People worldwide have started to realize that a holistic approach to their health is the key to physical and mental wellness. Instead of addressing separate issues, it’s much more effective to look at the big picture and target the health of our bodies as a whole.
This is why the rapidly increasing popularity of various organic supplements is no surprise. Among countless other benefits, these healthy additions to our diet impact our nervous and immune systems, sexual function, and the ageing process.
Digestion is probably one of our bodies' most important functions, and our digestive system's health affects more than just metabolism. This process is conducted with proteins called enzymes, that break down the food that we ingest and help the intestines absorb the necessary nutrients.
Unfortunately, sometimes, our bodies don’t produce a sufficient amount of these proteins, and that’s exactly when digestive enzyme supplements come in. They help the body process and absorb nutrients more efficiently, positively affecting the organism beyond simply a faster digestion.
Immune System Support
Studies prove that approximately 70% of our immune cells are located in the gut. Therefore, you can only imagine the effect that our gastrointestinal health has on our bodies’ immune response.
The gut microbiome consists of every element present in the digestive tract. This includes different fungi and bacteria, along with the immune cells we mentioned above. These various components form general gut health by interacting with each other and the regulation of this process is exactly what guarantees a healthy microbiome.
Obviously, the food we ingest, its quality, and the efficiency of its absorption in the gut directly impact the overall microbiome. This is precisely why a malfunction of the enzymes can disrupt our bodies’ immune response. Adding digestive supplements to your diet helps the microbiome by increasing the efficiency at which nutrients are absorbed, regulating the interactions between elements in the tract and thus elevating our immunity.
Cognitive Function and Mood
In physiology, the gut-brain axis is a bridge between the central and enteric nervous systems. They are connected by the vagus nerve, which is responsible for the bidirectional relationship between the two components. Naturally, the dysregulation of one of these systems directly impacts the function of another.
Neurotransmitters are cells that conduct the chemical reactions in our brain. Like immune cells, some of the neurotransmitters are produced in the gut. For example, serotonin, a hormone that targets various systems, including our mood, sleep, and sexual desire, and approximately 95% of it is synthesized in the digestive tract.
Considering all this, it’s safe to say that this unexpected benefit of digestive enzyme supplements is no less important than just regulating the digestion process. Based on the interaction between our guts and brains, it’s no surprise that an unhealthy tract results in a higher chance of depression and anxiety, and a lack of necessary nutrients or their inefficient and slow absorption lowers our cognitive function.
Weight Management
A healthy gut’s impact on weight loss and maintenance is obviously less surprising than its effect on immunity and cognition. After all, the main function of the digestive system is to ingest food, break it down, and absorb it to support the body.
If our gut cannot synthesize enough proteins to process nutrients, it’s practically impossible to lose weight. A dysregulated digestive tract results in the body’s inability to satiate hunger, which urges us to ingest more food.
Adding dietary supplements such as digestive enzymes to our diet and allowing them to improve our bodily functions will help us regulate our hunger, as efficient processing and absorption of nutrients makes us feel satisfied for a longer period of time, reducing the amount of food we need to take during the day.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, any disruption in the digestive tract can easily create a domino effect and dysregulate the important processes in our bodies. This is why we should be paying extra attention to our gut health.
Our gut microbiome and health can affect more than just our energy levels and metabolism. Since the digestive tract is practically a factory that produces cells with various functions, it targets different cells in our bodies, with the largest impact on our immune and nervous systems.
As discussed, certain conditions block the body’s ability to produce enough proteins for digestion. This is when the enzyme supplements are the most important - balancing the amount of necessary proteins in our guts will result in more efficient food processing and nutrient absorption, alleviating any discomfort that an unhealthy gut microbiome brings.
