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Irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS, is an intestinal disorder characterized by abdominal pain, gas, bloating and altered bowel habits. People with IBS can have either constipation or diarrhea, and many individuals alternate between the two. By definition, no other mechanical, inflammatory, infectious or biochemical intestinal disease is discernible in people with IBS. People with IBS, however, can identify factors, such as stress or certain foods, which make their symptoms worse. Caffeine is often blamed for aggravating IBS.

IBS Is Relatively Common-

Irritable bowel syndrome affects 10 to 15 percent of American adults, with women more likely to have the condition than men, according to “American Family Physician.” IBS most commonly strikes between the ages of 30 and 50, when other bowel disorders such as Crohn’s disease or celiac disease are also diagnosed. Although its symptoms overlap with other disorders, one distinguishing feature of IBS is its tendency to worsen following the consumption of certain foods, such as caffeine, fats or items sweetened with sorbitol.

Causes of IBS-

The exact cause of IBS is unknown, but a 2005 review in “American Family Physician” discusses various potential physiologic causes, such as abnormal muscular activity, altered nervous stimulation or aberrant production of hormones and neurotransmitters within the gut wall. Most experts believe there is also a psychological component to IBS, and behavioral therapy or psychotherapy is sometimes recommended as part of a treatment program which could also include stress reduction, dietary modifications and medications.

Aggravating Factors-

Since IBS is primarily a disorder of bowel motility, any stimulus that alters bowel activity can potentially aggravate symptoms. A 2007 review in “Inflammatory Bowel Diseases” describes a method for treating IBS that uses a food and beverage intolerance-and-avoidance diet. The authors of this review list milk products, caffeine-containing products, alcohol, artificially-sweetened foods, fatty foods, fruit juices and a variety of other items that typically increase symptoms among IBS sufferers. MedlinePlus reiterates the need for IBS patients to avoid caffeine-containing foods, beverages and medications.

IBS is a fairly common problem that is often aggravated by specific foods in your diet. Caffeine is a frequent offender. However, not everyone with IBS notices a worsening of symptoms after consuming the same foods. If you have IBS, it may be helpful to keep a diary of those foods and beverages that seem to make you feel worse. If you cannot control your symptoms by avoiding the items that aggravate your symptoms, talk to your doctor or a dietitian who is experienced in dealing with IBS.

Staying on top of your enzyme levels as you get older is one of the more important things you can do to ensure the best quality of life for you going forward. As we age our enzyme levels can reduce and with that comes many unwanted digestive health issues like gas, bloating, upset stomach, acid reflux and abdominal cramps. To get rid of an enzyme deficiency you can follow seven easy steps that will make digestion and eating food enjoyable once more.

1) Enzyme supplementation: Digestive enzymes. We’re betting you’ve heard of them, have a vague idea that they’re good, and wonder if you should be taking them. But this is one area where we also see a lot of confusion. Supplementation of any sort without knowing what or why you’re doing what you’re doing can be just as detrimental to your health as doing nothing at all. So before you stock up on papain and bromelain

2) Body Ecology Principle of Food Combining: Pair non-starchy vegetables and ocean vegetables with protein. Non-starchy vegetables and ocean vegetables do not require a strong alkaline nor a strong acidic condition to digest properly. This is a good way of making sure your body is getting foods in its system that will help with nutrition and digestion.

3) Try the Body Ecology Principle of 80/20: Leave a little room in the stomach (about 20%) for digestive enzymes to do their job. The 80/20 principle is one that can be used for many things in life but when it comes to digestive health it can be something that leaves you feeling healthier as well.

4) Drink water alone: Because water can dilute your digestive enzymes, drink room-temperature water between meals. Water is the most important thing to humans in the world. Making sure your meals are accompanied with water more and more is crucial for better digestive health.

5) Drink ginger tea: Research has found that ginger root has the ability to stimulate brush border enzymes and increase the activity of pancreatic enzymes. Drink ginger tea after meals or before bed for the best results. Tea is also an antioxidant which will have benefits on other parts of your system.

6) Cook and prepare foods with coconut oil: Coconut oil contains medium-chain triglycerides, which are directly absorbed. Coconut oil can stimulate the enzyme lipase—making fats easier to digest. Coconut oil also helps with bacteria that has no business of being in our bodies and can cause many problems with our immune system.

