Bromelain increases tendon healing, enhances tenocytes

[cs3000]

Bromelain is found in pineapple juice or stem.
looks like a nice substance for significantly reducing inflammation, improving gut health, potentially bettering cancer outcomes, blood thinning, & tendon healing.

It improves tendon injury healing through stimulating tenoblasts proliferation
Bromelain in the early phase of healing in acute crush Achilles tendon injury

The results showed a significant increase in the tenocyte population in the bromelain group; p < 0.05. There was, however, no significant difference in the MDA level. Conclusion: Based on this study, 600 GDU bromelain given once daily in acute tendon injury at a dosage of 7 mg/kg promoted healing by stimulating tenocyte proliferation

7mg/kg rats 70mg - 100mg human dose for 2 weeks

Regarding the morphology of the healing tendon, the bromelain-treated tendon showed coarse, well-aligned collagen fibers with mature tenocytes (Fig. 1), whereas the pineapple-treated tendon also showed well-aligned collagen fibers but with active proliferating tenoblasts
in bromelaine group, tenocytes already hit maturity at 14 days
The results showed a significant increase in the tenocyte population in the bromelain group; p < 0.05.

Tenocytes are tendon-specific fibroblasts and are considered to be made up approximately 95% of tendon tissue

https://www.researchgate.net/public...Healing_in_Acute_Crush_Achilles_Tendon_Injury
another one same dose

vitamin C also has a beneficial effect on tendon healing through collagen , at 70mg human studies. one human rotator cuff study for 500mg over months showed no group healing differences apart from less rate of low healing response w vit c group. maybe a better effect if using after the initial injury time. a rat study showed high dose vit C improved exceeding tendon healing by 30 days , but less tendon strength during initial period


If i had a tendon injury / surgery. to accelerate healing i'd drop antioxidants for the first day.
on the 1st day i'd start with 100mg bromelain a day.
then a few days later i would start taking 100mg vit C a day too, at a separate later time to the bromelain.
and would eat 1.5 - 2 grams / kg bodyweight protein as complex proteins from meat etc

 

[A-Tim]

Can you eat the stem directly; clearly you can't eat it raw, but cooked? Is bromelain water soluble?

 

[David PS]

Can you eat the stem directly; clearly you can't eat it raw, but cooked? Is bromelain water soluble?

I sliced the stems into very thin pieces. Then, I ate them raw.

 

[A-Tim]

Lmao. How did it taste?

 

[Peachy]

@cs3000 I’m wondering if the vitamin c/bromelain could be helpful on its own - without collagen/meat. Do you have any thoughts?

I’m working with someone with acute disk issues - doing therapeutic Pilates. He’s doing pretty well, but he’s pretty much vegan and I know diet is an obstacle. I’m trying to sell him on marine collagen but until he bites, maybe the bromelain/c could be a start.

I’ve definitely noticed faster healing with a high collagen/c combo in the past.

 

[Ben.]

Can you eat the stem directly; clearly you can't eat it raw, but cooked? Is bromelain water soluble?

Cookking would destroy the enzymes. It's why some people get alot of benefit of eating stuff raw. Less nutrients being damaged, enzymes still active and live probiotics in raw foods. But as i said "some" people. Its not for everyone.

Every fruit in glass or metal containers is usually pasteurized (heated) for shelf life so thats unfortunately not a alternative.

 

[David PS]

Lmao. How did it taste?

No memorable flavor.

I cut the stem into wafers and leisurely eat them one at a time. They have a bit of a crunch and I am certainly getting extra fiber.

 

[Peachy]

I’m working with someone with acute disk issues - doing therapeutic Pilates. He’s doing pretty well, but he’s pretty much vegan and I know diet is an obstacle. I’m trying to sell him on marine collagen but until he bites, maybe the bromelain/c could be a start.

Maybe he’ll be more comfortable with eggshell membrane collagen. If anyone has experience with it, please let me know.

Characterization of Collagen from Eggshell Membrane

 

[cs3000]

@cs3000 I’m wondering if the vitamin c/bromelain could be helpful on its own - without collagen/meat. Do you have any thoughts?

I’m working with someone with acute disk issues - doing therapeutic Pilates. He’s doing pretty well, but he’s pretty much vegan and I know diet is an obstacle. I’m trying to sell him on marine collagen but until he bites, maybe the bromelain/c could be a start.

