein.

The dietary things that have helped me the most so far have been reducing starches (potatoes feel like a neurotoxin to me, probably a nightshade sensitivity, rice and wheat do not move well, been tolerating small amounts of corn products, preferably nixtamalized) and mostly eliminating FODMAPS.

Supplements that have moved me in the right direction: minocycline, digestive enzymes, betaine HCl, cascara.

Lifestyle changes - trying to move more so things don't get scrunched up sitting at a computer all day for work. Also avoiding snacking so things have time to do their thing in there, and perhaps a little bowel rest between meals.

Other things I take: synthroid, tyromix, cypro, preg, K2, E, aspirin, energin, MgCl, occ prednisone and ambien (I have dx of RA and hypothyroid)

I think I have some combination of SIBO and intermittent colitis. I think the SIBO has significantly damaged the small bowel wall, impairing digestion. I had a peripheral neuropathy for awhile that I attributed to B12 deficiency from SIBO. This has resolved, as has bloating (for the most part), suggesting I'm headed in the right direction. Not sure what's going on in the colon, except that I fluctuate between too loose and too stuck.

My main symptoms at this point are that (according to my family) I intermittently smell like rotting meat (they call it the death smell), and I require large doses of digestive enzymes and betaine after meals.

I'm not really sure what causes the odor, but since it reminds everyone of rot and death I'm assuming it could be protein related. I'm not sure if it is triggered by something I ate, or an overgrowth of something smelly, or a gut motility problem, or something else. I just know that it's remarkably unpleasant, intermittent, and new as of about a year and a half ago.

My diet includes the following staples: A2 milk, lecithin-free milk chocolate bars, OJ, bananas, corn tortillas fried in CO with cheese on top, beef, shrimp, chicken, mushrooms, carrots, salad greens and egg yolks.

I'm wondering if the aminos could help heal my gut so that I'm not so dependent on the enzymes and betaine, and of course so that I don't have intermittent offensive odors!

I expect them in 5-7 days and will report back after I try them.

Here's hoping :)

 

[EIRE24]

I just took the plunge and ordered the impower aminos. I have been struggling with digestion for the past few years and have made some progress, but I'm still struggling particularly with digesting protein.

The dietary things that have helped me the most so far have been reducing starches (potatoes feel like a neurotoxin to me, probably a nightshade sensitivity, rice and wheat do not move well, been tolerating small amounts of corn products, preferably nixtamalized) and mostly eliminating FODMAPS.

Supplements that have moved me in the right direction: minocycline, digestive enzymes, betaine HCl, cascara.

Lifestyle changes - trying to move more so things don't get scrunched up sitting at a computer all day for work. Also avoiding snacking so things have time to do their thing in there, and perhaps a little bowel rest between meals.

Other things I take: synthroid, tyromix, cypro, preg, K2, E, aspirin, energin, MgCl, occ prednisone and ambien (I have dx of RA and hypothyroid)

I think I have some combination of SIBO and intermittent colitis. I think the SIBO has significantly damaged the small bowel wall, impairing digestion. I had a peripheral neuropathy for awhile that I attributed to B12 deficiency from SIBO. This has resolved, as has bloating (for the most part), suggesting I'm headed in the right direction. Not sure what's going on in the colon, except that I fluctuate between too loose and too stuck.

My main symptoms at this point are that (according to my family) I intermittently smell like rotting meat (they call it the death smell), and I require large doses of digestive enzymes and betaine after meals.

I'm not really sure what causes the odor, but since it reminds everyone of rot and death I'm assuming it could be protein related. I'm not sure if it is triggered by something I ate, or an overgrowth of something smelly, or a gut motility problem, or something else. I just know that it's remarkably unpleasant, intermittent, and new as of about a year and a half ago.

My diet includes the following staples: A2 milk, lecithin-free milk chocolate bars, OJ, bananas, corn tortillas fried in CO with cheese on top, beef, shrimp, chicken, mushrooms, carrots, salad greens and egg yolks.

I'm wondering if the aminos could help heal my gut so that I'm not so dependent on the enzymes and betaine, and of course so that I don't have intermittent offensive odors!

