Probiotics Are An Ideal Complement To Your Digestive Enzyme Regimen

8 minute read

The Dynamic Duo. The Dream Team. Whatever you decide to call them, the fact is that probiotics and enzymes work well together. Complementing each other perfectly, your digestive system and overall health are taken to a new level with these two. While each provides a number of benefits individually, together they bring huge improvements to your digestion, immunity, energy levels and well-being.

Just think about the digestive system and how incredible it really is. From mouth to colon, food travels 30 feet in a little over 24 hours. To make sure we get everything we need from this food in terms of nutrients, minerals and energy, our digestive system relies on two powerful components. Probiotics ensure our gut stays healthy and free from pathogenic microbes and that enzymes breakdown the food to expose the nutrients we need.

The Role of Digestive Enzymes

These are catalytic proteins that break down food into smaller particles for absorption. Different enzymes are responsible for breaking down different foods; amylase breaks carbohydrates into sugars, lipase breaks down fat and protease breaks down proteins into amino acids. Enzymatic digestion begins as soon as food enters the mouth and happens all the way through to the intestines. When you have enzyme deficiencies, certain foods cannot be broken down properly, which causes health problems.

The Role of Probiotics

Since our bodies are made up of a substantial amount of bacteria, it makes sense that they are vital to our health. In fact, 85% of the microorganisms in our body are friendly and help to regulate digestion, support the immune system, balance blood sugar levels, maintain a healthy weight, and influence your moods. Your friendly gut flora not only aid the digestion process but keep pathogenic strains at bay. Stress, poor diet and overuse of antibiotics can cause these good bacteria levels to drop, which means the pathogenic strains can take over. This is where probiotic supplements come in to save the day.

Why Do We Need Probiotics?

Probiotics help support the immune system in a number of ways. Friendly flora prevent pathogenic strains from taking over the gut.

Numerous serious medical conditions are associated with inflammation, probiotics help to regulate the environment and prevent inflammation and damage to intestinal walls.

Enzymes are directly responsible for breaking down food, so without them, we do not get nutrients. A number of reasons can cause your enzyme levels to become depleted, which is dangerous to your health.

Stress and age both decrease your natural stores of food enzymes.The change in pH inhibits enzyme activity and therefore inhibits nutrient absorption. Additionally enzymes have co-workers that they depend on such as iron, zinc, magnesium and vitamin C. Without this enzyme production is also impaired.

Both probiotics and enzymes provide important services to our body and without them we are open to serious disease and infections. The role that diet plays is also huge, because a balanced diet is required for the two of them to travel and work efficiently in the body.

It is important to restore depleted levels, manage stress and eat balanced meals including enzyme and probiotic rich foods to stay clear of disease. This will also guarantee a top performing digestive system.

One important note on taking probiotics in conjunction with digestive enzymes—your enzymes are strong but can have trouble differentiating good bacteria from bad, meaning they may help you digest the wrong parts of your diet.

Only Saccharomyces boulardii can be taken with digestive enzymes, as it will not be digested. (This is the probiotic used in MediZyme.)

In order to keep your probiotics and digestive enzymes working together instead of sabotaging your efforts, be sure to take them separately and at different times of the day.

Optimal Digestion

When our digestive systems are sluggish we do not have access to the full benefits and nutrients of our food. Whatever is not properly digested and absorbed is expelled as waste. If you have a slow and unhealthy digestive tract, think of all the nutrients that are going to waste. There are a few things you can do to make sure you get your system repaired and back to optimal processing in no time.

♦ Eat raw foods: Raw, unprocessed plant-based foods like fruits and vegetables are great sources of enzymes.Since cooking destroys enzymes, choose raw as often as possible.

♦ Fermented foods: Eating yogurt, kefir or sauerkraut delivers a double dose of goodness with probiotics and enzymes. Fermented foods are already partially digested by the time they reach your mouth so the rest is a piece of cake.

♦ Get the right mix: You want to make sure you combine your foods properly to get the most benefit for your digestive system. Avoid having proteins and carbs in the same meal because they require different pH levels and will neutralize each other in the stomach. Don't combine fruits and vegetables because fruits are digested in the small intestine so if they get stuck with other foods, the process is impaired.

♦ Bedtime: You should always stop eating 2 or 3 hours before bedtime. This allows your gut time to clean out and repair while you rest.

♦ Supplements: Include probiotic and enzyme supplements as part of your daily plan. So much of modern life causes our natural stores to be depleted, so getting the extra support will benefit your body in numerous ways.

REMEMBER: You shouldn't take a probiotics supplement at the same time as a digestive enzymes one, as doing so can mean the beneficial bacteria are accidentally digested.

The Bottom Line

Watching what you eat, including probiotics and enzymes should be part of your daily health maintenance program. By incorporating these two powerful elements you can be assured that you have the tools for proper digestion, as well as getting all the nutrients you need to maintain a healthy environment that supports overall health and longevity.

As with any dietary addition, you should always check with your doctor before starting a probiotic and enzyme regimen, but both are produced in a variety of safe forms.

Friendly bacteria and enzymes live in our gut to support healthy digestion and assist with gastrointestinal problems. The supplementation of both may be just what you need to get your health back on track. If you can't digest your food properly, you can't absorb the nutrients.

Without the nutrients, you don't get the fuel that you need for repair, growth and learning. It is important to therefore have optimal levels of plant-based digestive enzymes and a broad-spectrum probiotic in your system. Whether they are naturally produced by our body or taken as supplements, together, this pair is powerful and essential for a healthy digestive system and a healthy you.