7) Make cultured vegetables a part of every meal: Cultured vegetables are naturally brimming with enzymes that enhance digestion. This is a bit more of a complicated tip but once you see the benefits of eating cultured vegetables, it’ll be difficult to deny them at your dinner table.

Besides all these tips, it’s important that you most of all find the right blend of digestive enzymes to deal with the myriad of foods of ingredients. Maintaining your digestive health and getting the most out of the foods you eat will be something that has a long term benefit on your life.

Even though it’s widely viewed as a bad thing, fats are still needed for health and nutrition. Without fats, the good kind, the body doesn’t get all the nutrients it needs and side effects like low energy levels along with weaker immune system problems will persist. Numerous health problems are associated with impaired fat digestion.

According to several studies, fat molecules are a rich source of energy for your body. Many of your organs participate in the digestion of fatty foods. In most cases, fatty foods are easily digested. However, certain medical conditions may impair your body’s ability to break down fat, causing health complications that range from mild to severe.

If you are unable to properly digest fatty foods, you may want to look to your pancreas and not only your gallbladder. Signs of pancreatic enzyme deficiency or inactivity include: Bloating or cramping pain after meals, Loose, greasy, foul-smelling stools, deficiency in fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K. Research tells us that pancreatic enzymes do much of the heavy lifting when it comes to breaking down fats. If you are deficient in pancreatic enzymes or if they are inactive, you may have trouble digesting fats.

The enzyme responsible for digesting fats is lipase. Lipase has a short life in the small intestine and is sensitive to its environment. Besides having a short life, if the small intestine is too acidic, lipase does not do the job it was designed to do.

Your pancreas makes the majority of lipase, but some also comes from your mouth and stomach. When you eat a fatty meal, stomach emptying slows and a small amount of fat is digested by gastric lipase in your stomach. This is especially true of certain types of triglycerides, such as those found in butter.

Your liver produces bile, which is stored in your gallbladder — when fat arrives in the small intestine, the gallbladder contracts and releases bile. Bile helps emulsify the fat, making it more accessible to digestion by pancreatic lipase. Pancreatic lipase digests the triglycerides into free fatty acids and monoglycerides, which your small intestine absorbs.

Fats require special digestive action before absorption because the end products must be carried in a water medium (blood and lymph) in which fats are not soluble. Lipase is the primary digestant used to split fats into fatty acids and glycerol. Although little actual fat digestion occurs in the stomach, gastric lipase does digest already emulsified fats such as in egg yolk and cream.

Emulsification is the real key to the proper digestion of fats. The large fat molecule presents comparatively small surfaces for the lipase to work on, so the process of emulsification by the action of bile produced by the liver is necessary. Bile breaks down the large fat molecule to tiny droplets which provide lipase with an enormously increased surface to work on. This action takes place in the small intestine and the lipase involved here is a part of the pancreatic secretion.

When dealing with finding the right enzyme supplement for you it’s best to narrow it down to the type of enzymes that are healthiest for you and necessary for your needs as far as digestion goes. Raw food contains the enzymes needed to digest it. However, most of us don’t live on a raw food diet. When we cook our food, the enzymes in the food are destroyed and our body has to make them in order to digest our food.

This puts stress on our system especially since people eat more processed foods and meals higher in calories and fat. Digestive enzyme supplements help you digest your meals more efficiently and deliver the nutrients from your food to your body. Enzyme supplements are clinically proven to reduce the effects of bloating, gas, occasional heartburn and occasional acid reflux.

Your body makes and uses thousands of enzymes every day—so it may seem odd that many enzymes are sold as dietary supplements. “Enzymes” may sound like something magical, and in some sense they are. Cells are the basic chemical unit of life and can do what they do only because enzymes enable them to do it. Enzymes regulate virtually every chemical reaction in our bodies and in all living cells everywhere.

Enzymes are proteins, and they make things happen. When secreted in the digestive tract, they help break down carbohydrates, fats and dietary proteins and detoxify alcohol. Each enzyme is designed to do a specific task—enzymes are not general workers. “Proteolytic” enzymes such as pepsin and trypsin work on proteins, amylase on carbohydrates, and lipase on fats. When they are not helping to break down compounds, they help synthesize them.

