4 Benefits of Taking a Daily Enzyme

Digestive enzymes aren’t just important to your health, they are essential!  

As a digestive care company, Probulin is often asked the ways enzymes benefit digestion. To be sure, a daily enzyme is a great way to support your digestive function. Enzymes help your body break down difficult-to-digest starches, fats, sugars and proteins like lactose, casein and gluten.

From a practical view, enzymes help break down larger molecules into smaller molecules that are more easily absorbed through the digestive tract and into the bloodstream. If you have inefficient enzyme function in your body, your health can suffer.

There are Three Main Categories of Digestive Enzymes: Amylase, Protease and Lipase

The three types of enzymes are generally triggered to release from the pancreas (though amylase is also produced in the mouth) when they receive signals or “triggers.” These triggers emanate from your stomach acid that signals food is in the process of being broken down. The pancreas receives that signal and releases digestive enzymes. Your pancreas can release almost a half gallon of enzyme and other digestive supportive secretions a day.

Amylase. Did Mom ever tell you to fully chew your food? Smart. Here’s why. Amylase in required to break down carbohydrates like sugars, whole grains, white flour and starchy vegetables. Amylase is found in pancreatic and intestinal secretions, but is also found in the saliva in your mouth. That’s right. This process of digesting carbohydrates actually begins in the mouth, making chewing your food well important to your body’s ability to break down and absorb nutrients.

Protease. Where amylase helps break down carbohydrates, Protease helps you digest protein. Fully digesting protein is important to your health. Undigested protein particles can pass through your intestinal wall and end up in your bloodstream. This process is known as “leaky gut syndrome.” More on this later.

Lipase. Lipase is what allows your body to properly digest fat. It is found naturally in many foods that contain fat, and eating the right healthy fats can allow your body to burn fat more efficiently. This important enzyme is found primarily in pancreatic juices,  and is found in food sources. Your body needs all three sources to optimally breakdown the nutrients from the fat you eat.

Other Benefits of Enzymes

Now that we know a bit about the source of naturally occurring enzymes, Let’s take a look at some of the “other” health benefits to taking a daily enzyme:

1. Enzymes Compensate For Our More Processed, Artificial-flavored, Pesticide-Laden Food and Bioengineered Diets. The truth is our diets are not as “natural” as they once were. The new processed food sources have relatively fewer naturally occurring enzymes. This reduces your body’s ability to break down and absorb nutrients. Adding a daily enzyme – in fact, taking one with each meal – provides extra assurance that your body is getting an adequate amount of enzymes to optimally break down your meals.
2. They Counter Enzyme Inhibitors That Occur Naturally in Some Foods. Enzymes are helpful for your digestion and nutrient absorption. But some properties naturally occurring in other foods can inhibit the positive attributes of enzymes. Foods like beans, potatoes, peanut butter, wheat germ, eggs, nuts, seeds and others contain natural enzyme inhibitors. While these natural foods may be part of your healthy diet, they may also affect your ability to take advantage of enzymes which help with the breakdown and absorption of food molecules. Supplementing your diet with enzymes adds an insurance policy against the enzyme inhibiting foods in your diet.
3. Enzymes Counter Enzyme Inefficiency As You Get Older. As you age, the acidity in your stomach becomes more alkaline. This means that when digested food enters the first part of the small intestines, the acidic reaction or “trigger” that normally occurs may be reduced or fail to send altogether. That signal is important, as it tells the pancreas to release secretions which aid in the continuing of the digestive process. Taking a daily enzyme supports this function.

Probulin® Offers a Specially Formulated Daily Digestive Enzyme That Has Three Unique Characteristics.

1. MAKTrek™ Bypass Delivery System. This unique system uses a sustainably harvested seaweed extract to provide a “chemical free” barrier between the supplemental digestive enzymes and stomach acid.  Stomach acid can destroy much of the enzyme activity frequently used in other digestive enzyme supplements. The MAKTrek™ Bypass system preserves the activity of these valuable digestive enzymes. Which supports safe passage of the enzymes into the critical digestive tract where it can be most effective.
2. Probulin’s Daily Digestive Enzyme is truly a Full-Spectrum Daily Digestive Enzyme. It Includes not only the primary Protease, Lipase and Amylase, but also includes enzymes that support the digestion of Gluten (DPPIV – enzyme), Beans and legumes (Alphagalactosidase enzyme), Lactose (Lactase enzyme), Plant fiber (cellulase enzyme), and grain digestion (phytase enzynme).
3. We purposely reduce dramatically the amount of amylase included so as to not support increased breakdown and absorption of sugars and starches.  When considering the abundance of processed and refined food in our diets today, it is important to not just consider what you are eating, but actually what the food you are eating will do to you once absorbed.  For example, we should be careful with increasing our body’s breakdown of highly processed starches and sugars. If we break down sugars too much, it may increase the glycemic load on the body.  We believe that it is important to assist with digestion, but not when it comes to food that we really shouldn’t be eating to begin with.

Do you have digestive challenges, or feel like you want to support your digestive and overall health? A daily enzyme supplement like Probulin’s Daily Digestive Enzyme may be a good solution for you. Learn more about Probulin’s approach to enzymes.