Do Digestive Enzymes Help or Hurt?
How to customize enzymes to what your body needs
Guest Blog by Jack Tips, Ph.D., C.C.N.
A note from Christa: Jack is a brilliant clinician with a world of knowledge regarding the gut microbiome (the digestive system). He is our primary clinical guest contributor in our Gut Thrive program.
Jack’s wit, humor, and method of delivering usable information is well loved by our Gut Thrive community. Today I asked him to talk about a controversial topic – digestive enzymes. How much is too much, who needs them, who doesn’t, and how they can cause reliance.
Jack can be found at wellnesswiz.com
A Lesson From Goldilocks
Not too much, not too little, but just right!
Not too long, not too short, but just right!
Betaine Hydrochloride and various digestive enzymes, like many other therapeutic nutrients, are natural health and clinical nutrition tools that have amazing benefits when used with “prudence and judgment.” This refers to doing things correctly for each individual and never doing any harm. Here’s an overview of considerations about if enzyme supplementation is right for you and how to use them.
Who Does NOT Need Digestive Enzymes?
Healthy people and people with strong digestive systems would probably never think to augment their diets with betaine hydrochloride (hydrochloric acid—HCl) and/or supplemental enzymes for food digestion. After all, their digestive systems are working just fine. We’ve all heard of such people, rare as they are. They’ll brag that they have ‘cast iron stomachs’ and can ‘eat the south end out of a dead rhinoceros.’ Further, if prone to the “TMI disease” (too much info), they’ll tell you that they have perfectly formed stools with clockwork motions. Take supplemental enzymes? Why bother? Digestion is great. Such people fall under the colloquial rule, “It if ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” [Either such people are health aficionados, or check back in a year or so ?.]
Who DOES Need Digestive Enzymes?
Should a person have weak stomach digestive cells [exhausted parietal cells (the cells which produce HCl and intrinsic factor), exhausted chief cells (pepsinogen and chymosin enzymes); weak pancreatic output of enzymes; poorly formed stools; irregular bowel motions (constipation, diarrhea); heartburn; gas; bloating; and various gastrointestinal complaints; then it makes good sense to bolster the digestive system by taking supplemental enzymes – with prudence and judgment.
Actually, everyone at some time or other, can benefit from enzymes and improved digestion whether it’s gluten and casein digestants to lend a hand for a difficult job,hydrolytic enzymes to reduce pathogenic biofilms, proteolytic enzymes to reduce certain kinds of inflammation, HCl/pepsin to rest the parietal cells a spell, or general digestive enzymes to help a meal’s lack of raw foods.
7 Reasons That Favor Digestive Enzyme Supplementation
1. Digests food better to prepare for proper assimilation.
2. Increases nutrient uptake into the body.
3. Prepares food for better utilization by the gut microbiota, which in turn support assimilation and production of nascent vitamins.
4. Provides overworked, weary digestive processes a vacation so that digestive cells such as the stomach’s parietal cells and the pancreas’ exocrine cells (acinar, ductile) can rest and rebuild their integrity. Fasting (abstaining from eating) has a historic precedent for this good reason, and so a time of rest via enzymes is a new method in that theme.
5. Helps mimic adequate gastric enzyme output that triggers the digestive cascade and elicits pancreatic completion of digestion via pancreatic enzymes.
6. Bolsters weakened digestion to counter the modern lifestyle of grazing and snacking. Nibbling puts a constant demand on digestive enzyme production and creates weary enzyme-producing cells. “Enzyme decline” is occurring earlier than it used to. Thirty years ago, health science researchers said that digestive strength drops to 50% by age 50. Now they are saying that it’s happening by age 30.
7. Helps the immune system control pathogens and parasites.
2 Cautions Regarding Digestive Enzyme Supplementation
Here’s where prudence and judgment factors into the enzyme supplementation equation.
“If you don’t use it, you lose it.” This aphorism applies to betaine hydrochloride and digestive enzymes as well as any other “crutch” supplements where the supplement does for the body what the body is supposed to do for itself. The concern here is that overuse of enzymes can cause the enzyme producing cells to stop producing because the body’s regulatory feedback loops register that there’s plenty of enzymes available.