I expect them in 5-7 days and will report back after I try them.

Here's hoping :)

Wow your story is very similar to mine with digestion.

What benefits did you notice from minocycline?

Also, do you suffer from gerd or acid reflux? I had awful pains last week and felt like it was my liver but I think it was pressure from gas in my stomach and think it was either sibo or h pylori creating the gas? The pressure was crazy and could only be relieved with lots of magnesium citrate and HCL.

Curious if the aminos will help. If reports are good I will start them myself.

 

[Kang]

@Kehaar first thank you for trying our product, looking forward to your feedback.

As to your symptoms, my two cents, they sound like most if not all are related to your hypothyroidism, especially loose or stuck stools, poor digestion, the body odour... what are you doing for your hypothyroidism? Have you adjusted dosing with your physician?
Auto-immunue issues are also strongly correlated with hypothyroidism and in terms of healing the gut have you tried the ideas outlined in Kate Deering'sbook? A slow transition simple fuels like juice, honey, fruits supplemented with the proteins you can handle, no complex carbs, lots of salt, etc. This will reduce the food to the bacteria inn your colon too. And remember bananas can be problematic for many people as they have a strong latex like allergy due to their heavy farming.

How many calories do you eat a day and what is your activity level?

You mention minocycline, how have you used it?
Have you tried regular carrot salads and/ or mushroom servings or high dose activated charcoal for the antimicrobial / anti-endotoxin properties?

As for the aminos, I used them for 2 months at 60 caps a day in divided servings plus a ton of simple and sometimes complex carbs. I tried low to moderate fat as well but the low version required another 1000 calories of carbs to give me a sense of satiety - probably from increasing metabolism. Now I use an average of 30 per day - sometimes more, sometimes less. The more you use as a replacement for other proteins the less ammonia you create as it isn't a protein that needs to be separated into individual aminos. Always take it with simple carbs and/or a meal... check your temp/pulse.

Hope this helps

 

[Kehaar]

Wow your story is very similar to mine with digestion.

What benefits did you notice from minocycline?

Also, do you suffer from gerd or acid reflux? I had awful pains last week and felt like it was my liver but I think it was pressure from gas in my stomach and think it was either sibo or h pylori creating the gas? The pressure was crazy and could only be relieved with lots of magnesium citrate and HCL.

Curious if the aminos will help. If reports are good I will start them myself.

It's hard to separate out which did which, but minocycline, enzymes, betaine, and dietary changes significantly reduced my bloating. I currently take enzymes and betaine after every meal. Minocycline I only take when I get a pimple on my face (suggesting a brewing gut issue), or the odor (which I should have specified is bad breath, although sometimes also detectable on my skin; my son notices it immediately when I enter a room if I have it). It's hard to know if the minocycline fixes the odor or if the odor is self-limited. Minocycline at least makes me feel like I'm doing something. My skin has cleared up tremendously from where I was pre-minocycline. I would say I take it for a week about once every 2 months or so.

I haven't noticed gerd or reflux. But I've definitely had severe gastric or upper GI bloating after meals which I assume was SIBO. I think I had it for years before I really tuned in to what was going on. I'd definitely consider gallbladder if I had crazy pains that felt like liver. I'm guessing you got better and the pain resolved? I haven't tried mag citrate but it's on my radar. Do you have a particular reason for taking it?

 

[Kehaar]

@Kehaar first thank you for trying our product, looking forward to your feedback.

As to your symptoms, my two cents, they sound like most if not all are related to your hypothyroidism, especially loose or stuck stools, poor digestion, the body odour... what are you doing for your hypothyroidism? Have you adjusted dosing with your physician?
Auto-immunue issues are also strongly correlated with hypothyroidism and in terms of healing the gut have you tried the ideas outlined in Kate Deering'sbook? A slow transition simple fuels like juice, honey, fruits supplemented with the proteins you can handle, no complex carbs, lots of salt, etc. This will reduce the food to the bacteria inn your colon too. And remember bananas can be problematic for many people as they have a strong latex like allergy due to their heavy farming.

