… this sounds absurd to me, at least as stated wrt the enzymes “dissolving” the floaters. Your body does not like foreign proteases floating around. I am also skeptical that the enzymes would survive denaturing and pepsin et al. in the stomach and duodenum (empty stomach or not), get absorbed intact, and somehow not get inactivated by the immune system (again, rogue protease = bad). Not to say that your floaters weren’t reduced or even that the supplement wasn’t responsible; who knows what the metabolites do. Just, action of an intact enzyme itself seems unlikely. Corrections welcome; I’m not a biologist.
Comment on My friends are by my side
ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 2 days ago
I read some studies a while back that showed taking a bromelain (pineapple enzyme) supplement on an empty stomach consistently each day will eventually reduce floaters fairly significantly by dissolving them.
ornery_chemist@mander.xyz 2 days ago
ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 2 days ago
I haven’t tried it yet, I was just mentioning the studies I’d come across. You can read this one here, which found that taking 3 pills a day reduced floaters in patients by 70%, with a B-scan ocular ultrasound seeming to confirm the results.
N4kt0@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
Wow! I’m really tempted to try this myself. I’ve had bad floaters for as long as I can remember.
I am curious about side effects, though. If these enzymes degrade collagen, that means they could induce or exacerbate arthritis, right?
ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 2 days ago
AFAIK the enzymes only act upon collagen in scar tissue, not normal collagen in joints. If anything, there is some tentative evidence to suggest Bromelain potentially could be used to reduce the effects of some forms of osteoarthritis due to it being an anti-inflammatory.
From that study:
Bromelain has been used as treatment for a number of disease conditions, in addition to osteoarthritis of the knee and shoulder joints (Table 1). No serious adverse events have been reported with the consumption of either bromelain or pineapples in these studies. Adverse events that have been reported are mainly gastrointestinal (i.e. diarrhoea, nausea and flatulence), but have also included headache, tiredness, dry mouth, skin rash and allergic reactions (not specified).
Should be noted, however, that there was a conflict of interest announced at the end:
Dick Middleton is consultant to Lichtwer Pharma UK Ltd who manufacture bromelain. Steven Hicks was funded by Lichtwer for a post-graduate fellowship from 1998 to 2002.
Still, the research seems to indicate that as long as the daily dose is 600mg or lower per day, it should be well tolerated as long as you’re not allergic to pineapple. Even above that, there should be no long-term negative health effects, only potentially acute side effects.
SorryQuick@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
Buying supplements for this harmless a phenomenon is kinda crazy.
ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 1 day ago
Floaters can drastically vary from barely noticeable (like in the meme), to extremely distracting (large black or gray dots floating around in the vision even when reading a book or using a computer), to even limiting eyesight almost like cataracts.
In the study below, one patient’s eyesight improved from 6/60 to 30/60 due to how severely the floaters obstructed vision.
And bear in mind, one of the physical alternatives to eliminating the floaters has a 7% chance of permanent blindness, whereas a cheap $16 bottle of concentrated pineapple enzyme can drastically reduce them with little to no side effects, and no chance of long-term harm.
altphoto@lemmy.today 2 days ago
I googled and there’s evidence of this working so I will try this out.
YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 2 days ago
This is absolutely true!
I had a detached cornea that I had to get lasered back together, which is a “fun” story in and of itself. But after I had this really bad “curtain” is the best I can describe it. Had it for years. Got on a pineapple kick for a little while and it disappeared!
I honestly can’t tell you how long it took. I’m actually only just now noticing that I haven’t had it in months!