Though enzymes do not replace specialized or restrictive diets, many people take enzymes in the form of dietary supplements to replace the enzymes their body is lacking, or to fortify the enzymes found in their food to ensure complete digestion of each meal. If you don’t digest the food, you can’t absorb the nutrients. If you don’t absorb the nutrients, you can’t get all the fuel you need for repair, growth and learning.

In the body, enzymes made by intestinal bacteria work synergistically with our own inherent enzymes to support optimal wellbeing and digestive health. This is also the same with supplemental enzymes and probiotics. These supplements may be taken together (at the same time) to support digestive health.

It’s been estimated that the human body consists of about 10 trillion cells, and the intestines of each of us are inhabited by 10 times as many microorganisms. These organisms support regularity, aid the immune system, produce vitamins like B and K, and fuel our digestion through their production of enzymes, including lactase, protease, and amylase. Each of us has a unique little ecosystem that exists in our digestive tract and it appears to be influenced by both genetics and diet. Just like most things in life, the key seems to be balance.

In our bodies, there already is an abundance of natural essential enzymes. Over time though, the levels of enzymes drop and the digestive process doesn’t product the same way it once did. To deal with this, the supplementation of enzymes has become an effective tool in making sure humans get the most out of the foods they eat and the nutrients they need.

Eating a healthy well-balanced diet is the foundation for our optimal health. In the fast paced world we live in, it can be difficult to prepare one healthy meal – let alone three of them a day. The healthier the foods are that we eat, the easier it will be for our bodies to digest them and extract the nutrients it needs for us to maintain optimal health.

When we put food in our mouths, our digestive track starts the miraculous process of transforming that food into usable nutrients, uniting a combination of biochemical players whose job it is to carry out the task. Very importantly, the digestive enzymes play a substantial role in the digestive process, as the all-important “cleavers” that turn big food molecules into smaller ones and allow us to absorb vital nutrients that our bodies need to function properly. Without these enzymes, much can go wrong.

Just as each of the nutrients in the food, what we eat and the beverages we drink have the important job of regulating our daily activities – which include providing an ample amount of energy, creating new body tissues, and cleansing our system of toxins and free radicals that can make us sick. Each member of the digestive tract team has a specific purpose.

Enzymes are essentially large protein-based molecules that help chemical reactions take place faster than they otherwise would. Your body is in constant activity, even when you’re sleeping. It requires a wide array of chemical reactions to remain alive and nearly all of them are enzyme-dependent. Digestive enzymes specifically help your body break down large nutrient molecules in your food into smaller nutrient molecules that your bowel can absorb. Once absorbed, these smaller nutrient molecules can be released in your bloodstream and carried to different organs for use.

A common misconception is that you can, or should, supplement your digestive tract with enzymes. However, there’s no solid scientific evidence to support the effectiveness of enzyme supplementation. When you consume an enzyme, there’s really no way for it to travel directly to the part of the body where it’s supposed to function. The enzyme must first transit through the stomach, where it’s treated like any other protein you consume — it’s digested and passed on to the small intestine, where it’s absorbed and burned for energy.

Understanding when to take digestive enzymes is something that no person gets from the first try. Taking digestive enzymes is usually suggested before meals or in the morning before your day starts but depending on your natural enzyme levels along with the reactions your body goes through with the specific foods you eat, it can all depend.

There’s a lot of debate about when is the best time. Should you take them between meals, just before, during or even after? From my experience and that of readers, the best time seems to be right before your meal. Sometimes I forget to take them. When that happens I’ll just take one when I can. There is no harm in taking one later; it just may not help as much with digestion. Of course, some people also take them in between meals, but not as a digestion aid per se. Instead, they are using them for detoxification benefits.

You see, when taken on an empty stomach and not near food, the digestive enzymes (especially protease that breakdown protein) will hit your bloodstream and they’ll work to remove toxins and waste, thereby reducing inflammation and giving your liver and immune system some much needed help. The coolest thing of all is that they are very selective.

If digestion is really poor, food is sometimes pushed too quickly through the bowel, as it doesn’t really know what to do with the substance, other than excrete it. This results in loose bowels. Patients who often notice undigested food in their stool should consider digestive enzymes, since food is clearly not being broken down.

The right diet, the right way of eating and the right lifestyle, may still not be enough to help your body produce enough digestive enzymes. That’s because leaky gut, and its knock on effects, are a tough adversary to overcome.

