I have a friend who has cystic fibrosis and has to take prescription digestive enzymes with all meals. One is for digesting fat. Couldn't something like this help with IBS since fat is our biggest trigger? The enzyme for beano helps so much with digesting the sugar in beans. What is the one for fats, lipase or something like that?
Hmmm...well, digestive enzymes do help some folks with IBS, but I wouldn't rely on this as a way to eat more fat in a meal than you normally would. It isn't that people with IBS can't digest fats properly, it's that fat is a GI stimulant, which causes strong and rapid contractions of the colon within minutes after you eat it. This is what can set off all manner of IBS symptoms. I'm just not sure that enzymes would do anything at all to affect this process (which is called the gastrocolic reflex, and which is not completely normal in folks with IBS).
- H
-------------------- Heather is the Administrator of the IBS Message Boards. She is the author of Eating for IBS and The First Year: IBS, and the CEO of Heather's Tummy Care. Join her IBS Newsletter. Meet Heather on Facebook!
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Fat digestion question for Heather if you get a chance
