Seniors often struggle with some form of indigestion: bloating and gas. What can you do to prevent indigestion? Could digestive enzymes help? Digestive issues can stop you from absorbing of key nutrients. Nutrition is especially important for seniors’ eye health. Read on to find out more about digestive enzymes. Continue reading “The Low-Down on Digestive Enzymes”
Category: Indigestion
How Enzymes Help the Body and the Eyes
An enzyme acts as a catalyst to increase the rate of a chemical reaction. Enzymes are proteins. Scientists have named 3,000+ different enzymes, but perhaps 50,000 additional enzymes may exist. Enzymes all have specific functions that result in biochemical reactions. For example, certain enzymes are involved in the absorption of oxygen and production of energy; other enzymes help nutrients get into the cells.
Digestive enzymes produced by the pancreas are the most well-known, because they help break down food. Tay-Sachs disease and juvenile diabetes (Type I) are caused by genetic problems that inhibit the pancreas’s ability to generate the necessary enzymes in enough quantity.
Stress Disrupts Digestion and Impacts the Immune System
The immune system can respond to the balance of intestinal bacteria. Researchers find that stress is the main factor in the upset of that internal sense of balance.
According to scientists from Ohio State University “Stress changes the composition, diversity and number of intestinal bacteria… The communities of bacteria become less varied, and there are greater numbers of potentially harmful bacteria.”
A news release from the publishing journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity quotes lead researcher Michael Bailey, “When we reduced the number of bacteria in the intestines using antibiotics, we found that some of the effects of stress on the immune system were prevented. This suggests that not only does stress change the bacteria levels in the gut, but that these alterations can, in turn, impact our immunity.”
The researchers go on, “Previous research has linked intestinal bacteria to conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease and asthma. Future studies need to determine whether changes in intestinal bacteria may explain why these conditions tend to become worse when people are under stress.” Source: HealthFinder.gov
Stress has also been linked to eye twitching, and dark circles under the eyes.
Probiotics Can Fight Ulcer-Causing Bacteria
It seems that instead of just counteracting the negative effects of antibiotics, probiotics may actually be better at doing the work that antibiotics are supposed to do.
Because antibiotics kill the good bacteria even as they fight the infection you are trying to control it is commonly suggested that anyone who has to take antibiotics also take probiotics. Probiotics help build up the good bacteria in the digestive tract destroyed by the antibiotics.
Researchers publishing in Applied and Environmental Microbiology (February 2011, Vol. 77, No. 4) describe how the probiotic bacteria B. bifidum can help treat ulcers and gastritis caused by the H. pylori bacteria. Source: medicalnewstoday.com
Probiotics can be found in foods like yogurt and in supplement form.