Well, it depends.
If you’re under thirty, your digestive symptoms of bloating, low level nausea, abdominal cramping, and general intestinal “discomfort” are most likely a reflection of what you’ve been eating and how you eat it. Although our nutritionist, Olivia Darrow, is anything but Jewish, she might, if she heard what you regard as “food” say, “How can you eat such chazzerei?!” (a term for garbage). You, wolfing down two donuts, sausage patties, black coffee, (probably while driving) are wondering why you have that burning sensation in your chest. Why your burp tastes like sewer gas.
Variations of this breakfast, repeated throughout the day, week in and week out, simply needs some counseling, not digestive enzymes.
However, after age thirty, for some (but not all) people digestive enzymes secreted throughout the stomach and intestine do diminish, and even with careful eating, a variety of post prandial (“after eating”) symptoms can occur which can be helped by taking digestive enzymes during or after a meal.
A typical digestive enzyme product you’ll find will have several enzymes blended together. Each brand touts itself as the “best” but having tried several myself (and benefitted from them), simply because the bottle of DigestMate by Microbiome Labs is in front of me while I’m writing this, I’ll walk you through its contents, explaining why each enzyme is included. Also, anytime you see ‘“-ase” at the end of a chemical word, like ‘amylase,’ or ‘lipase,’ it means that the chemical is an enzyme. And back to basics, an enzyme is a protein that speeds up a reaction, and in this case, speeds up the breaking down of a specific food.
Got that?
DigestMate contains:
Amylase, helps digest carbohydrates,
Protease, helps digest proteins,
Glucoamylase helps digest complex carbohydrates with glucose molecules. Alpha-galactosidase helps digest sugars found in beans and veggies (Bean-O is mainly this enzyme),
Cellulase, helps digest cellulose in a high fiber veggie like celery, Lipase, helps digest fat,
Lactase, helps digest dairy,
Maltase, helps digest maltose (a complex sugar) into glucose (a simple sugar) for energy, Xylanase, helps digest complex carbohydrates into simple sugars,
Invertase, helps digest sucrose (table sugar) to glucose and fructose which are sweeter, Pectinase, helps digest fruit and veggies,
Peptidase, helps digest proteins.
And, since Microbiome Labs is most well-known for its line of probiotics, they add three probiotics: bacillus subtilis, bacillus caogulans, saccharomyces boulardii.
Each of these actually aid digestion by creating enzymes, and supporting the gut lining.
Now I must say there were more brands of digestive enzymes on the market than I had realized. Wiki used the phrase “intensely competitive”. Type “digestive enzymes” in Amazon and 9,000 appears. Some companies add different probiotics, others toss in some herbs, 19th century naturopathic remedies like ox bile, ayurvedic amla. Quite imaginative, actually.
A typical bottle of any digestive enzyme will last you a month (dose is 2 capsules with or after each meal). Try one brand, and if you get good results (relief of symptoms, a satisfactory bowel movement) stick with it. If not, try another. Eventually, you’ll hit the digestive jackpot.
Be well,
David Edelberg, MD