The thousands of metabolic processes needed for life depend on enzymes. Enzymes are essential for digesting food, initiating cellular activity, and breaking down and removing toxins. Inadequate enzyme levels result in organ dysfunction, chronic illness, and disease. In today’s world, enzyme deficiency is becoming more commonplace. Fortunately, protecting against enzyme deficiency is simple. Here are 7 facts you need to know about these two essential front-line enzymes. (more…)
Belonging to the same group of disorders as irritable bowel disease (IBD), ulcerative colitis is a painful condition that primarily affects the colon and rectum. Early identification can help reduce complications and offers the best chance for successful management. The flip side – not taking care of the issue – can prove fatal. (more…)
One of the most common (and unpleasant) side effects many patients complain about when using prescription antibiotic drugs is antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD). [1] One possible countermeasure to this longstanding and potentially serious concern may lie in the use of probiotics. While this may sound like a common sense solution to natural and holistic healthcare experts, much of the mainstream medical community is just now catching on to the idea. [2] (more…)
Xylanase (pronounced zy-lan-ase) is a naturally-occurring enzyme that can have beneficial impacts on human health and digestion.[1] Fungi and bacteria produce xylanase, and it's produced by insects, crustaceans like snails, and even seeds.[2] Mammals, including humans, do not produce xylanase, but some of our gut bacteria do. Scientifically speaking, it is an enzyme that breaks down xylan, a type of hemicellulose, by cleaving the molecule’s beta 1,4 backbone into a simple sugar called xylose. Xylan is the second most common polysaccharide in nature and is a component of plant cell […]
Glucoamylase (also known as amyloglucosidase or AMG) is an important digestive enzyme that helps us absorb nutrients and create energy from some of the most common plant foods that we eat. It does this by breaking down the starch that occurs naturally in most vegetables that we eat. This starch is present in high amounts in common foods like potatoes, corn, rice, and wheat. It’s also added as a filler or processing additive in prepared food products. (more…)
