What Are Digestive Enzymes? Could YOU Benefit from taking a Digestive Enzyme?

What Are Digestive Enzymes?

The role of digestive enzymes is primarily to act as catalysts in speeding up specific, life-preserving chemical reactions in the body. Essentially, they help break down larger molecules into more easily absorbed particles that the body can use to survive — needless to say, an important role in digestive health!

The duodenum (the first and shortest segment of the small intestine) is a busy place: amino acids are extracted from proteins, fatty acids and cholesterol from fats, and simple sugars from carbohydrates. Nuclease cleaves (or splits) the nucleic acids essential for DNA into nucleotides. All the macronutrients are broken down into molecules small enough to be carried in the bloodstream and boost metabolism to ensure it runs effectively. Micronutrients, if they haven’t already been cleaved in the stomach acid, are released and transported into the bloodstream, too.

Intestinal enzymes include the following key (but complicated!) processes:

• Aminopeptidases degrade peptides into amino acids.
• Lactase, a dairy sugar, converts lactose to glucose.
• Cholecystokinin aids digestion of proteins and fats.
• Secretin, as a hormone controls, the secretion of the duodenum.
• Sucrase converts sucrose to disaccharides and monosaccharides.
• Maltase converts maltose to glucose.
• Isomaltase converts isomaltose.

Enzymes which help primarily with fats and amino acids, pancreatic enzymes include: (4)

• Lipase converts triglycerides into both fatty acids and glycerol.
• Amylase converts carbohydrates into simple sugars.
• Elastases degrades the protein elastin.
• Trypsin converts proteins to amino acids.
• Chymotrypsin converts proteins to amino acids.
• Nucleases convert nucleic acids to nucleotides and nucleosides.
• Phospholipase converts phospholipids into fatty acids.

Digestive enzymes aren’t just beneficial, they’re essential! They break down food into amino acids, fatty acids, cholesterol (yes, it’s important to have cholesterol), simple sugars and nucleic acids, which help make DNA.

Could You Benefit?

If you have any type of digestive disease such as acid reflux, gas, bloating, leaky gut, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, diverticulitis, malabsorption, diarrhea or constipation, then digestive enzymes can help. Digestive enzymes can take stress off of the stomach, pancreas, liver, gallbladder and small intestine by helping break down difficult-to-digest proteins, starches and fats.

What Are The Benefits of Digestive Enzymes?

The answer is simple: Without them, we couldn’t process food! With that said, there are three main reasons why most people should take digestive enzymes:

• Help heal leaky gut by taking stress off the GI tract.
• Assists the body in breaking down difficult-to-digest protein and sugars like gluten, casein and lactose.
• Greatly improve symptoms of acid reflux and IBS.
• Enhance nutrition absorption and prevent nutritional deficiency.

How to Pick a Good Enzyme

There are hundreds of digestive enzymes on the market. Ideally, look for an enzyme formula with the following characteristics:

• It should contain a mixture of different types of enzymes, to help digest all of the different components of your diet (including lipase, protease and amylase)
• The ingredients should be high-quality, all-natural and free of allergens and additives
• The supplement should be labeled as to the enzymatic strength of each ingredient, not just its weight
• It should be made by a reputable company with rigorous quality control and testing for potency

Our family takes the Life Digestive Enzyme. It has changed the health of my family.