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Digestive enzymes are not only relevant in EPI. Stress, old age, dry food, intestinal damage and chronic low-grade inflammation all cause enzymatic digestion to fall short. Sometimes temporarily, sometimes structurally. Digestive Enzymes provides the eight enzymes that together cover the entire digestion cycle. <\/p>\n
By Stefan Veenstra DVM<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Every food absorption begins with enzymatic degradation. Proteins, fats, and carbohydrates are too large in their dietary form to be absorbed by the intestinal epithelium. The conversion to absorpable units requires an interplay of stomach, pancreatic and small intestine enzymes, each of which targets its specific substrate. In case of deficiency, the food is incompletely digested, nutrients are insufficiently absorbed and the undigested substrate in the large intestine causes dysbiotic bacterial growth. <\/p>\n
What is less well known is that enzymatic undercapacity does not only occur in clinical disease. Subclinical decline in function due to stress, chronic low-grade inflammation, old age and ultra-processed food is an underestimated problem. Extruded dry food does not contain any active food enzymes after heating above 70 degrees. Animals on dry food alone depend on their own pancreatic secretion for their full enzymatic digestion load. <\/p>\n
Amylase, lipase and protease are the three main enzymes of exocrine pancreatic secretion. Amylase breaks down polysaccharides into maltose and glucose. Lipase hydrolyzes triglycerides into monoglycerides and free fatty acids. Protease is a collective name for serine proteases (trypsin, chymotrypsin, elastase) that cut proteins into peptides and amino acids at specific amino acid positions. Together, these three enzymes cover the entire macronutrient digestion in the duodenum. <\/p>\n
Protein digestion begins in the stomach via pepsin, an endopeptidase that is active at low pH (optimum pH 2-3). Pepsin depends on adequate gastric secretion. If HCl production is too low, pepsin is insufficiently activated. Betaine hydrochloride delivers exogenous HCl and lowers the gastric pH to the optimal range for pepsin activation. Mechanistically relevant in animals with stress-related gastric acid reduction, in aging animals and with the use of proton pump inhibitors. <\/p>\n
Bromelain is a mixture of cysteine proteases from pineapple rhizome with a dual action profile. As a digestive enzyme, it breaks down proteins at neutral to slightly alkaline pH. In addition to its proteolytic action, bromelain has direct anti-inflammatory activity via modulation of bradykinin production, inhibition of platelet aggregation and reduction of prostaglandin E2 production. In animals with chronic intestinal inflammation, bromelain thus offers an additional anti-inflammatory effect in addition to digestive support. <\/p>\n
Papain is a cysteineprotease from papaya with broad proteolytic activity at neutral to alkaline pH. Papain supports the immune system via modulation of macrophage activity. Papain is complementary to bromelain: both are plant proteolytic enzymes but with a slightly different substrate profile and pH optimum, which together gives a broader protein breakdown than each individually. <\/p>\n
Dogs and cats do not produce endogenous cellulase. Cellulase supplementation facilitates the fermentation of plant fibers in the proximal colon by partially opening the structure to microbiome fermentation, which reduces gas formation and fermentation stress in animals on higher-fiber diets. Lactase is relevant in lactose intolerant animals that consume dairy products, which is common in adult dogs and cats due to decrease in endogenous lactase expression after the suckling period. <\/p>\n
Digestive enzymes are proteins and therefore susceptible to denaturation in the low pH environment of the stomach (pH 1.5-3.5). An unprotected enzyme preparation loses a large part of its activity before it reaches the duodenum. The Digestive Enzymes gastric acid-resistant capsule protects the enzymes and ensures controlled release in the duodenum and proximal jejunum, where the enzyme activity is directly usable for the food bolus. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Lifelong enzyme supplementation with every meal. Digestive Enzymes lowers malabsorption and supports weight gain and stool normalization. Always under veterinary supervision and after TLI diagnosis. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Enzyme supplementation lowers the secretory load on the damaged pancreas. The pancreas has to produce less on its own, which reduces the chronic inflammatory burden and slows down further tissue damage. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Sympathetic activation inhibits the vagal stimulation of pancreatic secretion. Chronically stressed animals produce fewer digestive enzymes, resulting in poor nutrient absorption and a disturbed intestinal environment. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Pancreatic function decreases in aging dogs and cats. Subclinical enzyme deficiency contributes to weight loss, fatigue and poor coat in senior animals, even without an EPI diagnosis. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
