Congenital Sucrase-Isomaltase Deficiency (CSID) is a rare, inherited condition that has several names. It is sometimes referred to as Genetic Sucrase-Isomaltase Deficiency (GSID), Sucrase-Isomaltase Deficiency, Disaccharide Intolerance, or Congenital Sucrose Intolerance.
If you have been diagnosed with CSID, ask your GI doctor if Sucraid® is right for you.
CSID, which can occur in males and females of all ages, reduces the ability to digest (break down to an absorbable form) certain foods one eats that contain sugars or starches. For this reason, enzymes like sucrase-isomaltase are called digestive enzymes.
In people affected by CSID, the enzyme is either not present at all or has very low levels of enzyme activity in the small intestine. The small intestine is the part of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract that is just beyond the stomach and just before the large intestine.
If you cannot fully digest foods that contain sugar (white table sugar) and/or starch (for example, bread, cookies, crackers, and potatoes)¹, you may develop diarrhea, gas, bloating, and abdominal pain. Undigested foods in your GI tract are eaten by the bacteria that naturally occur in your GI tract.
In the 1960s, Weijers and colleagues discovered a GI condition they named CSID. The condition was originally characterized by GI symptoms such as diarrhea, gas and abdominal pain after eating a meal.²
The condition was also associated with the following changes in enzyme activity:²
An enzyme is a naturally-occurring protein that makes the chemical reactions that occur all the time in the body, occur much faster.
We rely on the enzymes our body produces to help the tissues and organs in our body function normally. Sucrase is the enzyme that helps our body digest sucrose, which is a fancy name for white table sugar.
Carbohydrates are one of the three main sources of nutrients in our diets. The other two are proteins and lipids (fats). Carbohydrates are made by plants to store energy. Carbohydrates are complex compounds that must be broken down to a simpler form before they can be absorbed into the bloodstream.
There are three types of carbohydrates. Sugars are simple or complex carbohydrates found in white table sugar, baked goods, fruits, vegetables, and dairy products. Starches are made up of more than one sugar unit bound together and are found in whole grains, potatoes, pasta, vegetables and beans. Dietary fiber is a very complex carbohydrate that your body cannot digest, so it passes through the intestine undigested, becoming a food source for the “good” bacteria that exist naturally in your large intestine. Fiber is present in fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, and whole grains.
Sucrose (table sugar) is too large to be absorbed from the small intestine. For this reason, sucrose must be digested to its simpler forms, glucose and fructose, before it can be absorbed into the bloodstream and used as an energy source.3 Sucrase is the only naturally-occurring enzyme in humans that can break sucrose down into its simpler forms.
Starches are even larger compounds than sucrose. However, there are several intestinal enzymes that play a role in the digestion of the starches we eat, including: sucrase-isomaltase, maltase-glucoamylase, and α-amylases
So, if you have CSID and the enzyme sucrase-isomaltase is missing from your small intestine or isn’t working or isn’t working well, you may or may not have GI symptoms after eating foods that contain starches. While there is only one naturally-occurring enzyme (sucrase) in our bodies that digests sucrose, there are multiple enzymes in our bodies that act to digest starches. Because only sucrase can digest sucrose, eating foods that contain sucrose usually causes worse GI symptoms in patients with CSID than eating foods that contain starches because some of those starches may be broken down in part by one of the two enzymes other than sucrase-isomaltase.
You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.FDA.gov/medwatch or call 1-800-FDA-1088.
Sucraid® (sacrosidase) Oral Solution is an enzyme replacement therapy for the treatment of genetically determined sucrase deficiency, which is part of
Congenital Sucrase-Isomaltase Deficiency (CSID).
