Digestive Enzymes

Hi, this is Rita Hogan and welcome to the Dogs Are Individuals podcast. I'm a clinical canine herbalist and I've been practicing for over 20 years. This podcast is all about your dog through an herbal lens. So let's get to it and dive right in. Hi everyone, welcome to another edition of the Dogs Are Individuals podcast. This is Rita Hogan. I am a canine herbalist and I am going to talk about digestive enzymes today because someone asked me to do so through the podcast communication on my website canineherbalist.com youm can go there, click the dropdown menu and communicate with me about the podcast. Before I get into digestive enzymes, I wanna thank my sponsor, realmushrooms.com and adored beast.com so real mushrooms has a great lineup of products and one of the products I love from them is Lion's Mane. Lion's Mane mushroom is a wonderful mushroom from this time of year because it supports the kidneys, it helps strengthen the spleen, it has an affinity towards the lungs, and it works at calming and positively modifying the nervous system. It also is a really good support for the microbiome and so you just can't beat that. So I would definitely check them out realmushrooms.com or you can go to my website. I carry their products in my store and give Lion's Mane a try if it seems well indicated for your dog. Okay, so digestive enzymes. Wow. I love this topic. The reason why is because if your dog didn't have enzymes, they wouldn't be able to live. Right? They couldn't live without digestive enzymes. And when dogs are healthy, they produce enough of their own enzymes. But many factors influence enzyme production and I get a lot of questions from people about feeding and should I give my dog enzymes? Shouldn't I give my dog enzymes? What do I do? My dog eats raw. He doesn't need any added enzymes. That's not necessarily true given the right circumstances. So let's talk a little bit about what enzymes do so you can understand that. And then we'll talk about what dogs need. Enzymes. So as food moves towards the stomach, so your dogs can. Your dog can literally start producing enzymes by thinking about food, by seeing you starting produce, like to make food. Now, they don't produce enzymes in their mouth like we do. They produce enzymes in their stomach and we do too. But we also pre digest our food through our saliva, which they do not. Saliva in a dog's mouth is meant to coat the food and help it get down to the stomach in an efficient manner. So when your Dog starts seeing you fix the food, he starts producing digestive enzymes. And those are made by the stomach and the pancreas. And these enzymes are distributed into the stomach and the small intestine. So protease, which is an enzyme, that's the enzyme that breaks down protein. It's a very important enzyme, and it works to break down down meat, as you know, meat as food, and transfer it to the small intestine where it can be further broken down. But it's really important that your dog sufficiently break down proteins in the stomach before it gets to the small intestine, because digestive enzymes are imperative to proper assimilation and in the small intestine. And that really allows for nutrition and for cellular health, because cellular health is where it's at. And so the small intestine, it breaks down what's called Chyme, and that's what comes into the stomach from the stomach. I mean, and what it doesn't, what doesn't get used gets passed into the large intestine, which is the colon, where bacteria breaks it down even further. And then it turns any unused food into the stool body. So when food isn't broken down enough, your dog can get excessive bloating gas and have problem with the stool body originating in the colon. So digestive enzymes, and there's a lot of them, they turn food into nutrient, into nutrients, and these molecules get absorbed and then they feed the cells. And the key is finding out where your digestive enzymes, I mean, your dog's enzymes are coming from. And if your dog needs supplementation. So enzymes come from basically three main sources. That's the pancreas, the stomach, and the food your dog eats. So enzymes deficiency. So your dog deficient in enzymes can increase as your dog ages. Okay, depending on their diet. Now, dogs that eat kibble are deficient in enzymes right off the bat. I have never met a dog who eats kibble. That does it. That isn't deficient in enzymes, because that component of the enzymes in the food isn't there because kibble is dead food. Now, cooked food also is low in enzymes or deficient in enzymes, depending on how long it's cooked. So it's much healthier than kibble. But we still need to add enzymes. If you're feeding cooked food to every single meal, okay, that's very