Digestive Enzymes Vs. Probiotics
The difference between probiotics and digestive enzymes can leave many feeling perplexed. When it comes to a digestive enzyme vs probiotic supplements, they’re both used to support digestive health, and they’re both available for consumption in supplement form, but the way that they function differs.
How do probiotics and digestive enzymes work individually? And also, what happens when you take them both together?
What Are Probiotics?
The majority of bacteria in your body lives in your gut. In a healthy and balanced gut ecosystem, the amount of beneficial bacteria exceeds the number of bad and harmful bacteria that may be related to digestive challenges.
Having more good bacteria in your gastrointestinal system may provide plentiful health benefits on your behalf. The advantages of great gut health range from better digestion and some research is suggesting that it may even help with weight management.
Probiotics are live microorganisms that fit into the category of good bacteria. Often consumed by foods and supplements, probiotic bacteria are equally beneficial to your gut and digestive health.
If you’ve heard of prebiotics before, keep in mind that probiotics and prebiotics are two different things. There is a link, however. Prebiotics are dietary fiber that serve as a food supply for probiotics, providing them with the adequate energy to reproduce and work hard on your gut’s behalf.
Like probiotics, you can also consume prebiotics by eating them or taking a dietary supplement. Certain supplements combine the two types of bacteria together in one (called synbiotic products). This includes Probulin Digestive Probiotics. All of our probiotic supplements have sufficient amounts of prebiotics–packed in each capsule–for the probiotics to feed on.
There are many different types of probiotics that are used to meet certain health goals. Probiotics are classified by genus, species, and strains. Every genus has different species, and every species has different strains.
If you grab some probiotics supplements from the store (or you order them), you can normally check the back of the box to see what probiotic strains are in each capsule. Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria are two popular types of probiotic bacteria, commonly found in numerous probiotic supplements. Probulin’s Daily Care Probiotic, for example, contains a 12-strain blend of both genus types. The ingredients include:
- Lactobacillus acidophilus
- Lactobacillus rhamnosus
- Lactobacillus bulgaricus
- Lactobacillus fermentum
- Lactobacillus helveticus
- Lactobacillus brevis
- Lactobacillus reuteri
- Bifidobacteria breve
- Bifidobacteria lactis
- Bifidobacteria longum
- Bifidobacteria bifidum
- Bifidobacteria infantis
What Are Digestive Enzymes?
When talking about the roles of digestive enzymes versus probiotics, the two couldn’t be more different, but the importance of digestive enzyme benefits shouldn’t be underestimated.
Does saliva and its contribution to the breakdown of foods ring a bell? You may remember learning this at school, but your saliva has digestive enzymes in it that give them the ability to break down your foods.
Naturally occurring enzymes can also be found in your stomach and intestinal areas. With help from these enzymes, your digestive system can more effectively process foods that your body can’t break down on its own, including proteins, fats, and carbohydrates.
Your digestive system can’t function properly with an inadequate amount of digestive enzymes present. The lack of enzymes make it harder for foods to digest in your system, which hinders your bloodstream’s ability to fully absorb nutrients from these foods. As a result of poorly-regulated digestion, gastrointestinal-related issues like bloating and constipation could follow.
An insufficient amount of digestive enzyme production by the body may lead to indigestion. Whether you have a healthy diet or not, your body needs to successfully process the nutrients in your foods to reap the health benefits of them.
Digestive enzymes for support come in the form of easy-to-take supplements. Depending on which enzymes you use, some require prescription approval from a doctor, while others can be bought off the store shelves. As with all supplements you should definitely check with your doctor before you start taking digestive enzymes–especially if you’re on medication already.
Supplements like Probulin’s Daily Digestive Enzyme are equally effective with breaking down hard-to-digest foods. The ingredients of these supplements include all of the main categories of digestive enzymes: amylase, lipase, and protease.
The Difference Between Probiotics and Digestive Enzymes: What’s the Bottom Line?
Probiotics and digestive enzymes work differently to accomplish a similar goal, and that is to improve the health of your digestive system. The digestive enzymes are hard at work to break down foods. Taking a digestive enzyme should be something you do with a meal so that it can assist you in digesting the meal.
Probiotics & Digestive Enzymes: A Perfect Combination
Probulin’s Daily Digestive Enzyme is a digestive enzyme-based supplement that, when taken with one of our Total Care Probiotics, simply gives you the best of both worlds.
We hope this has helped you better understand the differences between probiotics vs. enzymes, and why the two are actually a match made in heaven!
If you have more questions about Probulin probiotics, or would like to browse our line of top digestive support formulas, visit our customer favorite’s here.