What are digestive and systemic enzymes?
What is a digestive enzyme?
To understand how a digestive enzyme supplement can help improve health, it’s important first to know that enzymes occur naturally in the body. Human digestive enzymes include protease, amylase and lipase, which help the body break down protein, carbohydrates and fat, respectively. Raw foods also contain natural enzymes that aid the body in digestion.
Unfortunately, the modern diet includes many cooked and processed foods heated to temperatures greater than 118 degrees. These foods contain little or no natural enzymes to support the digestive process. As a result, the body must expend a significant amount of metabolic energy during digestion, when the burden is placed on digestive organs to produce all of the required enzymes.
Improper digestion can lead to health problems
Gastrointestinal problems such as heartburn, reflux and indigestion often result from improper digestion. To ease discomfort, over-the-counter and prescription remedies only mask the problem, never addressing the root cause. What’s more, the body is unable to maintain its enzyme output as it ages, which further contributes to poor digestion and insufficient nutrient absorption. Incomplete digestion also can lead to an increase in food sensitivities, allergies and other health problems.
Thankfully, vegetarian-based digestive enzyme supplements can help reduce the enzyme-producing burden placed on the body. When taken immediately before meals or snacks, enzyme supplements help to predigest foods in the upper stomach 45 minutes to 1 hour after consumption. This, in turn, can help relieve gastrointestinal problems because food is more fully digested as it moves through the digestive process. This greater state of digestion also can increase nutrient absorption; while a reduction in the metabolic stress placed on digestive organs can boost energy for immune function, maintenance and overall health.
Vegetarian enzymes are more effective
In addition, enzymes derived from vegetarian sources are able to begin digesting food almost immediately after entering the stomach, as the enzymes are active over a broad pH in the digestive system. In the treatment of inadequate digestion, studies have demonstrated that it takes less active units of vegetarian-based digestive enzymes to provide the same results as animal-based enzymes. Also, production of vegetarian enzymes takes place in highly controlled laboratory conditions, which protects against the inclusion of hormones, pesticides, antibiotics and other environmental contaminants.
What is a systemic enzyme?
Systemic enzyme supplements, when taken between meals, have shown to reduce inflammation, boost immune function, maintain cardiovascular health and promote normal respiratory function. Absorbed intact into the bloodstream, systemic enzymes appear to help restore and maintain healthy blood and tissue functions. Systemic enzyme supplements also are referred to as proteolytic, as they make use of protease enzymes that perform their work in the physiological conditions of the blood and tissues.
Proteases act differently in body tissues than they do in the digestive tract, and the amount needed for systemic activity is often much greater than that required for digestion. Systemic enzyme supplements can contain different blends of acidic, alkaline and neutral proteases, depending on the purpose of each product. There are several systemic products, including formulations that support the adrenal glands, vascular system, liver, joints and lungs.
A clinical study shows accelerated wound healing
Enzymes, Inc., uses a proprietary blend of proteases, known as pHysioProtease,™ in most of its vegetarian-based systemic products. The proteolytic enzyme blend activates alpha-2 macroglobulins when the supplement is taken in the absence of food. These macroglobulins seek out sites of immune function and cleanse inflamed or infested tissue. In a University of Texas Southwest Medical Center study, a protease-based nutritional supplement from Enzymes, Inc., accelerated wound-healing time by 17 percent in 77 percent of healthy subjects.
In addition, systemic enzymes are a natural alternative to Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and other over-the-counter and prescriptions drugs. NSAIDs such as aspirin and ibuprofen have been shown to induce gastrointestinal problems and possibly harm the heart. As a substitute for NSAIDs, options include systemic enzyme supplements that offer support for headaches, premenstrual syndrome and arthritis.
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