Note: There are two reasons to take supplements:
1) To provide the body with nutrients in short supply to maintain optimal levels
2) To augment the body’s natural production so the body gets a rest and an opportunity to effect repair of its innate systems.
We Must Correct the Cause
The highest calling of healing is to help correct the cause so the body can heal itself. Taking digestive enzymes does not specifically correct the cause, but they can contribute to correcting the cause when employed in conjunction with other cause-corrective measures. Unless the cause is corrected, taking enzymes is only a ‘make-do’ activity.
Seemingly counter to those two points would be if a person does not eat enough raw foods, then supplemental enzymes would make up for the missing enzymes that are innate in raw food, but are ruined by the cooking process.
So we could well have a case that IF a diet is not some 66-75% raw foods, THEN supplemental enzymes would make up for the deficit and help the body with its increased enzyme workload.
A reasonable thought, but it doesn’t really pan out. The enzymes in a food are “food specific” meaning that they help digest that particular food according to Nature’s plan; whereas supplemental digestive enzymes are “general” and not food specific. For example, broccoli has broccoli-specific enzymes, rutabaga has rutabaga-specific enzymes, and kohlrabi has kohlrabi-specific enzymes that help break down the specific cell components (cellulose, membranes) and molecular bonds when the raw food is eaten. So it’s not quite apples-to-apples to think that a supplement will completely accommodate a dietary dearth of raw foods, but it makes sense that they would help mitigate the workload, improve digestion, and conserve innate enzymes, so not such a bad idea. Just no substitute for Nature’s immutable laws.
From that perspective, we can understand the natural health practice of taking a broad-spectrum digestive enzyme when a meal is mostly cooked foods, e.g. a bowl of rice with steamed vegetables, meat with cooked side dishes, or soup, etc.
Case in Point for “Correct the Cause”
Mary Freeman snacked on peanuts all day long and developed digestive symptoms: indigestion, collywobbles, heartburn, foul gas, and constipation. Her stool often had undigested foods in it. She wondered, “How did this happen?” The issue is that the snacking on complex peanut proteins depleted her HCl production processes and exhausted her pancreas’ protease enzyme production. This caused putrefaction in the lower bowel as protein foods were no longer properly digested.
Being natural health savvy, Mary stated that she didn’t want to address the heartburn by suppressing HCl with proton pump inhibition. She knew that 90% of all heartburn stems from LOW stomach acid not facilitating the stomach valve to close thus allowing the even low acid output to burn the esophagus, not excess stomach acid! She did not want a dangerous, anxiety-suppressive drug used for queasiness. She knew the dangers and side effects. And she didn’t want a laxative to override the constipation and cause dependency. She wanted to find the cause, correct it, and regain her health freedom.
In Mary’s case, the cause was marital stress. She felt unappreciated, so she ate peanuts as a proxy for appreciation, e.g. eating alleviates stress and is nurturing. The perpetual snacking caused both HCl and digestive enzyme depletion. Thus digestive symptoms began ruling her life.
Her remedial activities included:
1) Marital counseling to help solve the marital issues (which were quickly resolved)
2) She stopped eating the peanuts all the time—oral gratification was a poor substitute and peanuts were easily abandoned to the benefit of her waistline
3) She used a broad spectrum enzyme supplement (HCL, enzymes, in an herbal base) with each meal for 75 days after which she discontinued. Of course, the results were life-changing.
How Long is too Long?
It varies from person to person, but generally, it takes several months of consistent use. And yes, stopping the supplements can allow the body to come back from vacation, rested and refreshed to restart their normal function.
What is too High a Dose?
That would be way, way beyond the label recommendations. But I have seen it done where proteolytic enzymes were used to lower inflammation, but the person used so much that she disturbed the gut microbiota’s beneficial biofilms. The person took horrendously high doses (five times the label recommendation three times a day for three months before realizing she needed to stop. It took 60 days of remedial effort to resolve.
So our prudence and judgment criteria recognize that there is an upper limit to both amount and time for supplementation. But generally, a person would have to work really hard and incur some significant expense to push those limits. Judicious use of enzymes is a terrific therapy.
