If you are one of the 60 to 70 million who struggle with a digestive disease, digestive enzymes may be the answer to ending your discomfort and reliving certain health conditions.
AMYLASE
Produced by your pancreas, amylase breaks down Carbohydrates and starches into simple sugars. Enzymes that break down carbs and sugars may be referred to as a carbohydrase.
PROTEASE
Protease refers to multiple enzymes that are responsible for breaking proteins down into amino acids. The three main proteases are chymotrypsin, pepsin, and trypsin.
LIPASE
Produced by your pancreas, lipase breaks down fats and triglycerides into glycerol and fatty acids. Lipase deficiency means nutrients can’t get in and waste can’t exit.
LACTASE
Produced in the intestines, lactase converts lactose into glucose, helping prevent bloating, gas, constipation, diarrhea, and cramping that happens to many who ingest milk products.
CELLULASE
Cellulase breaks down cellulose into simple sugars. The body is unable to produce cellulose on its own, but its naturally produced by a variety of symbiotic bacteria, fungi and protozoa
MALTASE
Produced in the pancreas and saliva, maltase is a carbohydrate-digesting enzyme responsible for breaking down maltose, a naturally-occurring sugar, and other similar sugars into glucose.
HEALTHY GUT 101
As mentioned above, your body can only absorb nutrients, not actual food. Following the proper process of digestion is crucial for maximum nutrient absorption. This is why you want to ensure you have enough digestive enzymes in your body to facilitate
the digestive process, which includes:

Chewing
From the moment you start chewing, your digestive enzymes begin to work on breaking foods down for nutrient absorption. Salivary amylase starts the process, allowing you to chew it up for swallowing, pushing it down the esophagus and into your stomach. This process is known as peristalsis.

Stomach Digestion
Once food enters your stomach, your stomach’s parietal cells are triggered to release various acids and digestive enzymes that are needed to degrade partially digested food into chyme (a semi-fluid mass of partially digested food.) The specific enzymes released are based on what type of food you have eaten.

Small Intestine Digestion
The chyme, then, moves into your small intestine (also referred to as your duodenum). Here, digestive enzymes from your small intestine and pancreas separate out the nutrients in food. Once they have been sufficiently broken down and separated, your body holds on to the nutrients it needs so they can be absorbed into your bloodstream, through your intestinal wall, and transported to cells, organs, and the muscle tissue throughout your body.

Waste Products
Any waste products that are not absorbed through your intestinal wall will continue moving along into your colon, before being expelled from your body. Without digestive enzymes, your body would not be able to digest any food and while your body does produce digestive enzymes, the more you rely on those that are internally produced, the harder it is for your body to continually replace them. When these enzymes are not available to break down food into microscopic substances that can be used, the nutrients remain trapped in the food unable to reach the parts of your body that need them.

When your body is not producing a sufficient amount of digestive enzymes, YOUR DIGESTIVE HEALTH will become compromised, wreaking havoc throughout your entire body. Referred to by some researchers as the “second brain,” the health of your digestive system plays a crucial role in your overall well being. In fact, your digestive health can have significant effects on everything from your immunity to your mood and memory, which is why it is so important. For example, your digestive system:

Serves as the residence for around 70% of your immune system. When your digestive health is compromised, so is your immune system, leaving you more susceptible to everything from acute illnesses, such as the cold or flu, to chronic conditions, including autoimmune disorders, diabetes, and certain types of cancer. When your digestive health is well maintained, your body is better able to fight off harmful bacteria and yeast.

Also serves as the residence for about 80 to 90% of your body’s serotonin. Serotonin, a neurotransmitter, allows your brain cells and nervous system cells to communicate with each other and can affect mood, memory, social behavior, appetite, and sleep patterns. Serotonin is also a key component of intestinal contractions. When your digestive health isn’t up to par, serotonin levels can drop, leaving you depressed, forgetful, and irritable, as well as more likely to develop certain diseases, such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and cardiovascular disease.

As mentioned above, your body can only absorb nutrients, not actual food. Following the proper process of digestion is crucial for maximum nutrient absorption. This is why you want to ensure you have enough digestive enzymes in your body to facilitate
the digestive process, which includes:

Acid Reflux and GERD
Often referred to as heartburn, acid reflux and GERD can be uncomfortable and cause long-term damage if not treated. The root cause of acid reflux and GERD is a dysfunctional lower esophageal sphincter, which often is the result of food not digesting properly as it moves through your digestive tract. Instead, of closing completely when food passes through it, it leaves room for acid to move up from the lower digestive system. Fortunately, by taking a high-quality digestive enzyme supplement before each meal, sufferers can ensure their food is fully digested, nutrients are properly absorbed, and their esophageal sphincter is able to close tightly.