How many calories do you eat a day and what is your activity level?

You mention minocycline, how have you used it?
Have you tried regular carrot salads and/ or mushroom servings or high dose activated charcoal for the antimicrobial / anti-endotoxin properties?

As for the aminos, I used them for 2 months at 60 caps a day in divided servings plus a ton of simple and sometimes complex carbs. I tried low to moderate fat as well but the low version required another 1000 calories of carbs to give me a sense of satiety - probably from increasing metabolism. Now I use an average of 30 per day - sometimes more, sometimes less. The more you use as a replacement for other proteins the less ammonia you create as it isn't a protein that needs to be separated into individual aminos. Always take it with simple carbs and/or a meal... check your temp/pulse.

Hope this helps

Thanks @Kang. I'm hopeful that at the very least your product will allow me to eat a little less protein while benefitting from AAs for awhile to see if that helps me heal.

I agree that my symptoms may all be related to hypothyroidism. For a few years my TSH hovered around 5-7 and I opted not to treat hoping that my health would get better and fix itself (this was pre-peat in my life). Now I take 50 mcg synthroid at night and 10 drops of tyromix (oral) with breakfast and again with lunch. I think I was around TSH 2-3 at last check. I'd like to monitor it more closely and may try to do that.

As in my response to EIRE24, I should have specified that I meant bad breath when I said odor. I don't have much body odor when I'm not having a bad breath episode.

I will look into Kate Deering's book, thanks for the rec. I have tried so so so many things in terms of diet, like others here, to reach better health. Your supplements are along these lines in terms of relieving the gut and only giving it things that are easy to digest. I can increase salt and have meant to do so, thanks for reminding me.

I have had several negative experiences with AC over the years and after the last episode I made a note to self to stop trying. Perhaps my particle size was wrong, or maybe I didn't drink enough water, or maybe my gut is too leaky. It makes me feel flu-like and gives me gummy poos. Minocycline I take for about a week whenever I suspect I need it, usually once every two months or so. I do eat raw carrots, but don't take the time to make the salad. And I do love cooked mushrooms.

The last time I entered everything into cronometer, I was at about 2600 kcal. I am 44, female, 5"8" and 145 now, but in recent history (2 years ago) 135. I have a full-time desk job which I think is just a terrible reality of life for so many of us. I do have the benefit of living on a farm and taking lots of wonderful walks with my family. I also have less stress than I used to for a variety of wonderful reasons :).

I have not been monitoring temps and pulse but maybe will do that for a few days before the aminos and gather some data.

 

[Kang]

Lots of good info there and the devil is in the details.

Some thoughts:
1. TSH 2-3 is HIGH... I try to maintain sub 1 and have been pretty good at 0.2 or less. Requires lots of fuel. 2600 cals seems low but you need to have temp and pulse or you're guessing.
2. Bad breath, bad guts, low thyroid
3. Salt = hydrochloric acid i.e. stomach acid not enough salt means less stomach acid
4. Raw carrots do not equal antimicrobial benefits. Carrots must be taken in a substantial dose ( a whole bowl), shredded in particular the skin is the best, alone with no other food other than vinegar, salt and coconut oil dressing. Same when using mushrooms i.e. alone so they act as an antimicrobial plug through the gut. They must be washed to remove the bata carotin or they can suppress thyroid.
5. Something as simple as 1-10 body weight squats done every hour (8-10 hours a day) can dramatically change your physique in a few months.
6. LOTS and lots of sunlight... if you dont have access get a Sperti lamp

 

[Wagner83]

@Kehaar What did you experience to label potatoes as neurotoxic?

 

[Kehaar]

@Kehaar What did you experience to label potatoes as neurotoxic?

I certainly don't think they are neurotoxic in general. I think I may be sensitive to the solanine. If I eat too many potatoes, including normal servings over consecutive days, I get muscle spasms and that "pinched nerve" feeling (in multiple locations often bilateral). It's pretty awful and makes driving extremely difficult. I also just feel generally bad but that could be secondary to being in pain. It took me a long time to realize this was connected to potatoes. I said neurotoxic because the pain feels like nerve pain - sharp, worse with movement.

