What Are Enzymes And Why Do I Care? - Back To Basics

Before trying to get into how enzymes can be beneficial to our health it is important to understand what enzymes are and what they are not. This allows us to ask the right questions, really zone in on how enzymes can help us and avoid being taken in by hype and sales jargon.

What Are Enzymes?

Simply put, enzymes are biochemical catalysts, they cause biochemical reactions to move faster. In living organisms enzymes are responsible for breaking down and rearranging molecules to provide those same organisms with the energy they need to function. Without enzymes the reactions that normally occur in our bodies would be too slow to allow for proper metabolism. The food we ingest contains vitamins, minerals and other nutrients that we need to survive, but these nutrients must be unlocked before we can utilize them to maintain our bodies. This is normally done during digestion. If we didn’t have enzymes, digestion would just be a random chemical process and this could take months and years to break down the food sufficiently for our bodies to use it. As catalysts enzymes can lower the amount of energy that is needed to start these chemical reactions and can dramatically speed up the process of breaking down the food and releasing the energy that our bodies need.

If we really get down to the basics of what enzymes are, we find that enzymes are made up of amino acids and are therefore proteins. However, enzymes are a unique kind of protein in that they contain energy. It is this energy that allows enzymes to do their job. Enzymes contain a finite amount of energy, they will function as a catalyst until this energy runs out at which point enzymes become inactive and are just like any other protein in that the body can use them as a protein source.

Enzymes Are Not Organisms!

People sometimes tend to liken enzymes to probiotics or living organisms, but this is incorrect. Enzymes are not living organisms, they are not alive. Enzymes are either active or inactive (denatured). When active an enzyme is catalysing a chemical reaction, when inactive they are not catalysing anything. Enzymes are usually inactive due to incompatible surroundings. Enzymes work well in particular temperatures, pH levels and water levels. However when exposed to extreme conditions, enzymes may become inactive which means they can no longer serve as a catalyst and are in-fact just a simple protein.

Of course enzymes are not simple proteins at all, they look nothing like a regular protein. Some people believe that enzymes are collapsed proteins. When a protein collapses an “active site” is formed. It is at this active site that an enzyme can bind to and act as a catalyst in a chemical reaction since it is there that all the enzyme energy is focused.

Why Was I Interested In All Of That?

It all comes down to being well informed. Not only can this information help us decide if enzyme therapy is for us, but it helps us to know what goes on inside our bodies and if any supplementation we are taking is helping or hindering those processes. Finally, supplements are not cheap and any information that can help us weed out the “snake oil” from the things that can genuinely help us, is valuable. Knowing the basics is the first step!