Digestive Enzymes

Most people do not realize what an important role digestive enzymes play in food processing and many people would improve their health much more by taking a high quality enzyme than a typical mutivitamin/mineral.

Enzymes should also be an integral part of any athlete's health regimen - digestive enzymes as well as systemic enzymes.

Enzymes can help reduce the amount of vital body energy required to process food as well as help to heal faster and maintain physical strength and stamina.

All body functions require enzymes to complete the complex biochemical reactions in the body. There are different kinds of enzymes but we are referring here to the different types of digestive enzymes needed for processing the food we eat.

Food cannot be digested without enzymes to help break it down and make nutrients available to the body. Many people's digestive problems start because they eat only cooked food or mostly cooked food with only the occasional bit of raw food such as a salad or piece of fruit.

Enzymes are destroyed by normal cooking temperatures and the body tries to make up for this by producing more stomach acid causing indigestion symptoms. When this excess acid splashes up into the esophagus, it is called acid reflux.

Some raw food should be eaten with cooked food and taking good quality enzymes with each meal will help most people. Enzymes can also help improve digestion in people who have too little stomach acid, since too little acid has similar symptoms as too much acid and also results in poor digestion.

Enzymes can help relieve excessive gas and bloating, acid reflux and assist in stopping flatulence. Inadequate digestive enzymes results in incomplete digestion which slowly gets worse over time and this is why some people who take antacids regularly keep increasing the doseage until it may not help anymore. Also neutralizing stomach acid with antacids makes digestion less efficient and less nutrition from the food eaten is absorbed, so antacids should only be used occasionally.

Incomplete digestion over time can also lead to other problems such as allergies and autoimmune disorders. This also leads to an enlarged pancreas over time since the pancreas tries to produce more enzymes when indigestion occurs and pancreas problems can lead to things like diabetes.

The pancreas normally does produce enzymes but only after food has been prepared for digestion in the stomach and this predigestion in the stomach requires enzymes. The pancreas produces enzymes for further digestion after food passes from the stomach to the small intestine.

The pancreas also becomes enlarged over time due to being overworked to produce enzymes that weren't available to start digestion efficently. The pancreas creates more enymes to try to enhance digestion in the small intestine since lack of digestive enzymes has compromised digestion in the stomach and a tired pancreas is a direct cause of diabetes.

So, taking a good quality digestive enzyme with each meal can help many people with indigestion symptoms and help conserve vital energy by easing the body's need to produce enzymes and improving digestion. This is a vital point for competitive athletes.

The key is to know what to look for on the label since some products boast about certain amounts of ingredients that are meaningless to the average consumer.

So, following are some guidelines to choosing a good enzyme product.

Be suspicious of any enzyme formula that lists the mgs of digestive enzymes instead of the activity level of each enzyme in the formula. Activity level is the most important criteria. Two different bottles of the same enzyme of equal weight can have completely different activity levels.

Weight measurements are useless since there is no direct relationship between weight and units of activity. An enzyme will still have weight even if it has been destroyed and has zero activity.

The internationally recognized standard for measurement is by Food Chemical Codex (FCC) Units. This is usually expressed in different activity units for each type of enzyme.

Protease - HUT

Amylase - SKB

Lipase - LU

Lactase - LACU

Protease: A minimum of 33,000 HUT should be adequate for most meals. (you can always take a second or third capsule for meals if you need to). Make sure papain and bromelain are in the formula.

**ACID STABLE PROTEASE: 1,000 SAPU or more. Most formulas have none at all.

Lipase: 5,000 LU is enough

Amylase: Look for 12,000 SKB

Lactase: 1,500 LACU is the minimum with 2,000 or even 2,500 being better

Cellulase (needed to break down plant fiber)

Look for a variety of other enzymes such as Malt diastase, Invertase, Glucoamylase, Hemicellulase and Alpha galactosidase to help control gas.

Also, plant derived enzymes are more preferable to animal based enzymes because their activitiy levels are more consistent and they are less likely to be contaminated with chemicals and synthetic growth hormones.

You'll benefit from any good vegetarian based digestive enzymes but for best performance look for one that contains the ingredients above.

Indigestion Info Webpage

Stomach Ulcer Symptoms Webpage

Digestive Enzymes Formula

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