Bromelain, the Natural Prevention and Treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)

By Kyle J. Norton


Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a digestive condition characterized by an inflammation of the large intestine. The disease affects over 1.6 million American today.

Most common types of IBD are

*Crohn’s disease (CD) is an inflammation of any part of the digestive tract. Most cases of  CD affect the tail end of the small intestine.

* Ulcerative colitis is an inflammation of the large intestine.

The exact causes of inflammatory bowel disease are unknown. However, some researchers do know that
* The disease may be caused by the weakened immune system that fails to kill off the invasion of infectious micro-organisms in the acute phase of digestive infection caused by tissue injury and damage.

* IBD may be a result of the immune dysfunction mistakenly attacking the digestive tract, a case of autoimmune disease.

*  Imbalance of ratio of good and bad bacteria in the colon, caused by long-term intake of certain medicines.

* IBD is also associated with age, family history, ethnicity, parasite, and smoking.

* Genetic mutation of NOD2, ATG16L1and IL23R involved in innate immunity, in the autophagy, and in the inflammatory response may also elevate the risk of IBD.

Believe it or not, if you are living in the Western world, you are also at a higher risk of the disease. For example, people who live in Western countries such as the United States and Europe have a higher IBD risk than those in other parts of the world. 

Some researchers suggested an individual diet pattern may influence the risk of IBD.

Dr. Donjete Statovci, the lead scientists wrote, "Westernized diet, defined as high dietary intake of saturated fats and sucrose and low intake of fiber, represent a growing health risk contributing to the increased occurrence of metabolic diseases, e.g., diabetes and obesity in countries adopting a westernized lifestyle. Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) and asthma are chronic mucosal inflammatory conditions of unknown etiology with increasing prevalence worldwide".

And, "Recent reports indicate that the gut microbiota and modifications thereof, due to the consumption of a diet high in saturated fats and low in fibers, can trigger factors regulating the development and/or progression of both conditions".

In other words, by pursuing a healthy diet with a higher in fruits and vegetable and reducing intake of red meat, saturate and trans fat and processed foods, IBD is preventable. 

Bromelain, a proteolytic enzyme found in pineapples (Ananas comosus) has been used in traditional medicine as an inflammatory agent and to treat pains, strains, and muscle aches and pains and ease back pain and chronic joint pain, skin diseases, etc.

In an aim to find the potential compound for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease, researchers examined the efficacy of bromelain in colitis in an animal study.

According to the tested assays, daily treatment with oral bromelain at the age  for 5 weeks showed a significant effect on decreasing the incidence and severity of spontaneous colitis in C57BL/6 IL-10-/- mice.

Furthermore, bromelain also significantly decreased the severity of colonic inflammation by inhibiting the production of the pro-inflammatory cytokine in mice colitis induced by piroxicam exposure.

Moreover, bromelain anti-inflammatory effects were associated with the exertion of proteolytical activity.

In wild-type mice treated orally with up to 1000 mg bromelain/kg/day for 18 weeks, researchers do not observe ant adverse effects such as dermatitis, hair loss, and weight loss due to mucositis.

Based on the findings, researchers wrote, " the results justify additional studies of this complementary biologically based approach to the treatment of IBD".

Also in the animal model, short-term oral treatment with bromelain was found to decrease the severity of colonic inflammation in C57BL/6 Il10(-/-) mice with chronic colitis.

Mice treated with fresh pineapple juice at a level equivalent to 14 mg bromelain purified from the stem decreased histologic colon inflammation scores and a lower incidence of inflammation-associated colonic neoplasia (35% versus 66%; P < 0.02), with fewer neoplastic lesions/colon.

According to the flow cytometric analysis, murine splenocytes exposed to fresh pineapple juice in vitro affect leukocyte trafficking and activation in facilitating the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines associated with immune response.

Dr. Hale LP, the lead scientist after taking into account co and confounders wrote, " long-term dietary supplementation with fresh or unpasteurized frozen pineapple juice with proteolytically active bromelain enzymes is safe and decreases inflammation severity and the incidence and multiplicity of inflammation-associated colonic neoplasia in this commonly used murine model of inflammatory bowel disease".

Taken altogether, bromelain may be considered a remedy for the prevention and treatment of inflammatory bowel disease, pending to the confirmation of the larger sample size and multicenter human study.

Intake of bromelain in the form of supplement should be taken with extreme care to prevent overdose acute liver toxicity.

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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

Sources
(1) Treatment with oral bromelain decreases colonic inflammation in the IL-10-deficient murine model of inflammatory bowel disease by Hale LP1, Greer PK, Trinh CT, Gottfried MR. (PubMed)
(2) Dietary supplementation with fresh pineapple juice decreases inflammation and colonic neoplasia in IL-10-deficient mice with colitis by Hale LP1, Chichlowski M, Trinh CT, Greer PK. (PubMed)
(3) The Impact of Western Diet and Nutrients on the Microbiota and Immune Response at Mucosal Interfaces by Donjete Statovci,1 Mònica Aguilera,1 John MacSharry,1,2 and Silvia Melgar. (PMC)