Digestive Enzymes: What they are – What they do – Why you might care

Enzymes act as catalysts—molecules that make reactions happen faster. While there are enzymes that help build things up, in this article I’ll focus on enzymes that help break things down, a.k.a. digestive enzymes.

How Digestive Enzymes Work

Digestive enzymes are an incredibly important part of our gastrointestinal system. They help break chemical bonds in foods, transforming large molecules into smaller molecules that we can easily absorb. That’s what digestion means—breaking food down into smaller parts.

Each enzyme in our bodies is made to fit like a lock and key with its particular substrate; the “substrate” is the enzyme that reacts with and transforms.

In the above picture, you can imagine that the yellow substrate (labeled “reactant molecule”) is the complex carbohydrate molecule sucrose, in which case the green enzyme would be called sucrase. The blue and red products at the end of this particular reaction would be glucose** and fructose molecules because those are the two simpler sugar molecules that sucrose is made from. The enzyme sucrase helped to break the bond that held them together.

**Note: All enzymes end with the suffix “-ase.” For instance, the enzyme that helps break down lactose is called lactase. For peptides, it’s peptidase. For lipids, it’s lipase, etc.

We have hydrochloric acid in our stomachs to help start the digestion of large proteins, but that just gets the ball rolling. Enzymes are required to break proteins down fully into amino acids, which happens lower in the small intestine. The breakdown of fats and carbohydrates also occurs there. Although we have some enzymes in our saliva to help kickstart the digestion of carbohydrates, the vast majority of digestive enzymes are released into the small intestine by the pancreas or created within the small intestine itself.

Remember, I said enzymes are catalysts that make reactions happen faster. It’s so crucial that digestion works efficiently and rapidly to make sure you’re able to absorb all the nutrients out of your food in the 6-8 hours it will be in the stomach and small intestine before it enters the colon where nutrients are no longer absorbed.

So what does it look like when digestive enzymes are deficient or inefficient? We can each experience this differently, but often it results in undigested food remaining in passed stools, or symptoms like indigestion, reflux, abdominal bloating, gas, and belching.

Want to Learn About the Types of Fibers that can Help with Digestion? Check Out Our Free For the Love of Fiber Guide

How to Help and Hurt Digestive Enzymes

There are dietary and lifestyle factors that impact enzyme production and action that you’ll want to be aware of.

First, consider what hurts enzyme production. Factors include chronic stress (inhibits enzyme production), deficiency of vitamin and mineral cofactors (lowers enzyme production and activity), pancreatic disease (inhibits enzyme production), and small intestinal disorders such as Celiac disease, IBS, or dysbiosis (inhibit enzyme production).

Next, consider what helps enzyme production: chewing food thoroughly (to expose more surface area to the action of enzymes), reducing overall stress and only eating when calm (to allow the body to move into “Rest and Digest” mode – the opposite of Fight or Flight), taking a good quality multivitamin and mineral supplement and keeping the gut free from inflammation.

You may benefit from taking a digestive enzyme supplement with meals to help aid the absorption of nutrients and prevent indigestion symptoms, especially when you can’t avoid eating foods that you know don’t agree with you.

“Oh, do you mean probiotics?” This is a question I get quite often when talking about digestive enzymes. It’s a great question!

Enzymes and probiotics are entirely different things, but they both play essential roles in making our digestion and absorption work well. Enzyme production relies partly on having a robust population of beneficial gut microbes, including bacteria and yeasts. For this, you may also need to take a medical-grade probiotic supplement and ensure your diet supplies plenty of the fiber that feeds gut microbes to ensure their survival.

If you have any questions or need specific guidance on supplements, call 480-588-6856 for a free brief meet and greet with one of our naturopathic doctors.

By Dr. Lauri Brouwer, ND