I’ve definitely noticed faster healing with a high collagen/c combo in the past.

tenocytes and ligament cells are both fibroblast so might work there too if theres acute injury to ligaments in the spine,
but only proven for the tenocytes so far
but it has nice anti-inflammatory effects so it could be useful to reduce the swelling at least if not.

maybe he could find a vegan essential amino acids supplement to make up for missing protein. probably better to get them all than just BCAAs. surprisingly excluding tryptophan does not boost mood and can actually do the opposite. but not good to increase tryptophan high either , so i'd look for one that has it included but in a low ratio. leucine is probably the most important for repair , at least shown for muscle repair

 

[Peachy]

tenocytes and ligament cells are both fibroblast so might work there too if theres acute injury to ligaments in the spine,
but only proven for the tenocytes so far
but it has nice anti-inflammatory effects so it could be useful to reduce the swelling at least if not.

maybe he could find a vegan essential amino acids supplement to make up for missing protein. probably better to get them all than just BCAAs. surprisingly excluding tryptophan does not boost mood and can actually do the opposite. but not good to increase tryptophan high either , so i'd look for one that has it included but in a low ratio. leucine is probably the most important for repair , at least shown for muscle repair

Thanks so much for the thorough response. I saw the vegan AA supplements and your thoughts on tryptophan and leucine are helpful.

 

[cs3000]

Thanks so much for the thorough response. I saw the vegan AA supplements and your thoughts on tryptophan and leucine are helpful.

yw , 1 more thing to know is sometimes AA supps contain a high ratio of glutamine . glutamine specifically is probably best to restrict with existing cancer , it has some benefits but its also used for fatty acid synthesis in cancer (which the cells prefer as fuel) , & cancer shows elevated glutamine consumption

 

[Peachy]

yw , 1 more thing to know is sometimes AA supps contain a high ratio of glutamine . glutamine specifically is probably best to restrict with existing cancer , it has some benefits but its also used for fatty acid synthesis in cancer (which the cells prefer as fuel) , & cancer shows elevated glutamine consumption

Good point. People love their glutamine. I briefly took it as an individual AA. Yikes! This gives me a good starting point to think this whole thing through.

 

[Peachy]

I sliced the stems into very thin pieces. Then, I ate them raw.

Did you notice a benefit from the pineapple core?

 

[David PS]

@Peachy - yes it did. Now that pills are available I just take a pill to get the same effect.

 

[Peachy]

@Peachy - yes it did. Now that pills are available I just take a pill to get the same effect.

Do you have a brand recommendation?

 

[David PS]

Do you have a brand recommendation?

I do not have recommendation here. I use NOW brand and I am happy.

 

[Peachy]

I do not have recommendation here. I use NOW brand and I am happy.

Thank you. I like that brand for some things.

 

[cs3000]

* update on a downside of this to immunity

bromelain has a big effect on inflammation, gut inflammation,

tendon healing, & gut health, etc
but also modulates immune cells . can worsen immunity overall

which is a shame because it has some nice effects like reducing enterotoxin secretion & adhesion by stuff like e coli,
helping a lot with colitis & constipation by improving state of the gut rather than being a laxitive

< intestinal barrier function restored

but at least shown in 1 study, and implied in cell studies, bromelain effects immune cells negatively by changing their receptor structure (at 380mg x2 daily)
so i would only take this for a short window of time until got the desired effect. or stick to low dose,
(& stop during illness , or if you notice worse immunity)

Bromelain has been noted for its immunomodulatory effect in various epidemiological studies as it can both activate and suppress the immune system. It enhances the activation of CD2-mediated T cells. It also improves the antigen-independent attachment of T cells to splenocytes and raises the development of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells in IFN-γ dependent TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1α. In addition to promoting the action of T cells, bromelain can also prevent T cell responses

The above experiments show that bromelain can directly block T-cell-dependent responses and also enhance B cell activity. Therefore, bromelain has the potential to both stimulate and inhibit immune function. we showed that bromelain could enhance B cell responses and, simultaneously, inhibit IL-2 production by T cells

https://www.academia.edu/93119877/E...mononuclear_cells_from_mammary_tumor_patients

Study using bromelain , against cancer cells ,but probably has some implications for general immunity also i'd think.
bromelain reduces IL-2 and cd44 from t cells, in cell studies when t cells get depleted of IL-2 they lose ability to kill stuff.
Monocytes possibly get stronger (mixed results) , but lymphocytes get weaker , and NK cells weaker
tho bromelain has shown an anti-cancer effect

dose was 3x 500 f.i.p tablets x2 daily, they say 780mg daily
shows some mechanisms

Fig. 2 shows the above effects on the basal monocyte cytotoxicity of individual patients. Bromelain non responsiveness was defined by <10% increase of cytotoxicity, responsiveness by >10% . There were 6 responders out of 15 patients.