important because your dog needs that one component of the, of that equation of enzymes that comes from food. And if it's not from raw food, it has to be supplemented. Okay, That's a little part of the equation. Enzyme deficiency can cause a lot of problems like allergies and premature aging, low immunity, definitely autoimmune disease and lots of skin problems and itching. So some cofactors of enzyme deficiency are again, allergies. Dogs that have been on antibiotics, antibiotics deplete enzymes, dogs who have bad breath, dogs that have basically have had some type of bloating, diarrhea, dry skin, a dull coat, excessive stool production, so pooping way too much, fatty acid insufficiency, dogs who have flea dermatitis, food sensitivities, lots of gas, hot spots, itching, leaky gut, pancreatitis. And I am referring to chronic pancreatitis. There probiotic, probiotic insufficiency, depleted microbiome, Dogs with a lot of rashes, dogs with a lot of stress, stool eating, dogs that get stuck in fight or flight, which is referred to as sympathetic excess. Dogs that have systemic inflammation, chronic inflammation, dogs that have undigested food in their stool, dogs that have been vaccinated recently, and dogs that have worms, yeast overgrowth or yellow stool. These are all signs that your dog most likely will need some digestive enzymes for a period of time. The reason why digestive enzymes are so important is because when the stomach starts breaking down proteins, it's preparing for this process in making Chyme to bring it to the small intestine. When proteins don't break down properly, inflammation increases and it kind of runs amok. And with this type of process, skin conditions can occur, definitely itching. So digestive enzymes also help reduce going to the bathroom too much and dogs poop less because they're utilizing more of their food. We want better assimilation and better elimination. Digestive insufficiency usually shows up when dogs get to the age of, well, basically between two and a half and four. But as dogs get older and become geriatric, and of course my definition of geriatric is much different than the norm. You can listen to my podcast about that, about longevity. But you know, when dogs are like 12 and 13 and 14, when they start, you know, decrease, you know, decreasing their stomach acid, we need to supply digestive enzymes, if that is well indicated. But the dog's ecosystem has to work harder when there's no digestive enzymes and organs function slows down and dogs become less efficient at processing their food. So when you give digestive enzymes a good enzyme supplement can really help older dogs to stimulate more nutrients. And this is true, also true of raw fed dogs. And a lot of raw fed feeders are like, wait a minute, my dog eats raw. I don't need digestive enzymes. And yes, that's the case in many dogs. However, dogs that are basically transitioning to a raw diet need digestive enzymes. Dogs that have been on antibiotics need digestive enzymes. Dogs that eat cooked food need digestive enzymes. Dogs that are weak and have problems, they're sick and they have chronic disease may need digestive enzymes. So, you know, you can work with a practitioner to figure out, hey, does my dog have any of these issues? I will tell you right now that if your dog has leaky gut, if your dog has a yeast overgrowth imbalance, if your dog has problems with his microbiome, most of these dogs are going to need digestive enzyme supplementation for probably six months to a year. Things do not happen overnight. This didn't get to be this problem overnight. But what a really cool thing about digestive enzyme usage is that it can help with allergies and environmental allergies and seasonal allergies and food allergies. Because a lot of times those types of issues, especially food sensitivities and food, what's called as food allergies, are caused by your dog not breaking down proteins correctly. And then the immune system, along with the liver, basically market for termination. And so your dog starts reacting to basic foods that they're eating that they should not be reacting to. And this can be as easy as a piece of broccoli. Feeding digestive enzymes can be a little tricky. And you kind of have to figure out how much to give and when the enzymes are given in too high of a quantity, or when the enzymes are not energetically appropriate for your dog, then you can have issues. Then there's this issue with poor quality enzymes. We want to avoid that plant derived enzymes give the least amount of issues. But again, dogs are individuals, so you have to see how your dog, you know, how it plays out. But just because your dog doesn't react well to one enzyme doesn't mean another enzyme formula