And although I do think with enough time you could probably beat it without supplements, why wait? (I know when my gut was at its worst; patience was not a virtue I had time for!)

Also, unlike many other supplements for leaky gut, the very first time you take digestive enzymes you will notice it. Not in terms of noticing more nutrient absorption, but rather in terms of not noticing many of the after effects of eating with a leaky gut, heartburn, stomach pains etc. Everyone is of course different, but this is my experience with taking them.

Since digestive enzyme supplements will help break your food down faster AND in your stomach (not intestines) you also avoid larger food particles later tearing up your gut lining / intestines as they make their way out of your stomach.

Lack of digestive enzymes affects the pancreas. Remember the digestive system is designed to break down approximately half of the food. When we eat cooked and processed foods, we’re asking the digestive system to break down 100% of the food we’ve eaten. This means every time we eat these foods, the pancreas must produce twice as many enzymes as it is meant to and so it is working double time. Doing this year after year puts a tremendous strain on the pancreas. And eventually stresses our immune system and reduces our metabolic enzyme supply.

Autopsies have been done on people that eat mostly cooked and processed foods. The results show the pancreas is dangerously enlarged, poorly functioning and quite often on the verge of breaking down.

When your enzyme supplies run low, you become ill. There are three ways to conserve your enzyme supply so that it doesn’t run low.

Understanding your body will be one of the more important things you do once you become an adult. Along with that comes with knowing what foods you can eat and what foods you can’t. Through the help of digestive enzymes you realize that not all foods are out of bounds and what enzymes you need for maintaining the best possible health.

The role of digestive enzymes is primarily to act as catalysts in speeding up specific, life-preserving chemical reactions in the body. In healthy digestion, it is only after this period of “predigestion” that hydrochloric acid is introduced to the process (along with the enzyme pepsin, which is secreted in the stomach).

This acid/pepsin mix inactivates (but does not destroy) most of the enzymes used in predigestion and then begins its own function of breaking down any undigested protein content left in the meal, turning it into an amino-acid-rich concentrate. Note: stomach acid and pepsin only work on the digestion of proteins. They are not involved in the breakdown of fats and carbohydrates.

There are a variety of digestive enzymes on the market, including single enzyme and multiple enzymes. Without testing, I typically recommend a mixed enzyme to cover your bases. Most people are going to benefit from a multi-enzyme product, so you’ll want to see a number of enzymes listed, including proteases (which break down proteins), lipases (which break down fats), and carbohydrase’s (such as amylase, which break down carbohydrates). Look at the labels of the products linked above for specifics—there are a ton of enzymes, but your product should include at least some from these labels.

Quality and price go a long way. Buying cheap supplements is almost always a waste of money—you’re almost never going to get the benefit you’re looking for. When buying enzymes, don’t look for the cheapest brand on the shelf, and steer clear of conventional grocery stores and drug stores, as they carry poor quality product.

As with all supplements, you want to see all the ingredients listed. And you especially want to see what ingredients are not in the product like gluten, dairy, etc. If it doesn’t say “contains no: sugar, salt, wheat, gluten, soy, milk, egg, shellfish or preservatives,” you need to assume that it does.

There are three major sourcing for digestive enzymes. Fruit sourced (isolated from papaya or pineapple) work well for some people, but tend to be the weakest digestive enzyme supplement, and aren’t sufficient for people who need more support.

Animal sourced (typically listed as pancreatin) are not for vegetarians or vegans, and can have issues with stability. They work really well for some people, but typically are not the forms I’m using. “Plant” sourced (from fungus) are the most stable of all the enzymes, survive digestion well, and have a broad spectrum of action. These are the ones I most commonly use.

Trying to find the right type of digestive enzyme will always depend on just what type of enzyme you need for better digestion. This is something you can get from your physician. Once you know what enzymes you’re low in, it’ll be easy to start looking into the specifics.

Understanding what we can eat and what we can’t eat is something we have down once we’re teenagers. What we don’t know when we’re teenagers is that with the help of digestive enzymes we could eat more of the foods that we once thought we’re no-no’s and also boost the overall health of our bodies going forward. Enzymes are proteins that facilitate specific chemical reactions.

Digestive enzymes facilitate the chemical breakdown of food into smaller, absorbable components. Enzymes called amylases break down starches into sugar molecules; proteases break down proteins into amino acids; and lipases break down fat into its component parts.

