If you have a long-term gluten intolerance, or have developed one as an adult, it may be due to an enzyme deficiency. People with a gluten intolerance can have digestive symptoms such as abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea and constipation, as well as other symptoms like depression, trouble focusing, headaches, bone or joint pain, and exhaustion. If you have a gluten intolerance, read this before heading out for that next big meal.
Our bodies naturally produce both digestive enzymes and metabolic enzymes. Every organ, every tissue, and each one of the 100 trillion cells in our bodies depend upon enzymes. Digestive enzymes turn the food we eat into energy, allowing foods to be absorbed into the blood stream and letting the waste be discarded. So, how do digestive enzymes factor into gluten intolerance, and is there anything that can be done to reduce the symptoms?
Specific digestive difficulties, like food intolerances, can be a challenging part of everyday life – but they don’t have to be, thanks to enzyme supplements! Many of you may have heard of, or even use, supplements for digestive wellbeing, but did you know that enzymes may also help those of you with food intolerances?
Before going on, let’s first take a look at what enzymes and food intolerances actually are, and how they affect the body.
Digestive enzymes are immensely important, microscopic proteins that our bodies make to allow us to breakdown our meals and convert foods into energy. Food enzymes are found in raw foods, which is why you may have heard talk of incorporating more of them into your diet. Eating raw foods can reduce stress to the digestive organs or help to conserve precious ‘enzyme energy’. Our bodies also make these enzymes, though our bodies may decline them as the decades unfold.
Enzyme deficiencies can lead to poor digestion which, in turn, can result in occasional yet common digestive complaints, such as gas, bloating, indigestion and irregularity. When we do not produce a sufficient amount of an enzyme that is necessary to digest a specific food or food group, such as dairy or gluten-rich grains, the digestive discomfort that results is often known as a food intolerance because we do not produce enough of the enzyme to properly digest and ‘tolerate’ it well. Food intolerances involve digestive system responses and are generally more common than true food allergies (which involve immune system response and antibody production).
The root cause of food intolerance is an inability to digest certain foods due to lack of an inherent digestive enzyme—resulting in digestive discomfort. That’s where supplemental digestive enzymes can be especially helpful.
For example, approximately 65 percent of adults have a reduced ability to digest lactose after infancy. Lactose is a sugar in milk and milk products that is broken down by the enzyme lactase, which is produced in the small intestine. If the lactose is not broken down, it can produce a variety of gastrointestinal symptoms, especially gas, bloating, cramping pain and diarrhea.
Taking supplemental lactase enzyme can help digest the lactose and allow people with lactose intolerance to reduce or even eliminate symptoms. Keep in mind, however, that many people who are lactose intolerant also have trouble breaking down milk proteins as well. Therefore, products that combine lactase with protein-digesting enzymes (proteases) are usually a much better choice.
Using digestive enzyme supplements for food intolerance
Not only can digestive enzyme supplementation make the dietary approaches to food intolerance work better, in many cases enzyme supplementation may be even more useful than dietary changes. While an enzyme supplement can be helpful in one part of the digestive system, it may be totally inactive in another. That’s why mixtures of carefully blended enzymes have been shown to work three times stronger and work more than six times faster than leading other enzyme preparations.
Can digestive enzymes help with gluten intolerance?
Yes, products that combine protein-digesting enzymes known as proteases and the specific gluten-digesting enzyme dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP-IV) can really help.
The popular solution for gluten and casein intolerance is to follow a gluten-free, casein-free diet and eliminate the offending proteins. Beneficial grains for replacement of gluten sources include amaranth, quinoa and a variety of rice, such as brown, red, black and wild rice. Casein is found in milk and dairy products, so when avoiding gluten and casein, it’s important to read food labels carefully.
While this approach usually reduces discomfort, there are often hidden sources of gluten or casein in foods that can cause symptoms. That’s where supplemental digestive enzyme preparations come in—they can help people tolerate lower levels of gluten or casein intake, especially during the initial phase of gluten and/or casein avoidance.
Look for products that provide DPP-IV, which is thought to be one of the key enzymes responsible for the digestion of these proteins and is known to be found in lower amounts in the intestinal lining of individuals with gluten sensitivity and intolerance. In fact, there is an inverse relationship between the level of DPP-IV and intestinal damage in people with gluten sensitivity. In other words, the lower the DPP-IV level, the more significant the damage to the intestinal lining.