So let’s apply this discussion to the popular practices: HCl Challenge and Digestive Enzyme supplementation.
The HCl/Pepsin Challenge employed in Christa Orecchio’s Gut Thrive In 5™ program is a terrific way to give the parietal cells a rest and some time to rejuvenate themselves while reestablishing connections with the pancreatic processes via pepsin. Because it is a system of listening to the body for the maximum effective dosage, and it soon returns the digestion to an ‘improved normal’ where taking HCl/pepsin ceases, it meets the criteria of safe, effective, do no harm, and it supports a facet of “correct the cause.”
How to Know when Enough is Enough?
Simple enough. Digestive symptoms abate and remain gone after supplementation stops.
What’s the Bottom Line?
Digestive enzymes are wonderful supplements. Periodic programs are very beneficial. Everyone should have some around for times of need. Prudence and judgment means to use enzymes as means to beneficial ends, but always endeavor to correct the cause and support your body to function well on its own.
Best wishes in your natural health endeavors and hope to be able to share more inside Gut Thrive In 5™ where we’ll get a chance to rejuvenate your entire digestive system as well as your immune system. Natural healing from the cause at its finest!
Do you recommend HCL and enzymes for a person with autoimmune gastritis? As a result of anti-parietal cell antibodies, I have very little stomach acid (and won’t ever be able to produce more). I’ve wondered if HCL would be beneficial, help me digest protein, etc. Would love to know if you’ve encountered other people with this specific condition.
Hi Tina! Not unless you’ve done at least 30 days of building your intestinal mucosa with something like Mucosagen or GI Encap. Please see review our BLOG on how to improve stomach acid. After that added layer of protection, balancing stomach acid can be helpful for gastritis. For now, Tina – use our ginger pickle or apple cider vinegar to build your stomach acid and boost protein synthesis.
I started to take digestive enzymes after they were recommended to me because I don’t have a gallbladder. I started out by taking one with each meal. Unfortunately, I had severe stomach pain by late afternoon on each day that I took them. Do I have to build up a tolerance in order not to have the stomach pain? Any suggestions would be helpful
Hi Kellie, This could be for a number of reasons – 1 could be your enzymes had HCL in them and if you have a very thin mucosal lining, then they could cause pain so you’ll have to build that up with slippery elm and/or marshmallow root and glutamine. For no gallbladder, you can find just ox bile and supplement with that for the time being.
Wonderful info, thank you!
Is it true that you could be healthy, but still need to take digestive enzymes? It seems like if digestion is a bodily process that takes up a good deal of energy that anyone could benefit from taking them as they might have more energy. What are your thoughts here?
Also, which ones would you recommend to take in particular?
Hi Amanda, Everyone at some time or other, can benefit from general digestive enzymes to help digest a complicated meal. We like Digestzymes by Designs for Health http://store.gutthrivein5.com/product/digestzymes/.
Sometimes it seems that I am more constipated while taking the digestive enzymes..
I have SIBO and no one knows how to correct the cause….yet. In the meantime I am deficient in many vitamins and minerals.
Hi Cheryl, SIBO is complicated. Please watch our video series on gut health. We’ve helped thousands of folks with SIBO but it takes several months of hard, focused work via our Gut Thrive program. If you have the opportunity to enroll, that is the best solution. Gut Thrive Program Link:https://thewholejourney.com/programs/gut-thrive/gt-enroll-now/?cfid=3 Gut Thrive Video Series Link:https://thewholejourney.com/programs/gut-thrive/
No one mentioning names of enzymes. Would like to know ,is it one,two or three. I read you need comb of 3. Appreciate response
Hi Paul, In the body of the story, please look under the heading, “Who DOES Need Digestive Enzymes?”. Click on the blue highlighted enzyme descriptions to learn more about them. We use a combination in our Gut Thrive in 5 program and if you want to learn more about that please click here https://thewholejourney.com/programs/gut-thrive/gt-enroll-now/?cfid=3.
Generally it is made to support human body and passed through different tests. Moreover every ingredients used are safe, it might hurt in exceptional cases.
Is it safe to take digestive enzymes if you have been diagnosed Barrett’s Esophagus?
