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ENZYMES & IMMUNE SYSTEM

Enzymes are the catalysts in our bodies for biochemical reactions and play many roles in the immune system.

More than 50% of our immune function is in the gut. That is why what you consume has such a large impact on your immune system.

Enzyme Sources – From Food, Produced by the Body, From Supplements

Enzymes are naturally found in fresh, raw, natural, non-refined foods — raw fruits like papayas, figs, pineapples, citrus, berries, raw vegetables like leafy greens, beets, onions, leeks, celery, garlic, and raw herbs like rosemary, fennel, and thyme.

Even fresh raw sushi provides enzymes, as do fermented foods like pickles, sauerkraut and soy sauce.

Enzymes are naturally produced by the body too. However, as people age, there is a tendency for enzyme production to reduce over time. If the body needs additional support, both digestive and therapeutic (systemic) enzymes are available as nutrition supplements.

Digestive Enzymes, Digestion and Immune Health

Digestive enzymes are just that — they help us digest our food. They help with digesting proteins, fats, carbohydrates or fiber. Others are specific for breaking down lactose or gluten.

Proper and complete digestion has a tremendous impact on gut health. Gut health is deeply connected to immune health.

If our foods are not digested properly (e.g., not producing enough digestive enzymes, something that often happens with age), our bodies don’t get complete nourishment from the food. It can also result in abnormal bowel function including irregularity and bouts of diarrhea.

Undigested foods also leave more “leftovers” for gut microbes to feast on. Certain microbes use this to their advantage and may overgrow, especially in the small intestine. This may result in abdominal discomfort and gas, as well as inflammation of the gut mucosal lining.

Inflammation can impact your immune health too. The gut lining is like the internal skin of the body and a first line of immune defense. If it’s inflamed, it is in a compromised state. Pathological microbes can get past the mucosa to a lower layer of the gut lining and stake out a foothold there, covering themselves with a protective biofilm which allows them to evade the immune system.

When the gut lining is inflamed the junctions between cells may become less tight, something known as “leaky gut.” If this happens, the gut lining becomes more permeable and may allow pathogens, toxins and large macromolecules to pass through to the blood and lymph.

The body may develop an immune response to the microbes or molecules that get into the bloodstream that are not supposed to be there. There is a lot of ongoing scientific inquiry and research into whether the resulting immune responses are related to autoimmune diseases.

Insufficient digestive enzymes can put a stress on your GI and immune systems; this can be supported by taking a full spectrum digestive enzyme supplement with meals.

Therapeutic Enzymes and Immune Health

Beyond the digestive process, enzymes provide therapeutic benefits for immune health. Some therapeutic enzymes work in the gut, others are more systemic and work in the bloodstream.

In the Gut

Certain therapeutic enzymes can help in addressing microbial overgrowth or remediating pathological strains in the gut. They can disrupt the biofilm that is protecting these microbes in the gut wall and break down the microbes’ outer coating. (Depending on the microbe, the outer coating may be composed of protein or chitin with cellulose.)

Other proteases can break down the proteins inside the microbes.

In the Bloodstream

Systemic therapeutic protein-digesting enzymes (proteases) can break down undesirable microorganisms like viruses, yeast, fungi, bacteria and parasites that get into the bloodstream.

These undesirable microorganisms contain or are often protected by protein. After the protein coating is removed, the organism is exposed to degradation and elimination by the body’s immune system and processes of purification.

Therapeutic enzymes can interrupt the vicious cycle of chronic inflammation, taking the immune system stays off high alert and helping it to shut off when “danger” is gone, as it’s designed to do.

Therapeutic enzymes are taken on an empty stomach.