Featured Supplement: Digestive Enzymes

Enzymes are vital to life as we know it, driving numerous chemical reactions in our bodies.  One class of enzymes helps us to break down the food we eat, making it easier for us to assimilate.  Digestive enzymes, as they are called, fall into 3 basic groups: fat-digesting (lipases), carbohydrate-digesting (amylases) or protein-digesting (proteases).  We produce our own digestive enzymes to some extent, both through our saliva and certain secretions from the pancreas.  However, this supply proves inadequate for dealing with many common foods in our diet.  For example, we do not produce the enzymes necessary to break down starches in beans.  As a result, these foods pass through our GI tract undigested, leaving them to be fermented by bacteria in our bowels.  It is this fermentation that creates the flatulence associated with beans.  Certain digestive enzyme products provide us with the missing starch-digesting enzymes.  When taken with meals, these supplements can break down the starch carbohydrate chains before they enter the intestines, greatly reducing bloating and gas.

Even when we stick to foods for which we make the natural enzymes, certain dietary habits can deplete these stores.  Eating heavily processed foods is the most common reason for enzyme depletion.  Many foods naturally contain high levels of digestive ezymes, especially raw fruits and vegetables.  Excessive cooking and other preparation techniques can drastically reduce the active enzyme content, forcing our bodies to replace what was lost.  Occasional replacement of food enzymes by our body is not a major stressor.  However, constant consumption of enzyme-depleted foods can tax our bodies and even lead to long-term impairments of enzyme production.  Digestive enzymes simply provide support in cases such as these, taking a tremendous burden off of the system and allowing it to break down and absorb nutrients properly.

Partial or incomplete digestion can lead to a host of conditions and symptoms, such as acid reflux, bloating, belching, nausea, ulcers, constipation, irritable bowel syndrome and leaky gut.  When more publicized remedies like antacids or bismuth-based products (Pepto Bismol, for example) don't provide relief, it may be time to consider a digestive enzyme supplement.  They are safe, natural and well-tolerated.  If you happen to take a dose larger than what is necessary for your system, the body will simply divert the additional enzymes to another function (i.e. immune protection).  In light of the prevalence of meal-related symptoms and complaints from patients, digestive enzymes should be in everyone's medicine cabinet.  At Integrative Health Solutions, we carry several types of digestive enzymes from a reputable, professional-only enzyme manufacturer.  Ask us how you can incorporate enzymes for a healthy life today!