Can digestive enzymes genuinely aid in the treatment of leaky gut? And, if so, how do they work, and what kind of supplement should we seek? In this complete guide on digestive enzymes and leaky gut, we'll address all of your questions!
What is the significance of digestive enzymes?
While L-Glutamine and probiotics take the leaky gut spotlight (I believe), our small companions, digestive enzymes, go unnoticed.
Most individuals contact me with the question, "What are digestive enzymes helpful for?"
My answer…absolutely everything!
Because digestive enzymes may help break down the food we consume into individual nutrients, our bodies can really absorb and use the 'goodness' in the food we eat, such as amino acids, vitamins, minerals, and so on.
Without digestive enzymes, you could eat like Gwyneth Paltrow all day and still be unhealthy, because your body would lose out on all the nourishment trapped in the food.
Digestive enzymes can help leaky gut
Digestive enzymes can benefit our gut health in a variety of ways. However, when it comes to leaky gut, the five key advantages are as follows:
Help in nutrient absorption - Enzymes can aid in the breakdown of food into nutrients, which our bodies can then utilize to develop stronger. In reality, for those of us with leaky gut, nutrient absorption and utilization is critical since it helps our gut lining repair and hence contributes to the prevention of leaky gut.
Less irritation and inflammation - By assisting in the appropriate breakdown of the food we eat (into smaller particles), enzymes can also ensure less irritation and consequently inflammation of the gut lining, which reduces gut permeability further.
Less food-related immune system reactions - Enzymes can prevent large food molecules from passing past the gut wall and into the bloodstream, where they could possibly disrupt the immune system. This is significant since it has been linked to the development of autoimmune responses. While your gut is healing, some molecules will still pass through, but because they are smaller due to digestive enzymes, they will do less damage.
Support lining of the gut - digestive enzymes also work to clean up the mucosal lining – and even your bloodstream – by breaking down food and, in the process, removing toxins and harmful proteins, while also destroying bad bacteria. This added help is fantastic as it gives your liver and immune system a much needed break! (Like a spa weekend for your vital organs, kinda)
Pathogen defense - Enzymes can also assist the body in ridding itself of infections that may contribute to leaky gut. Because bacteria and parasites are composed of lipids and proteins, protein-digesting enzymes (protease) and even bile salts can assist in breaking them down and flushing them out.
There are so many different digestive enzyme supplements on the market that deciding one is best for you can be incredibly difficult.
There are only three different types of digestive enzymes. So, after you've determined which of these three is best for you, things will be much easier.
Fruit-based digestive enzymes, such as papaya/papain or pineapple/
Some people respond really favorably to these. They appear to be effective.
However, these are arguably the weakest of the three types of digestive enzymes. And if you have a leaky gut, this may not be effective in making your system feel better.
Of course, you may start with these and see how you feel. And, as a sort of insurance policy, most good enzyme supplements include some Papain and Bromelain.
Animal-based digestive enzymes, eg pancreatin
Obviously, if you're vegetarian or vegan, you should skip this.
However, for the rest of us, these digestive enzymes can have a positive impact on our digestion, particularly when it comes to protein digestion and food breakdown during the initial stage of digestion (in the stomach).
Plant-based digestive enzymes - plant-based or microbe/fungal/seed-based
We've made it. This is digestive enzyme vegan. I'm being serious.
Because we get a triple treat with plant-based digestive enzymes...
...since they survive digestion well, have a broad spectrum of activity (importantly, they begin operating in the stomach immediately BEFORE the meal enters the intestines and around 1 hour before your own pancreatic enzymes appear), and are quite stable (especially across a wide pH range).
Now that you've decided on a source, it's time to figure out what kind of enzymes you want.
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