The Wild World Of Enzymes

Today we'll talk about my favorite nutritional pac man or metabolic catalyst called enzymes. In my health journey, these little guys have made a huge impact on my digestion and immune system. In our modern world we need enzymes now more than ever. Unless we are eating a completely raw food diet and chewing our food 50 times before we swallow we need some enzymes to make our life easier. So today we will explore the many uses of these amazing nutritional powerhouses.

Digestive Help:

The most common use of taking an enzyme supplement is for a benefit in the digestive process. Let’s take a look at the enzyme names and what they are used to digest.

  • Papain, protease, peptidase, and bromelain all help your body break down and digest proteins. Protein is essential for more processes in the body than you think like brain function and the immune system.
  • Amylase, lactase, invertase, alpha galatoisdase, maltase, phytase and glucoamylase help you break down carbohydrates and sugars in multiple forms. These are really important in maintaining blood sugar.
  • Lipase is the main enzyme to help you break down all forms of fat in the body. Lipase is also great if you have had your gallbladder removed and have trouble digesting fats and oils.
  • Cellulase, hemicellulose, xylanase, beta glucanase, and pectinase can help you breakdown fibers. This is again important in blood sugar metabolism and aids in having better bowel movements.

These are the most common enzyme blends you will see in the store. Taking a blend with a few of each of these enzymes can really help you break down your food to absorb all the nutrients in your food.

Since the stomach and digestion take so much energy in the body when you add in an enzyme daily your energy level increases.

Specialty Enzymes:

After digestive being the most popular, there is another class called systemic enzymes that help your body in a unique way. Systemic enzymes can help clear up scar tissue and joint pain. So let’s look and the most common systemic enzymes.

Serrapepdtase, nattokinase, trypsin, and chymotrypsin are the most popular systemic enzymes. These enzymes help to break down something called fibrin which a fibrous protein that coats old injuries or also known as scar tissue. These amazing enzymes have a unique ability to get rid of inflammation in organs. Inflammation is the leading cause of death and disease in America. Inflammation can manifest in various ways in the body that show up as chronic disease.

  • These enzymes are typically taken on an empty stomach and are meant to not be taken long term.

Stimulate Your Own Production of Enzymes:

Our pancreas secrete enzymes every day. By age 25 we drop half in our own enzyme production. So taking enzymes daily can help us keep our store of enzymes that are lost as we age.

Using bitter herbs in cooking or tinctures like dandelion root can help our pancreas secrete enzymes. These herbs are called bitters and are really effective in supporting digestion.

Chewing your food. If we would just slow down and chew our food more the body is told that food is coming in and will lead to increased saliva which is an integral part of digestive system.

Conclusion:

I’m sure if you add in enzymes you will feel amazing! You should see increased energy, metabolism, reduced joint pain, and a boosted immune system. Stay tuned for the next blog where we will discover the power of the sunflower and talk about CLA!