won't be good for them. Don't give too much of pancreatic enzymes or anything, basically any, any enzyme for that matter. Don't give too much mu. More is not better. And so some signs your digestive enzyme isn't working is acid reflux, excessive gas, burping, nausea, vomiting, and loose stool. That can mean that wrong enzyme, just that formula is not going to work or too much of an enzyme. And I know some experts argue that using digestive enzyme supplementation long term can be a problem. And I definitely agree. However, it depends on the situation and the condition of the dog. You don't want to use digestive enzymes on a perfectly healthy, traditionally raw fed dog with basically no visible issues. Okay? But as we know, that's hardly the case these days. And one of the issues that I would say is a big contributing factor to dogs producing low enzymes is stress and dogs that are stuck in fight or flight. It, it's an issue and I'm going to talk about it in an episode, a coming up and coming episode of the podcast. But when dogs are stuck in fight or flight, it's called sympathetic excess. And our stress is their stress. So we need to mine our stress. When you have sympathetic excess and are stuck in fight or flight, you don't have good access and your dog doesn't have good access to the digestive functioning. The liver isn't working correctly, the kidneys aren't working correctly, the digestive function slows down. All the reserves go into the sympathetic nervous system. So stress is this big factor that people kind of are not looking at. High stress dogs, even some of raw fed, high stress dogs need enzyme supplementation until you can get that stress down, okay? And a lot of times that involves getting our stress down. So feeding kibble, feeding cooked food is also feeding, you know, especially kibble kibble is feeding dead non living food without proper enzymes. And it isn't beneficial for long term health. And a healthy dog is ecosystem feeding cooked food. Depending on the, you know, if it's a crock pot cooked food and you're cooking it for hours and hours, no enzymes are left in that food. You have to supplement. Even though it's a really healthier version than kibble kibble, you still have to add those enzymes. So I think a lot of, not a lot, but people argue that the pancreas can get lazy from digestive enzyme supplementation, but not true. If the pancreas isn't producing enough enzymes, okay. And that's what you have to figure out. A couple other things that affect enzymes are chlorine and fluoride. Pharmaceuticals bring down enzyme productions, vaccines bring down enzyme production. Again, stress brings down enzyme production. So some signs of digestive insufficiency, again, acid reflux, bad breath, burping, chronic skin conditions, constipation, diarrhea, ear infections, lots of farting, food sensitivities, gallbladder weakness, undigested food in the poop, just to go over that a little bit. And also, you know, dogs having problems digesting fats and oils. We're gonna look at some digestive enzyme products and go over them. But before we do, let's talk about what are digestive enzymes. So the enzymes. Well, basically there's four different types of enzymes. We've got protease, which is enzyme that's super important in the stomach, that breaks down proteins into amino acids. That's super, super important to avoid sensitivities, to avoid the immune system marking ordinary food as a pathogenic invader. Okay. That we do not want that number two, proteolic. So these enzymes break down proteins. They're protease, proteinase, peptidase, pepsin, chymotryposin and tryposin. And they're all considered proteolytic. And these types of enzymes are produced in the pancreas and stomach. The proteolytic enzymes help with blood clotting, they help with gut health, cell division and definitely your dog's immune system. The next one is amylase and that's responsible for breaking down carbohydrate. Dogs. Amylase levels are pretty low and you need supplementation if you are feeding your dog cooked vegetables or raw veggies. Less with raw veggies, but it's definitely a good idea. Amylase is found in your dog's pancreas and small intestine. And humans have it in their saliva in, in, in, like in our mouths. But dogs don't. So humans also produce more, more amylase than dogs. Lipase helps dogs digest fats by breaking them down into fatty acids. This is also very important. And lipase breaks down fats and oils and balances out the triglyceride dog. So like amylase and protease, lipase is produced in your dog's pancreas. So then we have cellulase. And cellulase isn't found inside the dog's ecosystem. Cellulase breaks down plant fibers and you need to supplement this enzyme if your dog is eating a vegan