Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a common gut condition that revolves around abdominal pain. It has been linked to FODMAPs, which are sugars that can trigger symptoms in patients. People have come up with digestive enzyme supplements to help them tolerate FODMAPs better, and in this article, we’ll take a look at some supplements that you can try to help with IBS.

What are digestive enzyme supplements?

Digestive enzyme supplements come as pills or powder and are designed to break down large food molecules into smaller ones.

Our bodies naturally produce digestive enzymes to be able to absorb nutrients from diet. Diet contains large molecules that can’t move across the gut lining to enter blood. The body uses digestive enzymes to break these molecules into simpler ones, which can easily diffuse across the gut lining.

This allows us to obtain nutrients from our diet — if it weren’t for digestive enzymes, we would quickly become malnourished and deficient in important nutrients.

Examples of some natural digestive enzymes include amylase (breaks carbs), protease (breaks down protein into amino acids), trypsin (breaks protein), and lipase (breaks down fat).

In some patients (like those with pancreatic insufficiency), the body stops producing these digestive enzymes. This leads to ineffective digestion and loss of nutrients. And this is why digestive enzyme supplements were initially made. The goal was to counter the body’s inability to produce digestive enzymes by supplementing it with synthetic enzymes to improve digestion and prevent malabsorption of nutrients.

Best digestive enzymes for ibs