By Lorn Allison,  Doctoral Candidate, L.M.T.

Recently I was asked why a person would have severe stomach burning after Stomach surgery or other G.I. surgery related to appetite or weight loss.

Let me preface that I am not a surgeon, my specialty is connective tissue, so this just my opinion after years of connective tissue and muscular work (including visceral) associated with my profession.

After surgery, scar tissue can be a serious problem for many people.

Even when tissue heals well and quickly, there is fascia (connective tissue that runs throughout the whole body), that potentially ‘knots’ up.

In bodywork (trigger point therapy) this winding of fascia can create burning and uncomfortable sensations or referred pain locally or to other areas of the body.

When the internal lining of the stomach is disturbed from cutting or cauterizing ( burning tissue to seal blood vessels), it seems to potentially cause post-surgical pain.

I have met people who are tormented by post-surgical pain that can be quite severe.

In most instances, I refer them to look into deglycerized licorice and colostrum as potential soothing agents for the stomach lining.

Digestive enzymes can potentially help increase their nutrient absorption from food when areas of the stomach that have been affected by surgery which may potentially cause some loss of ability in processing certain nutrients.

A reference for this is the following…

“Other causes of vitamin B₁₂ deficiency include surgical resection of the stomach or portions of the small intestine where receptors for the IF-B₁₂ complex are located.”¹

This means that if the receptors for the B12 are affected by the surgery, then

it may be harder for the person to absorb the vitamin.

Hope this helps!

Lorn Allison, Doctoral Candidate, L.M.T.

By Lorn Allison L.M.T, Doctoral Candidate

Yes, as of right now there aren’t known negative effects or inactivations of pharmaceutical drugs by supplementing with digestive enzymes.

Some practitioners believe that a good digestive enzyme can actually increase the effectiveness of certain medications by driving them deeper into a persons system.

There can be concern about taking concentrated proteases, such as Bromelain in a 2400 GDU high dose if the person is also taking a blood thinning drug such as coumadin, the reason for which is that concentrated protease enzyme supplements can act as blood thinners.

These concentrated proteases are not meant to be used for digestion enhancement, they are used for overall benefit to general system-wide health, including inflammation and pain control.

This blood thinning effect is not a concern in the average digestive enzyme supplement. This is due to the fact that a typical digestive enzyme supplement does not contain enough protease concentration to have a blood thinning effect.

by Lorn Allison L.M.T. Doctoral candidate

I know what it’s like to to have daily acid reflux, night time burning that wakes you from sleep, it is discouraging, painful and tiring.

The quickest Acid reflux remedies you can can use once reflux begins on any given day are Colostrum and DGL (deglycerrized licorice).

A good Deglycerrized licorice product will only take 2 to 3 tablets to stop the irritation, likewise for Colostrum. The beauty of DGL is that it is notoriously inexpensive.

I am only aware of one colostrum that works as well as the DGL and that is the company Immune Tree. The only drawback that I see with Colostrum is the expense, typically running $35.00 abottle for 120 capsules (the cheaper they are the less they work-I have personally tried many.

The best long term approach to preventing acid reflux is with dietary adjustments and digestive enzymes supplements read more on our Acid Reflux and Diet page.

The answer is yes, that is one of the main reasons that plant based digestive enzymes have come about.

Many people are allergic to or have subtle sensitivities to animal enzyme products that have Chymotrypsin, Pancreatin and other animal derived enzymes in them.

Also, it important to note that animal based enzymes work primarily in a shorter rage of the intestines and so, generally less comprehensive in action than plant based enzymes.

Lorn

DigestEasy