Bromelain: Benefits, Side Effects, Best Time to Take It & More

Bromelain

(Pineapple Extract)

Evidence: Reasonable
Possible Benefits: Reasonable
Safety: High

What is bromelain?

Bromelain is a popular supplement extracted from pineapples. This compound can reduce inflammation, boost antioxidant defenses, improve cardiovascular health, and more. It is often taken with quercetin as it can greatly improve the absorption of this molecule. This article is about the main benefits of bromelain, its potential side effects, the best time to take it, and more.

Possible benefits

All of the potential benefits mentioned below are dose-dependent. As with other fruit extracts, there is a sweet-spot dose that allows you to get most of the benefits without causing meaningful side effects or tolerance buildup in the body. We will discuss the best dosing protocol later in this article.

Minor benefits

Improved digestion – Bromelain can slightly improve digestion at doses of 200-2000 mg/d.
Reduced joint pain – The supplement can slightly reduce joint pain.
Antioxidant properties – This fruit extract has antioxidant properties and can help reduce oxidative stress in the body.
Reduced inflammation – Bromelain can reduce inflammation in the body through various mechanisms.
Improved immune health – Secondary to the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, bromelain can improve innate and adaptive immune system health and function. This compound can also reduce the symptoms of various autoimmune conditions.
Improved cholesterol levels – This compound can slightly improve cholesterol levels by lowering LDL cholesterol and possibly increasing HDL cholesterol. This benefit mainly applies to people with elevated cholesterol. The supplement may also prevent or reduce the oxidation of LDL cholesterol.
Improved insulin sensitivity – People with insulin resistance may experience a slight improvement.

Possible side effects

The side effects below are dose-dependent. The risk for them increases (often linearly but sometimes exponentially) as you increase the dose. Some of the side effects only apply to very high doses.

Allergic reaction – While an allergy to bromelain is rare, some people may experience an allergic reaction after taking the fruit extract. If you experience allergic symptoms like itching or swelling of the mouth, coughing, sneezing, rash, or other skin reactions because of the supplement, it is probably best to stay away from it.
Toxicity – This fruit extract has adaptogenic properties and acts as a mild stressor on the body. That is usually a great thing as it allows your body to adapt to specific forms of stress and become more resilient. However, stressing the body too much can be counter-productive and cause multiple side effects, including mild toxicity. While acute toxicity is extremely rare, taking large quantities of bromelain could lead to mild chronic toxicity and cause some health problems over time. To prevent chronic toxicity or the buildup of tolerance, staying below a gram of bromelain in a day is best unless you have a great reason to consume more.
Contamination – If growing or storing conditions are not adequately controlled, pineapples can be contaminated with bacteria, molds, and other potentially harmful microorganisms. Many growers also use pesticides that can be unsafe. Choose the brand you get fruit extracts from wisely. For fruit extracts and supplements, it is often best to use websites like Amazon, where thousands of users have reviewed and rated the products. You are less likely to buy something of lower quality there.

Who should not take bromelain?

You should probably avoid bromelain if you:

are allergic to this compound
experience a severe adverse reaction after taking the supplement (though a mild adverse reaction is usually not a problem and can even be seen as positive as it is a sign that the supplement is causing a hormetic response that allows the body to adapt and become more resilient)

Who will benefit the most?

You should consider taking the supplement diet if you:

wish to improve general health
have a high budget for supplements and are willing to experiment with a variety of them (assuming you don’t fall into any of the categories that should avoid this supplement, bromelain appears safe and is unlikely to do more harm than good for most people)

How much bromelain should you take?

Because the supplement has adaptogenic properties, it acts as mild hormetic stressors on the body, which allows your body to adapt and become more resilient to certain kinds of stressors in the long term. A higher dose of this compound isn’t necessarily better because it may put too much stress on the system.

The sweet-spot dose typically ranges between 200 mg and 800 mg daily.

The higher end of this range usually provides slightly more benefits in the short term. If you plan to take this supplement regularly for a longer time (multiple months or years), the lower end is probably a better way to go.

While this supplement could theoretically cause acute toxicity, you’d need to take an extremely high amount that would be way beyond what even the most potent extracts contain.

Like most other plants, it is best to cycle bromelain and take about two days off weekly to reset your tolerance to the supplement. That will allow you to keep getting the benefits in the long term.

Best time to take bromelain

Bromelain is water-soluble, so you don’t need to take it with food to absorb it well.

Whether you take the supplement in the morning or the evening does not make much difference. Both options are fine so feel free to experiment.

Interactions

Quercetin
These two compounds are often taken together as they act either additively or synergistically for reducing inflammation.

Where to buy bromelain supplements?

In most countries, Amazon is the best option for ordering bromelain and other fruit extracts and supplements. They offer some very affordable products backed by many positive reviews. Also, you can choose from a wide range of brands without having to search through other markets on the Internet.

Some brands display the dosage per serving instead of per pill or capsule. Therefore, you may accidentally buy something less potent than you intended. Do not fall for this marketing trick.

FAQ

As for most other fruit extracts, it is best to cycle bromelain and take a break from it for about two days per week to reset your tolerance back to baseline. This will allow you to keep getting the benefits in the long term.

Yes. This supplement will not worsen your sleep quality in any way. Whether you take it in the morning or the evening doesn’t matter much if at all.

The supplement shouldn’t become harmful once it exceeds the expiration date but it can lose potency over time but very slowly if you store it well. Keep the supplement in a cold, dark, and dry place. It should remain just as potent for many months or even years there.

Because of its adaptogenic properties, this compound acts as a mild stressor on the body. That is usually a great thing as it allows your body to adapt to specific forms of stress and become more resilient. However, stressing the body too much can be counter-productive and cause mild toxicity over time. High doses can also make you develop tolerance much faster than lower doses, and they may be less effective at improving health in the long term.

While you could safely take higher amounts, there is usually no point in taking more than 800 mg daily. This amount should give you most of the benefits without meaningful side effects.

No, this supplement should not break a fast or reduce its benefits.

References

Most of the information in this guide is based on scientific research that can be found and verified in the PubMed medical library. We highly encourage you to use the library to verify anything you read in this article. We excluded from consideration studies that are either confounded or have a high conflict of interest.

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