In our day and age a great deal more importance is given to health and the maintenance thereof than an any time in the past. This is largely because the average person in our world today is far more educated than their predecessors from even a century or two ago. This level of knowledge and education is reflected in a desire to benefit from the latest advances in medicine and biotechnology, one of these advances being probiotics, while another is the use of digestive enzyme supplements. Though both these things are often used together, they are quite distinct from each other, and I’ll be telling you a little about each here.
People today are beginning to realize that there are distinct advantages to using probiotics and digestive enzyme supplements in their diets. We’ll go into the precise health benefits that probiotics and digestive enzyme supplements confer in a more detail later in this article, but first let me explain what probiotics and digestive enzymes actually are.
So what are Digestive Enzymes, and how do they differ from probiotic bacteria?
Digestive enzymes, on the other hand, are complex molecules that help the body break down food matter into substances that it can process and use. Supplements of digestive enzymes become necessary later in life, especially past the age of thirty, when production of them within the body itself tends to slow down.
Digestive enzymes are generally a constituent of the saliva, and can also be produced in the stomach and intestine. Sometimes it can happen that your body doesn’t produce the right digestive enzymes to break up certain complex foods, or doesn’t produce enough of them. For example, beans and broccoli can be rather resistant to the digestive enzymes naturally produced in the body, and in such cases a digestive enzymes supplement can help break down these substances and to prevent issues like indigestion.
Of course, the body also uses a great many more enzymes for different purposes, but as we are focusing on digestive enzymes here, we'll talk about what they do.
Who should go in for digestive enzyme supplements:
As I mentioned a little earlier, digestive enzymes are hardly necessary for someone under thirty, though you could take a supplement when you eat foods that are not easily digested. However, for people over thirty digestive enzymes are definitely recommended.
Generally speaking, one should search for a product that contains a large spectrum of digestive enzymes, so that it benefits you in the assimilation of the largest variety of food, and all the major food groups.
So what benefits should you expect from digestive enzymes? Well, such supplements will decrease gas and bloating, and also reduce the amount of energy your body uses for digestion, leaving you clear headed after a meal, instead of drowsy.
Probiotics – just how useful are they?
Probiotics are actually a culture of live microorganisms. Now when one usually thinks of microorganisms, one generally things of disease causing strains, but probiotics are actually beneficial, and similar to a great extent to the microorganisms in your intestine, for example, that aid in digestion. Probiotic bacteria are generally bacteria, but strains of fungi are also used in certain cases.
Now, as I said earlier, you actually have a lot of these probiotic microorganisms living in your intestinal tract. Sometimes their level may fall, perhaps as a result of sickness or through the use of antibiotics, and supplementing them can definitely be of value in these circumstances. The natural probiotic bacteria that occur in our bodies are inherited from our mothers. The amount of these probiotic bacteria that you naturally possess can range from between a teaspoon or two to up to a few pounds.
Probiotics and good health:
All in all, digestive enzymes are definitely recommended for use on a regular basis, whereas probiotics have various applications that depend on different circumstances and health conditions. So what are the most common types of probiotics? The most common types of probiotics are lactic acid bacteria and bifido bacteria.
Generally speaking, a probiotic consists of a live culture of bacteria that is added to fermented food. This fermented food can be yogurt, or sour yogurt, or any other form of dietary supplement.
Probiotics and their role in treating disease:
As medical science advances, many more uses have been found for probiotics than merely aiding digestion. Of course, most of these uses of probiotics are still being researched, but what research has been conducted shows very positive results.
For example, certain strains of probiotics have actually been shown to benefit various types of gastroenteritis, causing a reduction in how long the illness lasts, and also reducing how frequent stools are. Adding some fermented products, for example yogurt, to your diet along with probiotics can cause an even greater reduction of symptoms.
Then there is antibiotic associated diarrhea – a condition caused by the reduction of the body's natural flora by the extensive use of antibiotics. Now as you know, the body's natural flora, especially in the small intestine, is necessary to the process of digestion, and when these flora are decimated what happens is that the body finds it difficult to digest many sorts of foods.
Moreover, reduction of the healthy and beneficial flora in the small intestine can also cause harmful bacteria to multiply in the small intestine.
Now probiotics can be very useful in reducing these conditions. They not only supplement the decimated flora of the small intestine, but they also limit the growth and multiplication of harmful organisms. While more research is certainly required, and more clinical trials in this area, there are proven benefits to probiotic treatment when a person is suffering from antibiotic associated diarrhea.
Yet probiotics have even more potential, for example, in the treatment of individuals who cannot tolerate lactose. This can lead to a serious reduction of the quality of one's life as lactose intolerant individuals cannot ingest or tolerate a large number of helpful and appetizing foods. Now the ingestion of lactic acid bacteria has been shown to immensely benefit such people, because the lactic acid bacteria themselves break down the lactose in foods. This can help lactose intolerant individuals increase the amount of lactose related foods in their diets and to enjoy a better and more healthy lifestyle.
Lactic acid bacteria have also shown the potential to prevent colon cancer, usually by reducing the activity of certain enzymes in the body that can generate carcinogens within the digestive system. As I mentioned earlier, an increased use of fermented milk products can increase the effectiveness of probiotic treatments, especially treatments that involve lactic acid bacteria.
So what else can probiotic bacteria do? Well, they have vast potential, and we’re only skimming the surface of that potential, held in by our own limitations of knowledge. But new possibilities reveal themselves almost daily. Probiotics have been shown to actively lower cholesterol, for example. Medical researchers think that cholesterol levels are reduced by probiotic bacteria breaking down bile in the intestines, which prevents the absorption of cholesterol.
Probiotics have also been known to reduce blood pressure. While these reductions are relatively modest, they are nevertheless significant. Probiotics can also in certain cases boost the immune system. The immune system is most benefited by lactic acid bacteria, and the benefit that they confer is usually simply by competing with harmful bacteria for food sources within the body. But it has also been shown that the ingestion of probiotic cultures along with fermented milk products actually improves the number of defensive white blood cells within the body.
Young children are especially benefited as there is a definite reduction of respiratory diseases, as well as, surprisingly enough, a reduction of dental cavities.
Probiotics have also been seen to help in the treatment of peptic ulcers, but only when used in conjunction with normal medical treatments. Probiotics used with fermented milk supplements can be used to control inflammation, and also to reduce hypersensitivity. For example, the use of probiotics can prevent recurrence of inflammatory bowel disease. This is especially so in the case of adults. As a matter of fact, probiotics can treat a lot of bowel diseases, including irritable bowel syndrome (especially in women), as well as a number of other bowel ailments.
The potential of Probiotics:
Ultimately though, the vast potential of probiotics extends beyond the treatment of disease and into prevention and the maintenance of good health. For example, did you know that probiotics can help correct the mal-absorption of certain substances by the body, especially minerals, and in this case especially those absorbed from nuts and whole grains? So probiotic cultures can not only prevent disease, but also ensure that a normally healthy body has all the resources and mineral elements it requires to maintain that good health.
Bear in mind though that self treatment with probiotics for various diseases is not recommended, as it is only certain strains of bacteria that have the desired effect upon different ailments, and only a qualified physician or medical specialist will know which strain to use.
However, you can certainly use strains that help indigestion and in the increased absorption of nutritional elements by the body, as well as those that boost the body’s defenses and limit the spread of harmful bacteria within the body.