What are some factors that can deplete my digestive enzyme levels?

Factors that can deplete our digestive enzyme levels include age, the pH of our digestive tract and the foods we eat. Integrative gastroenterologist Robynne Chutkan, MD, explains how these factors can impact our overall digestion.

Transcript

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The food you eat is very important in terms of your digestive enzymes. If you eat a lot of processed food,

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that's very difficult for your body to break down so your digestive enzymes have to really go into overdrive to digest them.

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One of the most important things to know about your digestive enzymes is that they decrease naturally as we age. And some studies have shown that when we compare older patients

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to younger patients, older people might have 50% less digestive enzyme activity than younger

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people. So that's one of the first things to know. Digestive enzymes are designed to work at a very specific pH.

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So if you take a lot of medications, that can change the pH of your digestive tract, things like antacids and acid suppressing medications,

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they may render your digestive enzymes less active. So maintaining a specific pH is very, very important

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for the activity of the digestive enzymes. The food you eat is very important in terms

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of your digestive enzymes. If you eat a lot of processed food, that's very difficult for your body to break down, so your digestive enzymes have to really go into overdrive

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to digest them. The other thing is that processed foods often contain a lot of food coloring, chemicals, additives,

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preservatives, and those chemicals can actually destroy your digestive enzymes. [AUDIO LOGO]