If food comes out of a person undigested and looking like they ate it they need a digestive enzyme. Gluten may hurt the gut lining and absorption of nutrients and HCl/intrinsic factor to carry Vit B12 into intestines. Taking HCl and enzymes in the middle of the meal and then gluten enzyme and LDN to help block gluten smelled etc may help. Strong probiotics before a meal and before bed may help. Heavy metals may block chemical reactions and may need to be detoxed for digestion to work and much more. Far Infrared Sauna may help detox heavy metals fast. Taking good minerals after detoxing is needed since some good minerals are also lost…Zinc/Mg/K/sea salt and much more.
I’m starting to think my root cause is my stomach. I tested positive for SIBO 1 1/2 years ago and thought I had it managed, but after a vacation this summer, I haven’t been the same. A different pain…which turned out to be candida. I’m not digesting any raw veggies and GERD is loud, but not painful. Very constipated and haven’t moved beyond the 1/4 tsp of DE/clay. I’m not taking any more than 4 HCL/pepsin per meal. I’ve tried the “warm belly” dosing in the past and stopped at 12 after never achieving the “warm belly” sensation. I’m currently in week 2 of the Candida Cleanse and feel dreadful. Do I need to take more? The (C) is really bad. Coffee enemas are the only thing that help. The ghee made my guts really crampy. Any guidance is greatly appreciated!!!
hi ashley, I am only going off of my experience. I have SIBO too, many gut issues, mold, bacteria, viruses, heavy metals , etc so yes it is my gut, my immune system that I am correcting..all disease starts in the gut and I feel one of the root causes of SIBO is my illo valve which is always swinging to close (not the natural flow of open and closing to let the contents of the small bowel to flush into the large bowel and when shut causing no flow, so no poo movement= constipation , so research the illio valve. Go deeper to find the root cause of the ill valve disfunction., which for me was the SIBO root cause or one of them. I also have a value up by the gallbladder, bile ducts that is always open, cause the dump of the toxic green bile to flow and cause constant nausea, as well as HH Hiatal hernia . My gut wall is weak and leaky and has caused a multitude of issues and valve disfunction along with bowel perforations, diverticulitis, crohn’s and rectal flexures, slow stomach emptying, etc .so what is the root cause to all that, for me it was the metals and bacterial So my chiropractor taught me how to open and close the valves which i do many times a day until i can detox all the acids, bacteria, lymphatic congestion, etc and get my gut functioning properly and the valves will start to function on their own. He as well showed me how to pull down the HH. I got very sick and messed up in a moldy house but that was at the end of a long line of things I did to get my gut in this shape, mercury fillings, lots of antibiotics over the years, living in a moldy house, wrong foods, on and on. So i always look further than what I think the root cause is, to the original root cause and beyond if I have to. I have tried all you have tried. I was on enemas too until I started to juice greens and make fruit smoothies and eat fruit. Water was putting liquid into the kidneys but fruit was putting liquid into my gut as well as fruits are natural digestive enzymes, like the articles says and I stopped all clay, which is constipating and all supplements bc my gut was not able to assimilate them anyways and stopped enemas , esp coffee bc it is so acidic and for now, until my gut wall is healed the coffee was causing more harm to my gut and more acidity and I want to alkaline . It could be helping my liver dump toxins, but INTO my gut making it impossible to heal the gut wall and round and round I went . Fruit does not feed candida…this has been proven. I was scared at first but had been through so much, i was willing to try. I followed Dr Robert Morse, and I started to have bowel movements, sleep better, sweat. Fruits are astringent and pull toxins out the cell and regenerate, detox and put water in at the same time. I couldn’t do many of the killing herbs bc they were too harsh on a weak gut wall and all this killing was doing me no good, if I couldn’t eliminate it, as I think you are not either..that why you feel dreadful. Die off feels bad but for me, not eliminating the die off was worse. Dr Morse has a Phd in biochemistry , is a MD, is a NP that really turned to iridology, fruit and herbs to heal the body or let the body heal itself. I had to start with some green juices bc the fruits were too detoxing at first. I am not trying to pull you away from any other protocol you make be trying but for me, this is curing me (like Gersons Therapy is curing Cancer) I needed the juice