diet or eats a lot of vegetable matter. So processed foods, diets like processed foods like kibble, which I refer to as the wonder bread for dogs. It's really hard on your dog's organs and they actually kibble actually forces a dog's ecosystem into working nonstop just to process what your dog is eating. And enzymes start dying at 104 degrees Fahrenheit. So there is no enzymes in kibble. The lack of live foods and food based digestive enzymes makes it worse because it decreases metabolic canine function, for example, pancreatic function. Processed diets really lead to food sensitivities, congested organs, skin conditions, hot spots and flea allergies. To recap, I just want to go over, you know, kind of like why again, stomach acid is so important because low stomach acid equals undigested proteins getting into the small intestine, which equals an immune response. That's what's really super important. And proper stomach acid also acts as a first offense against pathogens getting into your dogs. Stomach acid kills pathogens and we, we definitely want that to occur. Some stomach acid antagonists, just to remind you, are dewormers. Your dog eating oxidized fats like soy and grapeseed, also corn oil, peanut oil, the, you know, canola oil. These are all fats that are very poor and that the body does not like them. And they need a lot of antioxidants in order to process these types of oils. Also heavy metals, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, all bring down stomach acid. Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, affects the microbiome and it brings down stomach acid dryness in general, when dogs are too dry, it can bring down stomach acid because of course, that's the moisture element. I discuss stress. NSAIDs, non steroidal anti inflammatories, antihistamines bring down stomach acid, steroids, antibiotics, vaccines, flea and tick meds, and heartworm meds. So if you see your dog in those antagonists, they may have low stomach acid. Okay, so now let's go over some products that I like for supplementing digestive enzymes. So if you want a basic enzyme that has a few other things in it, you can look at the adored beast, healthy gut digestive enzyme. I carry that in my store. And let's talk about when this enzyme is good. Now I like this enzyme for dogs that are more on the cool side, cool to neutral or maybe slightly warm. It's a blend of probiotics, papain, larch, arabinogalactin, bromelain, and then there's betaine. Bromelain is from pineapple and in my experience over the last 20 years, some dogs are reactive to it that are too warm. And bromelain is a nice, it's a warming digestive enzyme and it aids in the proper digestion and absorption of food because it breaks down protein. So it also, I would definitely say it's an anti inflammatory. It helps relieve pain when it's given like between meals. So you can give it between meals and with the meal. And then this healthy gut has betaine in it. Betaine hydra HCI is basically what it's called. It's a hydrochloric acid. And that's really important for protecting your dog's body against pathogens. It also helps break down proteins in the stomach. And when you give any type of digestive enzyme, you want to mix it into your dog's food, let it sit for about 10 to 15 minutes, mix it again and then serve. Okay. Just don't throw it on there and give it to your dog. Mix it in and let it sit. Let it pre digest. The last ingredient in the adored beast healthy gut is the Porscheen pancreatin. And this is a pork derived pancreatin. It's a mixture of several pancreatic digestive enzymes and it has a lot of enzyme activity for the protease, the lipase and the amylase. And that's going to help digestion and improve the absorption of fat and bring up your dog's energy. Okay. And you can give this with food or away from food. It's going to act as an anti inflammatory and it's gonna help relieve pain. The next digestive enzyme is an enzyme I recommend a lot. It is a nice neutral enzyme. It is from Dr. Good Pet. I do not carry this one in my store. It is goodpet.com and it's a mixture of protease, amylase, lipase, cellulase and it has lactobacillus acidophilus in it as well. This is a very basic enzyme. No artificial colorings, flavorings, preservatives or anything in this formula. No yeast, no beef derivatives, no. No artificial colorings. And that's important. Always check for those types of things. I like this one. It's a basic enzyme. I use it a lot. Next in line is four leaf Rovers digest. Okay, so this is what I would call sort of a food based enzyme. It has New Zealand liver in it, pancreas, so some glandulars there. Organic alfalfa juice powder which is full of enzymes and amino acids. Betaine hydrochloride, we had that in the adored beast product. It has organic broccoli sprout powder, bromelain invertase, organic nettle leaf powder, ox bile powder, which helps the gallbladder and the body, digests fats and oils, papain and cellulase. And this has bacillus guagulans in it and bacillus subtilis. Like a blend. 