It feels to me like calcinosis - like calcium deposits have precipitated in my muscles and nerves (mostly neck and upper back) making them stiff and painful, and then it takes several days for it to slowly resolve, with gradual loosening of the muscles. I have Irish roots and love potatoes. We are even planting them here on our farm this spring. Maybe if I achieve better health I will be able to tolerate them in the future. I have tried peeling them excessively, and only eating ones with no green whatsoever. At the moment, I just can't seem to make them ok.

 

[Wagner83]

I think @JackHanma experienced something similar. Have you tried organic wacky potatoes peeled before cooking?

 

[Kang]

How long do you cook your potatoes? How much fat, like coconut oil, ghee or butter do you have with them? How much salt?

How do you arrive at these self-diagnosises or conclusions such as solanine and calcinosis, is it from reading, previous testing results or something a specialist has suggested? It sounds painful.

 

[Kehaar]

I think @JackHanma experienced something similar. Have you tried organic wacky potatoes peeled before cooking?

Yes to all three (organic, waxy, peeled before cooking). I will try again when I feel like my digestion is better. In the meantime, since my digestion is poor, it seems to make sense to minimize starches anyways.

 

[Kehaar]

How long do you cook your potatoes? How much fat, like coconut oil, ghee or butter do you have with them? How much salt?

How do you arrive at these self-diagnosises or conclusions such as solanine and calcinosis, is it from reading, previous testing results or something a specialist has suggested? It sounds painful.

I do a lot of reading, from the perspective of being a patient and an MD. The solanine and calcinosis are just my hypotheses, and the one thing I know at this point in my life is that there is very little that I know for sure. I thought IF was great (years ago) until I developed severe insomnia. I thought a tsp of potato starch a day was a good idea (many years ago) until it caused or worsened SIBO. Interestingly, my blue collar dad without any medical training has been telling me all my life that trans fats are bad. He is, though, a vegetarian and has a B12 deficiency for which he has started taking shots. No one has all the answers, that's something I'm pretty sure of. The only specialist I see is a rheumatologist. My internist deals with my thyroid. I'm not convinced GI would have anything to offer me, and all these things take time that I don't have. The bloating in direct proportion to FODMAPS, poor skin, and peripheral neuropathy, are how I self diagnosed SIBO. Bloating, neuropathy, and poor skin have (mostly) resolved.

I cook potatoes well, usually in the form of mashed potatoes for my family (cream, cream cheese, butter, salt). I do hope to get back to them some day. Maybe when my immune system and digestion are in better shape. I cannot tell you how painful and relentless the stiffness and pinched nerve pain were, sometimes for months at a time. Image a pinched nerve in your neck, but on both sides, and also in your mid back. I have been free of this for several months now, and whether it was the potatoes or something else, it is great to be finally moving in the right direction.

 

[General Orange]

Finally, since tryptophan is missing form this mixture, you will also lower serotonin in the brain by taking it. Overall it looks like a decent way to boost health/metabolism while reaping some additional benefits such as depletion of certain bad amino acids, and lowering serotonin in the brain.
Thoughts?

I think it sounds nice but, it's dangerous to deplete tryptophan via the diet. Not everyone would like to do that, maybe a warning would be in place?:

6.1. Clinical Studies
"Tryptophan depletion studies in never-depressed individuals are variable, with no or little overall effect on lowering of mood [45,46].
Interestingly, reports of moderate mood lowering are seen more often in studies with healthy women than in studies with healthy men [47].
However in never-depressed healthy volunteers who are at high risk for depression through a familial risk factor, acute tryptophan depletion produces clear abnormalities in mood control [48,49].
Finally, in remitted depressed patients, temporarily lowering tryptophan levels can result in an acute depressive relapse [50,51,52] with transient exacerbation of symptoms associated with patients taking serotonergic anti-depressants [53,54].
These studies reveal that subjects with a pre-existing vulnerability in the serotonergic system may be most susceptible to a tryptophan challenge.
Moreover, low serotonin can indeed contribute to a lowered mood state, however this cannot occur in isolation—it must be in concert with some other unknown system (perhaps neurotransmitter or genetic) that interacts with the reduced serotonin to decrease mood."
Influence of Tryptophan and Serotonin on Mood and Cognition with a Possible Role of the Gut-Brain Axis

 

[Kang]

@ROBOTT32 That is an interesting link to consider. Context is so important, I need to look into that, thank you for sharing it.