We eat food, but our digestive system doesn’t absorb food, it absorbs nutrients. Food has to be broken down from things like steak and broccoli into its nutrient pieces: amino acids (from proteins), fatty acids and cholesterol (from fats), and simple sugars (from carbohydrates), as well as vitamins, minerals, and a variety of other plant and animal compounds. Digestive enzymes, primarily produced* in the pancreas and small intestine, break down our food into nutrients so that our bodies can absorb them.

Eating a healthy well-balanced diet is the foundation for our optimal health. In the fast paced world we live in, it can be difficult to prepare one healthy meal – let alone three of them a day. The healthier the foods are that we eat, the easier it will be for our bodies to digest them and extract the nutrients it needs for us to maintain optimal health. Yet if we skip meals or eat unhealthy meals – an occasional splurge is to be expected – we need to know that in order for our body to work for us, it needs our help. The digestive tract is a complex system and sometimes regardless of what we eat, it needs some help.

Having to suffer with a digestive disorder can disrupt our entire life. A digestive disorder can make us feel anxious about going out in public – never knowing when we may have to use the restroom, always looking to see where the restroom is and mentally estimating how long it would take to reach it if need be. It is disheartening to pull our favorite dress or suit out of the closet to find that we are so bloated we will not be able to wear it to a special event. The fear of embarrassing ourselves, spouses/partner and child at a school function because of the gas – especially if it is expelled in an unflattering way.

Digestive problems can cause as many emotional disturbances in our life as the physical ones can. Oftentimes people who are not plagued by digestive problems do not understand why we may pass gas in public, or accidentally bump into someone in a mad dash to the restroom. These events can cause us to miss out on a lot of great things in life – but they don’t have to. With the proper care and support from our healthcare practitioner and a commitment to ourselves – we can lead normal, happy and healthy lives.

Once you begin supplementation of digestive enzymes you’ll notice that your digestive health has in fact changed for the better and you’re back to enjoying foods you once thought were impossible to eat. The other side to the wonderful benefits of digestive enzymes is the fact that you can become dependent on them. According to most studies, around 10% of the American population is taking digestive enzyme supplements before a meal. Digestive enzymes are really meant to help the lower levels of enzymes in your body.

Besides the dependence on digestive enzymes there are physical dangers to taking digestive enzymes that can develop over time and aren’t in way related to the food you eat. Some of those side effects come in the form of diarrhea, nausea and stomach cramps. No one can blame a person from their dependence of digestive enzymes as well.

Many people who take digestive enzymes for the first time realize what a miracle it can be to eat something like pizza or ice cream without having serious digestive side effects. Over time, the use of digestive enzymes also creates a problem with the digestion of other foods and in essence, without digestive enzyme supplementation at an almost constant rate, the absorption of nutrients doesn’t occur.

The reasons why taking digestive enzymes so religiously can lead to a problem are because of the fact that the intestinal wall is dependent on a very delicate balance of not being too moist or too dry. Digestive enzymes can end up creating this imbalance that leads to issues with your stools and vice versa.

Pancreatic enzymes are also indicated for use with any condition associated with low enzyme production. For those without cystic fibrous, pancreatic enzymes are given to help digest all macronutrients–carbs, proteins and fat. A possible side effect is too many enzymes create uric acid that may rise, causing arthritic joint problems. This is a concern if you already suffer from gout or kidney problems.

Digestive enzymes help break down food particles to aid with food absorption. You may find people with pancreatic disorders or cystitic fibrosis use enzymes to break down carbs. Supplementing with digestive enzymes can improve digestive inabilities that produce digestive related problems, like lactose intolerance.

Lactose is the primary sugar found in cow’s milk. As you grow older, you may find your tolerance for milk and milk products decreases, causing gas, bloating and constipation. Lactase is an enzyme you can take with dairy foods to break down the sugar found in milk. Lactase can be obtained without a prescription and under normal doses; the drug poses no health threats. Some people may have allergic reactions such as rash, hives, difficulty breathing, and swelling of the mouth, throat or tightness in the chest if enzyme supplements are taken in excessive amounts.

All in all, as the saying goes, too much of anything is never a good thing. Monitoring your digestive enzyme intake and not using digestive enzymes for nearly every meal will go a long way in making sure your digestive system is in good shape and your overall health is flourishing.