Life essence is what separates living beings from inanimate objects. All plants and animals must have life essence to heal and live. Of course, there are spiritual aspects to life essence, but in purely scientific terms, the human body’s life essence is contained in enzymes and probiotics.
An enzyme is a protein structure that controls the rate of a chemical reaction in our bodies. For example, digestive enzymes control the rate of digestion of the foods we eat. In scientific terms, a digestive enzyme is labelled by the food it acts on, with the added suffix of “ase”. For example, proteins are digested by “proteases,” fats or lipids are labelled as “lipases,” and carbohydrate-digesting enzymes are called amylase. Note: the Latin word for starch is amylum.
Food digestion starts in our mouths with the carbohydrate-digesting enzyme ptyalin in our saliva. Digestion continues in the stomach, which is usually acidic to support the digestive action of protein-digesting proteases. As the acidic digesting food from your stomach passes into the small intestine for further digestion and absorption, it is mixed with the alkalinizing digestive fluids from your pancreas. Changing the acidic food from your stomach to a more alkaline mix in the small intestine is called a “digestive crush.”
As people age, live stressful lives, or consume too many enzyme-depleted foods, their overall enzyme levels will become depleted. Adding digestive enzymes to your daily supplement intake will increase your body’s enzyme levels and improve your digestion of the foods you eat.
Another area of enzyme action in our bodies is the processing and removal of waste byproducts from the damaged cells caused by infections and trauma. These waste products will be removed at an increased rate only when adequate enzymes are present. So, to speed up our recovery from infections and trauma, supplementing “metabolic” enzyme formulas will be helpful.
I often recommend the enzyme product BioGest to support digestion and the metabolic enzyme formula “Wobenzyme PS” to recover from trauma and infection.
Probiotics are another source of life-essence in our bodies. They are the good bacteria present in our digestive system. Ideally, we all contain trillions of these good bacteria. They support digestion and cellular nutrition, balance our immunity, and even affect neurotransmitter and hormone levels. Probiotics directly affect virtually every function in our bodies.
Just like our digestive and metabolic enzymes, the number of supportive probiotics in our bodies may be reduced by stress, eating the wrong foods, consuming recreational substances, and exposure to antibiotics and other prescription medications.
When I was in naturopathic college, probiotic supplements containing two billion organisms per capsule were considered the standard. By the year 2000, probiotic formulas with 50 billion were common. Now, I can access a formula offering 500 billion per dose.
Increasing your body’s “life essence” levels is a health-improving strategy supported by scientific research. At your next appointment, ask me if your supplementation program should include probiotics and enzymes.
