What Our Bodies Need
Our body is a complex machine and it requires three major food groups to get the nutrition it needs. The food groups needed are: protein, fat and carbohydrates. Each food group is digested by its own enzyme. Protease is used for digesting protein, Amylase is for digesting carbohydrates and lipase is for fat. Lipase works to hydrolyze fats, also known as lipids. There are those who avoid all fats for fear of gaining weight but they should know that some fat is absolutely required for good health. Too much fat can and will cause health conditions like cancer and heart disease.
The only role of lipase in your body is to digest fat and fat-soluble vitamins. For those people who are lipase deficient, they can have their own share of health problems too. They are more likely to have high triglycerides, high cholesterol and trouble loosing weight. Later on, these problems can turn into heart disease and that is the killer of one out of every two Americans today. Those who are fat intolerant can take lipase as a supplement but this is not a cure and so the intolerance problem will still be there. By eating foods that contain lipase, a person can reduce the size of gall stones and that way lower their symptoms. This too is not a cure just as surgery for gall stones is not a cure either.
All cell membranes are made of fat so if your intake of fat is reduced, as with those on a diet who cut all the fat from their meals, it will have an effect every cell in your body. When this happens the nutrients that are needed by the cell cannot get in and the waste that must get out is then trapped inside the cell. Muscle spasms are just one common symptom of lipase deficiency but do not confuse this with the muscle cramp that comes from low ionized blood calcium. Another person who may be lipase deficient are those with a spastic colon. As a way to diagnose inflammation of the pancreas, chronic pancreatitis along with other disorders that involve the pancreas, your doctor will order a blood test for lipase. This test can also be used to diagnose cystic fibrosis, Crohn’s disease and celiac disease. The levels of lipase are frequently very high in acute pancreatitis and both kidney disease and salivary gland inflammation can can show a moderate increase in the amount of lipase in your blood.