After Giardia infection or other intestinal infections, the intestinal wall is damaged and local enzyme production (lactase, peptidase) in the villi is reduced. Enzyme supplementation supports digestion in the recovery period in addition to the Giardia protocol. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Extruded dry food does not contain any active food enzymes. Animals on dry food alone are completely dependent on endogenous pancreatic secretion. Enzyme supplementation compensates for the lack of nutrient enzymes. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Want to know more about pancreatitis and EPI?<\/p>\n
Stefan Veenstra DVM explains how pancreatitis develops, how the gut-pancreatic axis works and what the integrative treatment plan entails.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Read the blog<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Digestive Enzymes covers the entire enzymatic digestion requirement through eight complementary components: pancreatic core enzymes (amylase, lipase, protease) for all macronutrients, gastric phase support via pepsin and betaine, plant proteolytic enzymes (bromelain, papain) with additional anti-inflammatory action, and substrate-specific enzymes (cellulase, lactase) for plant fiber and lactose.<\/p>\n The stomach acid resistant capsule guarantees enzymatic activity in the right location. Digestive Enzymes can be used in a wide range of applications: for EPI, chronic pancreatitis, stress-related digestion problems, post-infectious recovery and as preventive enzymatic support in dry feed animals. If EPI is suspected, veterinary diagnosis and guidance is always necessary. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n This information is educational in nature and based on available scientific literature. This text does not replace a veterinary consultation and does not contain any therapeutic claims. If EPI is suspected, veterinary diagnosis is necessary. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NGD Care \u2014 Scientific background to food supplements Digestive Enzymes: eight digestive enzymes, how they work and when you need them Digestive enzymes are not only relevant in EPI. Stress, old age, dry food, intestinal damage and chronic low-grade inflammation all cause enzymatic digestion to fall short. Sometimes temporarily, sometimes structurally. Digestive Enzymes provides the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22179,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wds_title":"Digestive Enzymes dog & cat | 8 enzymes explained","_wds_metadesc":"How do the 8 digestive enzymes of Digestive Enzymes work? Stefan Veenstra DVM explains each component and describes when enzyme supplementation makes sense. ","_wds_focus-keywords":"digestive enzymes digestive enzymes dog cat,digestive enzymes dog supplement,enzyme supplementation dog cat EPI","_wds_meta-robots-adv":"","_wds_meta-robots-noindex":false,"_wds_meta-robots-nofollow":false,"_wds_meta-robots-index":false,"_wds_meta-robots-follow":false,"_wds_autolinks-exclude":false,"_wds_canonical":"","_wds_redirect":"","_wds_opengraph":[],"_wds_twitter":[],"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[178,8510],"tags":[12086,12091,12097,12117,12120,12076,12078,12106,12083,12080,12114,12100,7746,12094,12089,12111,7747,12103,12108],"class_list":["post-22178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-en","category-scientific-deepening-of-supplements","tag-amylase-lipase-protease-dog","tag-bromelain-dog-anti-inflammatory-digestion","tag-cellulase-dog-fiber","tag-chronic-pancreatitis-in-dogs-enzymes","tag-digestive-enzymes","tag-digestive-enzymes-dog","tag-digestive-enzymes-dog-cat","tag-dry-food-dog-enzyme-supplementation","tag-enzyme-supplementation-cat-epi","tag-enzyme-supplementation-dog","tag-epi-dog-enzyme-supplementation","tag-lactase-dog-cat-lactose-intolerance","tag-ngd-care","tag-papain-dog-digestive-enzyme","tag-pepsin-betaine-stomach-phase-dog","tag-post-infectious-repair-enzymes-dog-giardia","tag-stefan-veenstra-dvm","tag-stomach-acid-resistant-capsule-enzymes-dog","tag-stress-dog-digestive-enzyme-deficiency","infinite-scroll-item"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ngdcare.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ngdcare.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ngdcare.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ngdcare.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ngdcare.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ngdcare.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ngdcare.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ngdcare.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ngdcare.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ngdcare.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Conclusion<\/h2>\n
Literature<\/h2>\n
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