 

[haidut]

I think it sounds nice but, it's dangerous to deplete tryptophan via the diet. Not everyone would like to do that, maybe a warning would be in place?:

6.1. Clinical Studies
"Tryptophan depletion studies in never-depressed individuals are variable, with no or little overall effect on lowering of mood [45,46].
Interestingly, reports of moderate mood lowering are seen more often in studies with healthy women than in studies with healthy men [47].
However in never-depressed healthy volunteers who are at high risk for depression through a familial risk factor, acute tryptophan depletion produces clear abnormalities in mood control [48,49].
Finally, in remitted depressed patients, temporarily lowering tryptophan levels can result in an acute depressive relapse [50,51,52] with transient exacerbation of symptoms associated with patients taking serotonergic anti-depressants [53,54].
These studies reveal that subjects with a pre-existing vulnerability in the serotonergic system may be most susceptible to a tryptophan challenge.
Moreover, low serotonin can indeed contribute to a lowered mood state, however this cannot occur in isolation—it must be in concert with some other unknown system (perhaps neurotransmitter or genetic) that interacts with the reduced serotonin to decrease mood."
Influence of Tryptophan and Serotonin on Mood and Cognition with a Possible Role of the Gut-Brain Axis

Those studies turned out to be misleading because they interpreted irritability as sign of depression, which is not the same thing. More recent studies have shown that ATD does not cause depression and fact when maintained for a week or two actually improves mood.
Effects of Tryptophan Depletion in Drug-Free Depressed Patients Who Responded to Total Sleep Deprivation
Acute tryptophan depletion in humans: a review of theoretical, practical and ethical aspects
Mechanism of acute tryptophan depletion: is it only serotonin?

 

[DankMemes]

I have found a product with the following amino acid profile. $19AU/250g or $59AU/1000g

NUTRITION INFORMATION
Servings per 250g package: 25
Servings per 1kg package: 100 Servings size: 10g
Average Quantity Per Serving
Energy (kj) 170
Protein (g) 10
Fats (g) 0
(saturated) (g) 0 0
Carbohydrates (g) 0
(sugars) (g) 0
Sodium (mg) 0
L Leucine (mg) 2,500
L Lysine (mg) 1,600
L Valine (mg) 1,400
L Threonine (mg) 1,350
L Isoleucine (mg) 1,100
L Methionine (mg) 900
L Phenylalanine (mg) 450
L Histidine (mg) 450
L Tryptophan (mg) 250

As you can see it contains Methionine, Histidine and Tryptophan but I will experiment with low dose and judge whether it is a net positive or negative based on my reaction. I will be adding Beta Alanine, Taurine, Glycine, Tyrosine and Creatine. Just ordered now and will update when I use them.

I feel like a wizard making a potion. Very fun

 

[Carrum]

Is the name of this product a secret?

 

[Nstocks]

How about these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vitamins-Full-Spectrum-Amino-Capsules/dp/B0089B8I7E/ref=sr_1_3_a_it?rps=1&ie=UTF8&qid=1535359947&sr=8-3&keywords=amino+acid+supplement&refinements=p_76:419158031,p_72:419153031

or these

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Essential-...ent&refinements=p_76:419158031,p_72:419153031

 

[JustAGuy]

I am wondering if BCAA’s would be of any benefit at all in a similar way, I have looked everywhere for an EAA product but the country I am currently staying in does not sell it anywhere.

 

[General Orange]

not reselling, but advising:

amino acids have contaminants from processing, look for high quality, for example:
AjiPure® pharmaceutical-grade amino acids