Systemic and Digestive Enzymes

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Enzymes are probably the most-overlooked part of a person's nutritional supplementation regimen.  However, they are critical to your overall health and well-being.

Enzymes are the catalysts that make your body work.  If not for enzymes, simply blinking your eyes would require a body temperature of several hundred degrees and/or take several years to accomplish — if it could be done at all.

Note: These numbers are in no way scientific; they are speculative, based on the function of enzymes in the body.  They are given here to illustrate the point.

Every process in your body is facilitated by enzymes.  They help to digest your food and clear your body of wastes, as well as countless other systemic/metabolic functions.

While your body manufactures some of the enzymes it needs on a daily basis, a large portion of the enzymes needed must come from foods — they form the building blocks for other metabolic enzymes.  However, because of hybridization, processing and cooking of our foods, most of what we eat is seriously depleted of these vital nutrients.  And, in order to digest the foods we eat, the body must rob itself of other metabolic/systemic enzymes.  This creates a kind of "drag" on the body, and can lead to significant problems elsewhere.  One place this deficiency manifests itself is in inflammation.

In Europe, systemic enzyme complexes have been used for many years to reduce inflammation.  This complex usually includes proteolytic (protein-digesting) enzymes, although other enzymes are often included, as well.

This has all the greater significance when we consider that recent medical research indicates that such health concerns as heart disease, diabetes, arthritis and even cancers are, at their root, inflammatory diseases.  Eliminate the inflammation, and the condition might not develop or progress.

Using systemic or digestive enzymes

When taking enzyme supplements, you should follow these guidelines:

• For systemic/metabolic effects, take away from meals.  At least an hour or two is best.  They should also be taken at bedtime.
• For digestive support, take before meals.  Some sources suggest at least 20-45 minutes before meals, other suggest immediately before meals.  I've tried it both ways and can't tell much difference.  I've even taken them following a meal with acceptable effects.