It is without any doubt that our body is a complicated structure from the head to the neck, right down to your feet and toes. Whether it’s the central nervous system, the muscles or the skeleton, each part of your body all plays a different role in how your develop and grow through your lifetime.
With each aspect of the body comes a variety of different enzymes which are an important part of the human body and particular the cells that we produce and how they function from one day to the next.
What are Enzymes?
Enzymes are a part of cell creation, survival and function, we need these molecules in our life and they play a major part in the life of a human (we will go into detail on why enzymes are so important later down this article). It is often found in blood, intestinal fluid, mouth and stomach.
Digestive enzymes in particular help the food you eat to be broken down into manageable chunks so that you can pass them easily. Without enzymes like this which help chemical reactions speed up, the food you eat wouldn’t be broken down in such a fast way.
People with low enzyme levels are usually sick, not vice versa (which used to be what doctors thought). What that means is that enzyme levels drop and then make the person ill rather than low energy levels causing a person to then suffer from low enzyme content.
The Three Types of Enzymes Present in Our Body
Our body is made up of three different categories of enzymes, we have already mentioned the digestive enzyme further up this article but there is also metabolic enzymes and food enzymes that play a part in our structure.
The metabolic enzyme is found in all parts of our body, from our blood, skin, and bones and in our organs. Without these in our body we would struggle to grow new cells and maintaining a healthy system wouldn’t be possible without these robust enzymes.
The other enzyme, known as the food enzyme is closely related to the digestive enzyme, and therefore we only see these present in our digestive system. The food enzyme is already a part of our world, they are present in food everywhere, whether it’s on your plate ready to eat or on a supermarket shelf ready to purchase. The food enzyme is only apparent in raw foods though, so if you prefer well-done steak then the heat from cooking it will kill the food enzyme.
Both the digestive and food enzymes serve one purpose, and that is to help break down the food we eat.
Why are Enzymes Essential?
We are now going to look at why enzymes are a major part of our system, and why we need them. As we mentioned above the food enzyme is only present in uncooked, raw foods. So if you ate a meal that consisted of an omelet and a salad, you are going to have plenty of food enzymes in the salad because its uncooked to break down the salad when you eat it.
However, this is where the issue arises that there aren’t enough food enzymes in your body to be able to break the omelet down which is cooked so it doesn’t contain any enzymes.
Enter to reduce our body’s natural enzyme, the digestive enzyme which will take over the process to produce enough enzymes to break down the omelet for you. Do take into account though that the more we rely on these enzymes the more pressure we put on our body in rebuilding and nurturing damaged cells.
If you take Bromelain as an example, this enzyme which is usually found in pineapples will actually help you reduce inflammation in the body. If you buy Bromelain after an injury has been sustained or after surgery you will notice that the enzyme actually gets to work in effectively reducing swelling.
Role of enzymes in nutrition
Now we move to a more complex area of the enzyme world and this is where we look at enzymes in nutrients. We all have three basic food groups, proteins, fats and carbs, and we usually all have these on a daily basis in some form or other with carbohydrates probably being the largest part of a general balance diet and protein and fats sharing the spoils for the other percentage.
Each of these nutrients also needs to be processed properly by the body in order to maintain a healthy life, and this means that an adequate source of digestive enzymes need to come into play, these are: Protease, Amylase and Lipase.
Protease deals with the digestion of proteins, amylase deals with carbs and finally Lipase deals with fats. These three classifications of enzymes and the functions they provide in dealing with our daily food groups are a fundamental part in a healthy lifestyle.
Summary
No one has a lifetime supply of enzymes in their body and this, it’s important that we look at supplements to offset the loss of enzymes through our lifetime. We are always losing enzymes whether it’s through illness, sweat, pollution in the air, processed foods or other methods that can seriously affect the way our body produces enzymes and also loses the enzymes strength in our system.
One major issue is as we grow older the organs that produce enzymes, like other organs in the body because much less efficient to us. If we run on low enzymes our health deteriorates and our body becomes so overworked that we can fall seriously ill, this is mainly down to our immune system being affected which then doesn’t have the strength to fight off bacteria and viruses that attack us.
Therefore, if your enzyme count is low you should think about taking a supplement to help with the reproduction of these digestive enzymes so that you can maintain that optimal health and continue to live without the stress of illness.
References:
1. https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002353.htm
2. http://www.barleymagic.com/enzymes.html
3. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK9921/
Author Bio:
Mike Dawson is the editor at BuyExtracts, one of finest international supplier of high quality plant extracts. He also spends his time in researching on enzyme benefits to human health. For more information & to buy bromelain and other plant extracts, visit at BuyExtracts.com.