Responders showed a low mean value of 7.8% cytotoxicity(Fig. 2B), compared with the high mean value of 20.1% of the nonresponders (Fig. 2A). Oral bromelain administration resulted in the group of responders in a 6.9-fold increase to a mean value of 54% cytotoxicity (Fig. 2B) and dropped to 23.6% cytoxicity after completion of the bromelain treatment. In contrast the cytotoxicity of the 9 nonresponders was not further elevated by oral bromelain treatment, but decreased from 20.1% to 13.4% (Fig. 2A

Seven days after finishing the treatment, a small and statistically insignificant decrease of NK-cell activity to 8.6% cytotoxicity was measured, without any effect on the LAK-cell activity

Lymphocytes from healthy donors expressed significantly higher NK (39.6 , p=0.0044, Fig. IE and G) and LAK-cellactivities (62.9 ,
p<0.001,Fig. IF and H) than those from patients. Oral bromelain administration reduced the NK-cell activity to 0 (p<0.0001), and the LAK-cell activity to 31.8.


Bromelain administration significantly reduced the NK-cellactivity of healthy donors. Ex vivo IL-2 administration, for generating LAK-cell activity, completely abolished the
in vivo bromelain effects on tumor patients, and partially on healthy donors. Bromelain induced reduction of NK-cell activity maybe partially explained by modulation of adhesion molecules on lymphocytes, responsible for the adhesion to tumor target cells and/or released cytokines from accessory cells.
In vitro bromelain modulated and/or proteolytically cleaved different adhesion and cell surface molecules, including CD44, on human lymphocytes. resulting in decreased binding of treated lymphocytes to different cell types

Bromelain is active even at low doses ~50mg. so the dose used here might be different.

something to be aware of , especially around periods of illness.
but maybe there's a dose to get its beneficial effects without skewing immunity significantly.

there's some sort of balancing with enhanced b cells , net outcome varies depending on situation? think i noticed worse cold symptoms on 500mg - 750mg

We found that bromelain enhanced T cell receptor (TCR) and anti-CD28-mediated T cell proliferation in splenocyte cultures by increasing the costimulatory activity of accessory cell populations. However, despite increased T cell proliferation, bromelain concomitantly decreased IL-2 production.
The enhanced antibody response generated in mice treated with bromelain and immunized with SRBC indicates that the negative effect on T cell IL-2 production can be overcome by positive effects on costimulatory activity in vivo. However, we cannot rule out the possibility that bromelain may have been acting directly on B cells to improve SRBC-specific Ab production. Nevertheless, bromelain would seem capable of both enhancing and inhibiting T-cell-dependent immune responses in vivo.
In summary, we have shown that bromelain can simultaneously stimulate and inhibit the immune system. https://www.deerland.com/wp-content...ell-immune-responses-in-vitro-and-in-vivo.pdf

I found this Bromelain exerts anti-inflammatory effects in an ovalbumin-induced murine model of allergic airway disease
which showed benefits for lungs in asthma model (the reduction in immune cells in the lungs was just a sign it worked for lowering allergy response).
in this they measured CD44 on peripheral lymphocytes circulating in the blood - which in the human study showed less CD44 as it was cleaved

there was no significant difference observed in the CD44 expression on isolated BAL eosinophils (Fig. 3) or T lymphocytes (data not shown) evaluated via flow cytometry.
In addition, the CD44 expression on peripheral blood T lymphocytes cells did not differ when naïve mice were compared to naïve-bromelain treated miceCD44 expression was also measured on peripheral blood lymphocytes and eosinophils in naïve and naïve-bromelain treated mice (6 mg/kg). There were no differences when MFI of CD44 was compared between these mice (data not shown). [6mg/kg 2x per day i.p]

so this might tell us 50mg human dose doesn't change immune cell structure
if someone doesnt have scales, i measured 50mg from a pure 500mg bromelain capsule and its enough powder to fill the bottom curved part of the smaller part of the capsule