Skip to main content






Why Enzymes are Important for Good Health?

by: Garry Nixon

Enzymes are a type of protein which helps to catalyze a chemical reaction. Individual enzymes have unique chemical structures which can speed up the reaction of specific substrates. All body functions involve enzymes including digestion, respiration, transportation and detoxification. If some critical enzymes experience deficiency or malfunction it can lead to serious illness or death.

There are two types of enzymes which are particularly important to our health, the digestive and antioxidant enzymes. Digestive enzymes help to break down food, enabling our body to absorb the nutrients necessary to sustain life. Antioxidant enzymes help to protect the body from attack by free radicals. Free radicals are linked to degenerative diseases such as aging, cancer, heart disease and other major illnesses.

There are three further categories for digestive enzymes: amylase, protease and lipase. Saliva, pancreatic and intestinal secretions contain amylases. These work to break down sugars or carbohydrates. There are different types of amylase which break down different types of sugar. For example, there is lactase which helps to break down lactose while sucrase helps to break down sucrose. Stomach acid as well as pancreatic and intestinal secretions contain proteases which help to break proteins down into amino acids. Lipases are found within pancreatic and intestinal secretions which help to digest fat.

Superoxide dismutase or SOD is the most important antioxidant enzymes in our body along with catalase. SOD helps to breakdown superoxide into hydrogen peroxide while catalase helps to breakdown hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen. SOD, catalase and other antioxidant enzymes are more powerful free radical scavengers than Vitamin C and E since they won�t turn into free radicals themselves while performing their functions.

Our body naturally synthesizes both digestive and antioxidant enzymes. You can find these enzymes in a variety of foods such as fruits, vegetables, sprouts and fat containing foods. Although enzymes are sensitive to heat and therefore are destroyed by cooking. Several studies have shown that our body�s ability to produce these enzymes decreases as we age. This is why enzyme supplements can help the elderly or those who eat mostly cooked food to assimilate more nutrients from their foods and protect them against free radical damage.

Remember to read the label carefully when purchasing enzyme supplements. First consider the source of the enzymes; whether they are plant-based, animal-based or extracted from microbes. Vegetarians want to find enzymes that are extracted from a plant or microbial source in a vegetarian capsule. Next you want to consider whether the enzyme supplement is made up of a single enzyme or a mixture of enzymes. Single enzyme supplements like bromelain can also be used for other purposes such as anti-inflammatory. If you need the enzymes for a digestive aid then it is better to use a mixture of enzymes including amylase, protease, and lipase which can help break down starch, protein and fat. Also having a mixture of antioxidant enzymes such as SOD and catalase can give you better benefits than a single enzyme.
Learn more on enzymes at Weight Loss Wand



To find other free health content see e-healtharticles.com
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Good Healthy Habits

Good health is of prime importance to all of us. We need to be healthy, filled with abundant energy, sound sleep, and fit and disease free body, which will give us a sense of overall well being. In order to be fit and healthy we need to practice healthy living styles with proper food habits and exercise. We cannot be healthy if we are lazy and lethargic. We need to work hard both physically and mentally to be fit and healthy. Besides exercise, we also need to eat healthy foodstuffs avoiding junk foods, which make us lethargic and dull. If you are over weight and obese you will suffer from health problems. So you need to maintain an optimum body weight to be healthy. You need to follow healthy and positive habits. Positive thinking is very essential in order to be healthy. You need to clear out your mind and fill it with positive thoughts. You will have to remove all the depressing and negative emotions and thoughts from your mind and replace it with healthy and positive thoughts. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Healthy Thanksgiving Favorites

Thanksgiving dinner doesn’t have to be the kickoff to a month of holiday overeating, ending with a regretful New Year’s resolution and a January diet. The holiday can be festive, even indulgent, without dishes loaded with fats and salt. Take stuffing. Everybody has a favorite stuffing; some cooks like sausage, while others makes theirs of bread and turkey fat. I like to use whole grains. There are two that I love — one with crumbled cornbread, another with wild rice. Each is wholesome, with lots of texture, and a great way to include grains in the holiday meal. This week’s recipes include my favorite Thanksgiving dishes, the ones I make every year (and then wonder why I don’t make them at other times). Several other Thanksgiving standbys have already been published here. I always serve a salad, and some of my favorites include endive, apple and walnut salad, curried Waldorf salad, and spinach salad with seared shiitake mushrooms. If you like mashed potatoes, try this version with ka...
Post a Comment
Read more

5 Steps to Optimal Health

5-step plan to optimal health By Murray Middlemost The first step a program is Healthy Nutrition and there are ten basic rules: 1. Never skip a meal again (keep the calorie burning furnace burning) 2. Eat real, unprocessed foods (if man made it do not eat it) 3. Eat balanced meals (protein, fat, and carbs in every meal) 4. Choose a protein as the main nutrient in your meal 5. Add some healthy fats (avocado, nuts, seeds, cold water fish, and olive oil) 6. Add real carbohydrates (whole grains) 7. Add non-starchy vegetables (green and brightly coloured) 8. Eat snacks (keep the calorie burning furnace burning) 9. Eat solid food (fiber) 10.Drink enough water(body weight x .7 = no. of ounces to drink) The second step of the program is Stress Management: 1. Make downtime a daily practice (you are important) 2. Put your life in perspective (don’t sweat the small stuff) 3. Keep track of stress signals (heart rate increase, blood pressure, anxiety, yelling) 4...
Post a Comment
Read more