The Enzyme Factor

The rate of chemical reactions is dependent upon the abundance of the reactants. If you burn a cigarette in an environment of pure oxygen, the cigarette will burn hot enough to melt steel.In biology the reactants are never seemingly that concentrated and in fact may be so typically low, left to their own, that it would make life impossible if it were not for the work of enzymes. Enzymes in living cells are protein structures that function to catalyze reactions. There are two main types, metabolic and digestive.
Cellular energy production is based upon Glycolysis, Krebs', and the Electron Transport Chain. These are all high energy mechanisms that are all supported as enzyme catalyzed metabolic reactions.
Digestion is a critical investment for organisms and it is also represented by the enormous and somewhat hazardous resources devoted to it. The most dangerous by far, and most critical one is protein digestion. The pancreas produces bile to emulsin fats. In the mouth and in the pancreas amylase is produced to digest complex carbohydrates. In the stomach hydrochloric acid is produced to break up amino acid bonds and this makes the stomach environment such a highly inhospitable place. The average stomach cell only lives about 3 days as a result.
Why would the body afford these perils if proteins were not important? The fact is that they are and your body knows it.
After about 3 hours brewing in the acidic stomach the food is finally released into the small intestine where the pancreas releases calcium bicarbonate into it, in order to lower the ph for two reasons.
Firstly, to protect the intestines from being turned to mush by the toxic acidity, and secondly so that the digestive enzymes for proteins can function without being destroyed. They need a much higher PH in order to function(not denature) and complete the process of protein digestion.
Your body will not tolerate intact proteins from food sources and they must be broken down into their amino acid building blocks to be useful and not be identified as a foreign body. In fact the adsorption of in tact proteins via leaky gut syndrome is the main mechanism for food allergies. Chicken proteins floating around in your blood stream are recognised as foreign and this initiates very uncomfortable immune system responses. Perhaps your body knows that you are not a chicken? A chicken wouldn't have a problem with this?
Amino acids from proteins in your diet provide the platforms for both digestive and metabolic enzymes. In fact it is possible to have a metabolic crisis originating from the lack of a particular amino acid. If you lack an amino acid in adequate supply, then none of the enzymes or other structures can be formed that utilize this amino acid, they simply will not be built! This can result in a body wide shortage of a particular amino acid.
If you need an amino acid but it requires an enzyme to brake its bond within a protein but an amino acid is deficient to form the enzyme required to do the job, then you have a critical situation. You cannot get the enzyme because of a deficiency and you cannot create the enzyme to get the amino acid from your food like it's supposed to happen for the same reason.
Cellular energy production is as dependent upon enzymes and amino acids and vulnerable to the same deficiencies. All cellular energy production reactions are enzyme catalysed reactions dependent upon enzymes.
Do you feel old and lack energy and vitality? Are you ingesting enough high quality proteins?
velis et remis
Norman

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