Horseman’s Health: How Important are Proteolytic Enzymes?

You may be familiar with digestive enzymes and how they help with breaking down foods into components the body can use, but did you know there are actually 3,000 enzymes in your body that provide a variety of functions? These metabolic enzymes are largely made up of proteolytic enzymes or proteases which regulate just about everything involved in the body running smoothly and help with metabolic and digestive needs.

Functions of Enzymes
Some of the functions they are important to include blood clotting, cell division, protein recycling, and immune system functioning. Whereas digestive enzymes are produced in the stomach and pancreas, metabolic enzymes are made from the amino acids resulting from the digestive process of breaking down proteins and these enzymes are in body cells and tissues. A specialized type of proteolytic enzymes called systemic enzymes include those such as bromelain that can go straight from the intestines to the bloodstream for the body to use right away for issues such as fighting inflammation and repair to tissue damaged in exercise. Bromelain, for example, is an enzyme that naturally occurs in pineapple and has been found in studies to reduce inflammation in the body. The immune system benefits from this type of enzyme as proteases give a boost to the body’s killer cells and they break down pathogens that interfere with the immune system’s ability to protect you.

How To Get the Enzymes You Need
The best solution for making sure you get all the enzymes you need for your body to perform optimally is to eat a diet of completely raw and unprocessed foods. Unfortunately, the reality for most people is that their diets consist of foods that do not have enough active enzymes because they have been cooked and/or processed which destroys their natural enzymes. This puts extra stress on the pancreas by making it have to work harder to produce extra digestive enzymes to break down those enzyme-deficient foods. This extra stress over time can compromise immune system function and athletic performance. Fortunately, there is an easy solution to this dilemma. First start finding ways to add more enzyme rich, raw foods in to your diet. Second, consider this proteolytic enzyme supplement that contains the enzymes bromelain, papain, protease, lipase, and serratiopeptidase, together with organic wild bluegreen algae.

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THE MANY FUNCTIONS OF PROTEOLYTIC ENZYMES