bc I couldn’t even handle a lot of fiber, too clogged up and constipated for even that but i was detoxing and feeding my body at the same time without forcing too much. I was too sick and my gut wall too weak to force too many supplements and foods and herbs.. all too much..simple is bette, r just foods to heal, the right ones fruits and veggies. I have healed enough to now use some herbs to kill and eliminate the die off bugs, go to http://www.rawfigs.com and in search engine type issue, lyme, digestive disorders, whatever you want to know about and the videos from what Dr Morse says about this topic will come up and see what resonates with you. I can not eat meat, grains, diary, nuts, none of that right now until i detox the acids out and heal my gut and lymphatic system. And the lymphatic system holds the acids, it is our swear system and dumps out of the kidney so the kidneys need to be filtering. I got my to filter with watermelon, lemons, limes, citrus bt also lots of berries and melons . I know juicing is raw but for me the juices of the produce worked and i was building the digestive enzymes i needed and they started to work better on their own without supplements and digestive enzymes..just one more thing for my body didn’t have to try to assimilate. I have a e book if interested. i will give you my e mail and i will send to you. I like what this article said bc he say, DE will possibly help for not too long and not too much until your body takes over and i figured out how to do that. I do not work for Dr Morse or anyone, just struggled for years trying to heal my gut. I always heard , heal the gut firsts, i could never figure out how and all the protocol did’t apply to me. I could never eat the foods, had food intolerances, etc but for me this worked ..research if fruits feed candida or even SIBO for yourself anyway hope some of this helps . I like Christa protocol esp what she says about no fermented foods until you heal gut and then go in to kill and then do probiotics/fermented foods last . If I would do a probiotic right now I get very bloated. Dr Morse says at this stage, the probiotics can FEED the bad while replacing the good and that is premature . WE MUST DETOX AND HEAL FIRST WITH FOODS AND NOT KILL ESP IF WE ARE NOT ELIMINATING, WE MUST GET KIDNEYS FILTERING AND MOVING THE LYMPH, THEN WE CAN USE HERBS TO GO DEEPER. I think all this is related gut, metals, lymph , MTHFR, chronic fatigue , methylation issues, genes, bacterial overload, we need to clean out the lymph…just my opinion and i am healing
Christa says it here in this article she wrote
http://thewholejourney.com/3-kinds-of-fiber-that-can-change-your-life-something-for-practitioners
she is very knowledgeable and i believe was more practical before the gut thrive program, for me at least, too expensive, too many supplements my body can not handle or assimilate, too many foods to digest, etc but may be good for some…. I think simple is better and that took me a long time to understand and do bc I come from MORE is BETTER, but not true..let me know if this works for you..
Hello! I just read your response to Ashley about Christa’s article on digestive enzymes. Thank you for sharing your story! I would love to hear more about how you’re doing! Feel free to message me any way with any information that you feel may be beneficial since I and my 9 year old daughter have been struggling with many of these same issues! [email protected] Thank you again for taking the time to share and give hope!!!!
I would love to hear more of your health choices. Like the names of supplements etc. I was told I have SIBO but have many gut issues. Right now I think the best thing for me is to heal and possibly the probiotics I take are not really helping. I almost feel like less is best for me. I have taken digestive enzymes for years and years and really have not noticed much from them at all. I have/had low stomach acid and can take 10 without a burn but then out of nowhere I can have burning. So I really don’t want to take HCL unless I know for sure it is critical for my healing. DGL seems to help the most and a product called GastroMend. Thanks for all your help.
Oh my gosh…thank you so much! I’d really appreciate your sharing the book. [email protected]. I’m experiencing the same things. Your perspective is very much appreciated. It’s comforting in a sad way to know I’m not alone. Cheers to gut healing!
I think it’s all related too!! And I was always a big fan of probiotics, but my friend who’s an integrative Dr said exactly what you did – it can feed the bad – I have CFS (which is now SEID – another lame name) Fibro, Hashi’s and am compound hetero for MTHFR – Been at this a long time – but just now is so much info coming to light.
Constipation in my case was caused by a food allergy. No amount of enzymes helped with that.