200 billion. I've had good results with this product for some dogs. Some dogs don't do well with it. And like any product, it's not going to work for everyone. There isn't a product, an herb or anything that I know of that's consumable, assume consumable. That will work for everyone. Okay. But a good product. It's good. I would definitely give it a try if, you know, I would say if your dog isn't too cool, it's, it's gonna, you're gonna have a problem. I think if your dog is like, cold. And for those of you that follow my Energetics course, you know what I'm talking about. And if you are curious, go to k9herbalism.com and check out my Energetics course. But for pretty much all other dogs, you can give this a try and see if it's a good. If it's good. And I would definitely say this is a good one to rotate and might be a really good addition if your dog is making that transition from kibble to raw feeding. Next is Dr. Marty, his pro power plus enzymes. So this one is a little different. It has a probiotic, probiotic enzyme blend which includes protease, amylase, cellulase, hemicellulase, lipase, papain, bromelain, and then it has Bacillus coagulans, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bifobacterium lactus, and Longum Lactobacillus planetarium and fructosaccharides, gum, acacia, cellulose, plant fiber, chimpingan mushroom extract, kelp, and thallus powder. So there's, you know, there's kind of a little more going on in this digestive enzyme, like the Four Leaf Rover, so you can give it a try for your dog and see. And the best way to do that to check your digestive enzyme is don't add it when you're trying a new herb out or adding a new supplement. Make sure your dog is nice and stable, kind of where they're at, whether that be with a chronic health condition or not. But nothing new is added. The only thing that you've changed is the digestive enzyme. And don't change anything for a few weeks while you try out your new digestive enzyme. There are a lot of enzymes out there and I could go through all of them, but they're, you know, the ones that I just included are a few really good ones. And I like the doctor Good Pet a lot because it doesn't include bromelain for those dogs that are quite warm to hot. And the other enzymes are really good too, if they're well indicated for your dog. So that's it for digestive enzymes for now. I'm sure I'll be talking about them throughout a lot of my podcast episodes because they come up a lot do every, you know, do all dogs need digestive enzymes? Absolutely not for sure. But in this day and age, in what's going on right now with feeding and stress and dogs with not so good assimilation and elimination, I think a lot of dogs could, I think, do well with a few months of digestive enzymes. And again, you want to go slow and steady and see if they make a difference. Dogs that have food sensitivities definitely need digestive enzymes. Okay. If you have any questions about digestive enzymes, write into the podcast. Write into the podcast, follow the link on my website in the dropdown menu and you can contact me there. All right. I want to say thank you to my sponsor, adored beast Apothecary. I really appreciate them and one thing I love is their leaky gut protocol. It is a really wonderful protocol for dogs that have sensitivities to food and have a problem assimilating nutrients. And I thought it would be a good one to highlight with all this talk about digestive enzymes. They include the healthy gut digestive enzymes in their leaky gut protocol. And sometimes you can do the leaky gut protocol one time, but other times with other dogs, depending on the condition, you need to do it two or three times. So if you have any questions about that, you can email me via my website on the podcast. Remember to follow me on social media and share, share, share this podcast with your dog loving friends. Sharing is definitely caring. Would you like me to cover something on the podcast? Let me know. I'm here to support you. I hope you're having fun with me. I hope you're learning some stuff. Remember, I'm not right about everything for sure. This is my experience over the last 20 years in my practice and dealing with herbs and dogs and people. And yes, I do work with people. I do work with cats, but I mainly my main focus is on our furry little canine friends. Thanks for listening to this episode of Dogs are Individuals. 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