A few months ago I did a couple of cycles of antibiotics that seem to have damaged my digestive system and given me diarrhea for a few months. After trying various probiotic brands and amounts to fix the problem, I finally found a probiotic that seems to have stopped the loose bowels.
But one thing I have also noticed as a side effect of the whole experience is I can eat jalapenos again. I used to love jalapenos on subs, pizza, sandwiches, bagels, but a few years ago I noticed if I ate more than 4-5 slices of jalapeno I would have painful BMs the next day. So I had to cut my intake of jalapenos to a handful of slices at most per day. I used to be able to eat them at will, then about 5 years ago I couldn’t anymore.
However I have noticed now that that doesn’t seem to apply anymore, and it seems to have started around when I used all those probiotics. I can eat way more than that and not have those side effects. I can eat 20+ slices of jalapeno in a day and not have any serious side effects the next day now.
I don’t think capsaicin is broken down by intestinal bacteria and fungi, so I don’t know why that would matter. Is there any physiological reason this could be happening?
Also if anyone has any more questions about my bowel movements my PM inbox is always open.
Antibiotics kill of the natural flora of bacteria in the bowels. Pro-biotics are supposed to help re-establish that flora, but given that you’ve been trying various things for a long time, it may also have bounced back on it’s own.
The research on pro-biotics is all in early stages, and although some of it is promising, it’s not even established beyond doubt that they work for antibiotic induced diarrhoea, so I doubt you’ll get anything except WAGs for why you can now enjoy the hot stuff.
Hypothesis 1.) Why would you think that the bacteria in the gut would play no role in breaking down capsaicin? If anything I would be shocked if none of the many different bacteria played any role in breaking it down. You may had become unusually deficient in those bacteria previously and are now in less of an imbalance.
Hypothesis 2.) Some gut bacteria produce other compounds that have impact on gut nerve function and on inflammation. A quick literature search in fact even shows one study of a bacteria type that used changes reactivity of gut sensory nerves to capsaicin as a measure of some of these effects. Thus even if the same amount of capsaicin reached your distal most GI tract, it might have less of an effect because of the neuromodulatory and immunomodulatory compounds a different set of bacteria produced.