Is There a Difference Between Digestive Enzymes and Probiotics?

Our fast-paced, high-stress lifestyles are a major contributing factor to poor gut health. Combine that with insufficient sleep, a poor diet, alcohol consumption, and inactivity, and you’ll be setting your gut up for a tough road ahead. Your gut is not only important for digesting food, but it plays a significant role in many bodily functions. It affects your cognitive abilities, energy levels, and even skin health.

If you’ve browsed the best solutions for gut health online, you’ve probably come across recommendations for probiotics and digestive enzymes. In this guide, we look at the difference between the two, and how to choose the option that will be most beneficial for you.

What Are Digestive Enzymes?

While probiotics and digestive enzymes are both necessary for a healthy gut, they contribute different things to the function of gastrointestinal health.

Most of the foods we eat need to be broken down before our bodies can absorb the micronutrients. Digestive enzymes are protein molecules that break down the nutrients into smaller components that our bodies can effectively use. Your body produces these enzymes in the salivary glands, pancreas, stomach, and small intestine.

Digestive enzymes feature different characteristics to bond with the target components for effective processing. For example, lipase is the digestive enzyme synthesized in the pancreas. It targets fat and breaks it down into fatty acids and glycerol. Lactase is produced in the small intestine and breaks lactose down into galactose and glucose. There are also digestive enzymes that break down proteins, carbohydrates, and sugars.

There are several reasons someone could be lacking sufficient digestive enzymes, including a genetic predisposition as well as a natural result of aging. Health conditions such as diabetes, cystic fibrosis, pancreatitis, cancer, Crohn’s disease, and gastrointestinal surgery can all contribute to digestive enzyme deficiencies.

Who Should Take Digestive Enzymes?

If you experience any of the following symptoms, taking a digestive enzyme supplement could benefit you:

• Food sensitivities
• Oily stools
• Gas and bloating
• Nausea
• Frequent burping
• Feeling uncomfortably full after a meal
• Indigestion and acid reflux
• Irregular bowel movements
• Unexplained weight loss

It is also recommended that you include foods naturally rich in digestive enzymes in your diet, such as pineapples, honey, papaya, bananas, kimchi, avocados, kefir, sauerkraut, kiwifruit, and ginger.

What Are Probiotics?

The gut contains a multitude of both good and bad bacteria. Probiotics are essentially healthy bacteria and live microorganisms that enhance and restore gut flora. Dysbiosis is when there is an imbalance between beneficial and harmful gut bacteria. This can easily happen as a result of antibiotic use, high stress, poor diet, excessive alcohol intake, diarrhoea, allergies, and the use of certain medications. This doesn’t only affect the gut but starts to influence a range of other body functions. Taking a probiotic supplement will help to restore this balance.

Who Should Take Probiotics?

If you experience the below symptoms, taking a probiotic may be just what you need.

• Irregular bowel movements
• Gas and bloating
• Fatigue
• Bad breath
• Skin issues, including rashes, acne, and eczema
• Anxiety, irritability, or brain fog
• Weak immune system
• Vaginal or rectal itching or infections
• Aching joints

Eating foods rich in probiotics, such as yoghurt, kefir, kimchi, and sauerkraut, can also be beneficial.

If you’ve tried probiotics without much success, you may benefit from pairing them with digestive enzymes. They don’t counteract each other and are both essential for different gut functions. If your gut issues are due to prolonged illness or stress, this can be an especially beneficial approach to healing.