Lipase is a pancreatic enzyme essential to your digestive system. The word “lipase” comes from the Greek word “lipos” which means fat. So, it should be no surprise that its main function is to break down fats in your intestinal tract into smaller more digestible components. Specifically, it converts the triglyceride component found in ingested fats into monoglycerides and two fatty acids. Incomplete digestion of fat allows fat to coat food particles and therefore interferes with the breakdown of other food components such as protein and carbohydrates.
Normal digestion of dietary fat is accomplished by lipase and bile. The function of bile, which is produced in the liver and stored/released by the gallbladder, is to emulsify dietary fats to facilitate the work of the lipase. Large fat molecules offer relatively little surface area for lipase to work on. Bile breaks down the large fat molecule into tiny droplets which provides lipase with an enormously increased surface to work on.
Since lipase digests fat and unbinds fat-soluble vitamins, people who are deficient in lipase may have a tendency towards high cholesterol, high triglycerides, difficulty losing weight, and either diabetes or prediabetes. Lipase deficient people also have decreased cell permeability, meaning nutrients cannot easily get into cells and waste cannot easily get out. Lipase in the bloodstream modulates cell-wall permeability so that nutrients can more easily enter and wastes exit. Waste-eating enzymes (such as protease, which works on protein) may also be taken to help cleanse the blood of unwanted debris.
People with celiac disease suffer from a variety of symptoms including abdominal pain, bloating, weight loss, and fatigue. These symptoms are caused by damage to the intestinal tract from gluten, a protein found in grains. One side effect of the disease is the inability to produce adequate digestive secretions from the pancreas. Some studies have shown that supplementing with lipase may help with this issue.
People diagnosed with cystic fibrosis tend to have insufficient pancreas function. Studies show that supplementing with pancreatic enzymes including lipase can often lead to improved digestion, especially of fats.
There are a number of studies that show that lipase can significantly increase the body’s ability to digest fat. One such study on people suffering from pancreatic diseases found that large servings of lipase helped stabilize fat digestion in up to 63% of participants. Other studies have shown that supplementing with lipase can help reduce lipid malabsorption and return fat digestion to optimal levels. As a result, supplementation with lipase can help control appetite and support healthy cholesterol and triglyceride levels
The general function of most digestive enzymes is to help you extract the energy and nutrients from the foods you eat. Lipase assists in this regard by helping us avoid excessive fecal fat loss which occurs when our bodies are unable to break down fats properly and extract the nutrients needed from our food. Proper levels of lipase allow the body to extract vital nutrients and also allow the proper digestion of essential fatty acids.
There are a variety of conditions associated with digestive upset including abdominal pain, bloating, vomiting, nausea, heartburn, gas, and loss of appetite. One study of hospital patients showed that supplementing with lipase helped reduce these symptoms. In fact, after eight weeks of use, many of the symptoms were significantly improved in the participants taking the lipase supplement.
As you can see, there are many benefits associated with this enzyme. Unfortunately, the modern diet is essentially an enzyme-deficient diet – that is, a diet high in cooked and processed foods which leads to a deficiency in natural enzymes, especially lipase as we noted earlier because it is in most foods we typically cook but is destroyed by exposure to heat. If you are like most people who cook these types of foods, you will more than likely benefit from supplementing with digestive enzymes such as lipase.
And even if you eat properly and reduce your intake of cooked and processed foods, studies have shown that as you age, your production of the pancreatic enzymes decreases. What this all means is that for optimal health, you need to be supplementing with digestive enzymes that include lipase. Insufficient live digestive enzymes in the diet force the pancreas to overwork and over stress resulting in long-term, non-acute enlargement of the pancreas. Using supplemental enzymes, with every meal is one of the simplest things you can do to improve the health of your pancreas, which would otherwise need to produce the required enzymes, as well as taking stress off your gallbladder and liver.
Be sure on your next visit to Whitaker’s to check out our large selection of Digestive Enzymes especially Comfort Zone by Solgar, Digest Ultimate by Now Foods, and Super Enzymes by Now Foods!
