Throughout my early running career I suffered from major stomach issues when training and racing hard.
Whenever I tried to really push myself, my stomach seemed to cramp up and I would have gas and digestive issues for hours after races and hard workouts.
I constantly experimented with the foods I ate before running and throughout the day and tried antacids and other stomach medications.
Nothing seemed to do the trick.
Then a few years ago I stumbled upon some research about digestive enzymes when investigating the role of protein in marathon fueling.
This initial glimpse of the research prompted me to start diving in deep about the role of digestive enzymes, especially as they relate to running performance.
So, in this article I’ll present the research I found about the role digestive enzymes may play in helping runners who:
- Have sensitive stomachs and suffer from cramps and digestive issues during or after hard runs.
- Those who find it difficult to consume sufficient protein.
- Suffer from food sensitivities or allergies.
- Often find themselves deficient in vitamins and minerals, despite eating a healthy diet.
What Digestive Enzymes Do
So, what exactly are digestive enzymes and how do they work?
Digestive enzymes are naturally occurring proteins that your body makes to break down food and aid digestion.
There are many digestive enzymes produced throughout your stomach and small intestine, but your pancreas is really considered the powerhouse of digestive enzyme production.
Here’s a quick overview of some of the more important digestive enzymes and how they work to help you digest specific foods and food groups.
Amylase
This is the main enzyme used to breakdown starches and complex carbohydrates into simpler, easily absorbed sugars like maltose and glucose.
As you well know, carbohydrates are the most efficient source of fuel for a runner and your diet should rightly contain a high percentage of carbohydrates.
But if your body’s natural enzymes are overwhelmed from the increase in carbohydrate intake, undigested carbs enter the colon, causing fermentation, bloating, and diarrhea. Amylase ensures quick breakdown and absorption.
Protease
Protease is likely the most important for runners and athletes as it’s the digestive enzyme responsible for the breakdown of protein rich foods.
It’s a critical enzyme for runners since we’re notorious for not consuming enough protein to support the amount of training stress we incur each day.
Many runners struggle to eat sufficient protein in part because it can be difficult to digest. You may even notice that you suffer from gas when you consume high amounts of protein.
Having sufficient levels of protease can definitely help in this situation.
Lactase
Lactase is necessary for the breakdown of any sugars found in dairy products including milk, yogurt and cheese.
If you’re sensitive to lactose, this likely means that you don’t possess enough of the digestive enzyme lactase to deal with all the lactose you are consuming. As a result, you get issues such as gas, bloating, and digestive distress after eating dairy rich foods.
Cellulase
Cellulase is the enzyme that is used to break down and digest cellulose, which is found in dietary fiber rich foods.
This includes the fruits, vegetables, as well as the grains and seeds that you are consuming.
Having sufficient cellulase will help ensure you breakdown and absorb the nutrients from the fruits and vegetables you’re eating.
How Can Enzymes Improve Overall Health and Performance
Now that you understand exactly what digestive enzymes are and how they work, let’s take a deeper look into how having proper enzyme levels can actually improve overall health and running performance.
Help Digest Foods, Especially Proteins
As you can gather just by understanding the function of digestive enzymes, they are critical to properly digesting the food you eat.
For example, let’s say that you eat an 8oz piece of steak for dinner. The digestion process starts with your saliva, but than quickly moves to the small intestine and pancreas.
Here, the digestive enzyme protease goes to work, quickly breaking down that protein so it can be used by the body. Without the protease enzymes, the breakdown process slows to a crawl and you end up with stomach issues.
Help Absorb More of the Nutrients From Food
Likewise, when you’re able to properly breakdown the food you eat, you’re able to absorb more of the nutrient content of that food.
When food isn’t properly digested, it’s sent out of the body, which means you can’t absorb the nutrients within that food.
So, you can eat all the healthy fruits and vegetables you want, but if you don’t properly digest them, then you won’t be absorbing the critical vitamins and minerals.
In fact, a 2007 in vitro study showed that supplementing with digestive enzymes significantly enhances the absorption of many important nutrients — up to 66% more in certain cases
This increased absorption included key amino acids such as arginine, citrulline, and tryptophan, as well as vitamins such as folate.
Increase Energy
The less optimal your digestion, the more energy your body requires to properly digest food, which may leave you experiencing a slump in energy after meals.
Also, suboptimal digestion allows incompletely digested foods to trigger your immune system, leading to inflammation that can rob you of your energy.
Lastly, nutrient deficiencies such as low iron and vitamin B12, already common amongst runners, can often lead to perpetual fatigue. This can be exacerbated when you’re not properly absorbing these already difficult to absorb nutrients.
Improve Recovery
Exercise scientists have published some remarkable research about proteolytic enzymes in the past decade.
Most notably, a study by Beck et al in 2007 demonstrated a “statistically significant” difference in recovery time between subjects given proteolytic enzymes and subjects given a placebo.
The group given the proteolytic enzymes was able to produce greater overall force with their muscle, leading the experimenters to conclude recovery was quicker.
Improved Recovery was further bolstered by a 2017 study where researchers showed that enzyme therapy before and after exhaustive exercise improved strength gains and reduced lab markers of inflammation.
Do You Need to Supplement? If So, How to Take
If you suffer from a sensitive stomach during or after hard training like I did, then digestive enzymes might be a helpful solution for you as well.
In my case, they dramatically improved my stomach issues to the point that when I am consistent about taking my probiotic in the evening, I never even think about my stomach during or after runs.
They may also help if you have some slight food intolerances or sensitivities such as dairy products or gluten.
What Should a Good Digestive Supplement Contain?
Like with any supplement, you’ll want to make sure you’re taking something with the highest quality ingredients as well as a digestive enzyme blend made for athletes.
For example, you’ll want a supplement that contains at least the 4 main types of enzymes I discussed as these cover almost the entire diet for runners.
Many general probiotic or enzyme supplements won’t have protease since it is typically one of the more expensive enzymes to produce and to keep stable.
Many cheaper supplements will be loaded with cheaper enzymes that may not be as important to athletes.
Remember, protease is the enzyme responsible for protein digestion, which is critical to recovery and performance, especially for runners who are notorious for low protein intake levels.
You’ll also want an enzyme mix that has an array of digestive enzymes (especially the ones I highlighted above) to ensure it hits any food sensitives you may have.
My Recommendation
My recommendation for digestive enzymes is the probiotic MAS Flush and it’s the supplement I personally use after conducting extensive research on enzyme effectiveness.
First, it has the full spectrum of important enzymes for endurance training, so I know I am covering all my bases.
More importantly, it was designed specifically for runners so it has a ton of other probiotics and ingredients designed to support the exact stomach issues runners face.
Here’s a look at everything in MAS Flush and some of the science and research behind the additional ingredients.
How to Take
I take my MAS Flush every evening before bed since I run in the mornings. Taking it in the evening helps ensure everything I ate throughout the day gets time to digest before I run the next day.
Often, I’ll take an extra dose if I am having a heavy protein meal or know I will be drinking a lot of protein shakes or eating protein bars during a busy day, just to be sure I am able to properly breakdown all the protein.
This has really cut down stomach issues I’ve had after long travel days.
Hopefully, this review of some of the science behind digestive enzymes helped you better understand how your digestive process works and gives you an option to solve any gas, bloating and stomach issues you may have during or after training.
