Digestive Enzymes:

Enzymes are catalytic proteins which help various bodily processes. Most frequently discussed enzymes are digestive ones. These include the salivary enzymes and pancreatic. But enzymes are part of every chemical reaction in the body.

I think everyone needs both of these to supplement with digestive enzymes. We are erroneously led to believe that our bodies are supposed to manufacture all those we need to digest our food. While our bodies *are* capable of doing this, they do it at a cost. We are supposed to be eating the majority of our food raw. Raw foods contain within them the enzymes to digest themselves. (We call this spoilage or decomposing if the food simply sits out too long.) When we eat mostly cooked foods, the enzymes are destroyed in the heating (above 118 degrees) process. Therefore, the body is forced to use raw materials it would normally use to make other enzymes needed for bodily processes, to make digestive enzymes instead. After a while, this program takes its toll. If your diet is mostly a "paleolithic" diet, then this conversation doesn't apply to you, however, if you, like most of us, don't eat mostly raw foods, then supplemental digestive enzymes will keep your body from depleting its enzyme reserves.

Probiotics:

Probiotics are friendly bacteria. They live, work, etc. in the large and small intestine making vitamins, taking up space the bad guys might try to live in and creating a hostile environment for the pathogens by changing the pH with their by-products. They are destroyed by a variety of factors including antibiotics, chlorinated water, stress, etc. They need to be replaced.

Therefore, I recommend that digestive enzymes be taken with every meal and, for probiotics, I rotate among certain products. For one month I eat Acidophilus and take this until the bottle is gone, then rotate to Bifidus and finally to a broad spectrum of probiotics. This assures that the two main bacteria species are re-seeded regularly and the "support troops" are there as well.

Some digestive systems are so depleted that they produce no "symptoms" at all, but you can tell that your digestion isn't effective based on how you feel (tiredness, weight gain or loss and sometimes things that we don't associate with bad digestion like "allergies".) Other digestive systems signal their dissatisfaction with bloating, gas, etc.

Dogs who are fed a raw foods diet may not need these items supplemented indefinitely, but depending on how our foods are processed, some dogs require these items to be supplied on a regular basis. It depends on how long the dog has been eating commercial foods, the dog itself and the quality of the food you're able to obtain. Let your dog tell you. There is no harm in supplying both probiotics and digestive enzymes indefinitely and there's considerable evidence that not doing so leaves our systems weakened.