Lactose Intolerance
If you are one of the 65% of adults who suffer from lactose intolerance, you may be shocked to learn that this condition is usually caused by your body drastically reducing the production of the digestive enzyme, lactase, after infancy. Without lactase, your body finds it almost impossible to break down the lactose found in dairy products. While there is no cure for true lactose intolerance, taking a lactase supplement are often helpful as a temporary measure or when you are planning to eat a meal filled with dairy products. cific enzymes released are based on what type of food you have eaten.

Pancreatic Insufficiency
Pancreatic insufficiency results when your pancreas simply can’t produce or secrete enough digestive enzymes to effectively break down food. This may be caused by acute or chronic pancreatitis, gallstones, or pancreatic cancer. Adding a digestive enzyme supplement to your daily routine has long been the treatment of choice for anyone suffering from pancreatic insufficiency pancreatic because it is almost always successful and well tolerated.

Casein or Gluten Intolerance
When your body is lacking digestive enzymes, it can find it almost impossible to completely break down casein (a protein found in dairy products) and gluten (the primary protein found in wheat), resulting in a variety of significant health issues, such as inflammation and abdominal pain. In addition, a great deal of time and money is currently being used to study the link between casein and glucose intolerance and the development of neuro-biological disorders, including ADD, autism, and schizophrenia. Multiple studies, including one reported by Klaire Labs and ProThera have shown that the consumption of a supplemental digestive enzyme called dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP-IV) can make it easier for the body to break down casein and gluten, allowing those with an intolerance to see a substantial improvement in their abilities and behaviors.

Celiac Disease
Although digestive enzymes produced in your pancreas try hard to break gluten down into amino acids, many of these gluten proteins are actually resistant to enzymes, allowing the protein to stay almost completely intact as it travels through the digestive system. This can result in celiac disease, which has typically been treated by eliminating all gluten from a sufferer’s diet. However, scientists at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, NY are working to re-engineer a natural digestive enzyme that can effectively break down gluten. Until researchers are successful, the only way to safely manage celiac disease is by eliminating it completely from your diet, according to the FDA.

Colon Health
Good colon health is crucial to ensure your digestive system is working properly, allowing your body to get both the nutrients it needs to thrive and eliminate wastes. Supplementing with digestive enzymes has proven to help keep your colon healthy by working to ensure your body has digested these foods to the best of its ability before it meets the colon to keep toxins from building up in there. Supplementation is important because researchers have proven that your ability to produce enough digestive enzymes to complete digestion lessens with age.

There are a number of foods that can enhance your body’s ability to produce digestive enzymes. Unfortunately, this only extends to raw foods and you can’t always be certain that the enzymes available in these foods are adequate enough to support digestion without supplementation. When foods are cooked, the high temperature tends to destroy these digestive enzymes. With that being said, the top foods to eat that will either boost your digestive enzyme production or facilitate digestion themselves are:

Papaya
Also an exotic fruit, pineapple is filled with enzymes, particularly bromelain, that help boost enzyme production. Bromelain is particularly effective at breaking down proteins and fats. As an added bonus, the enzymes in pineapples have also been shown to help reduce excessive inflammation, certain types of tumor growth, and too much coagulation in the blood.

Mango
Mango is an excellent source of amylase, which just happens to be the digestive enzyme that is needed to break down carbohydrates and starches into simple sugars. Mangos, too, offer plenty of additional health benefits, thanks to the numerous antioxidants it contains. These benefits include the ability to protect against multiple diseases, including liver disorders, various types of cancer, and diabetes.

Raw Honey
The bees that make the honey actually introduce digestive enzymes into it, including proteases, amylase, and sucrase. Proteases and amylase are discussed above. Sucrase breaks down sucrose (the sugar found in regular table sugar) into glucose your body uses as a source of energy.

Fermented Vegetables
When vegetables go through fermentation, they are exposed to natural bacteria and yeasts that are allowed to feed on the starch and sugar in the food to create lactic acid. This creates numerous beneficial digestive enzymes, B vitamins, various probiotics strains, and omega-3 fatty acids. Fermentation not only preserves the nutrients in the food, but also helps break down the food into a more digestible form.