LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Digestion: Enzymes
built 629 days ago
Digestion ... occurs while you sleep. The body's energies are not being used for daily activities during sleep. Proper enzymes can help take care of unfinished business 24 hours a day. This program shows you how to achieve optimal digestion. It is SO simple.
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Upon contacting the membrane lining of the small intestine, the end products of fat digestion become dissolved in the membrane and diffuse to the interior of the cell. As the split fat molecules enter the lining cells, intestinal lipase (enzyme) helps to further digest them. Triglycerides are formed in these cells and, along with cholesterol and phospholipids (other absorbed fat), they are given a protein coat. Thus "dressed," these final fat products pass into spaces between the cells and into the villi. Most of these fatty acids are then propelled, along with lymph (a fluid) by the lymphatic pump system. About 80 to 90 percent of digested fat is absorbed in this manner.
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Note: In the discussion of digestion of carbohydrates; nouns ending in the suffix -ose usually indicate a sugar, such as lactose. Nouns ending in the suffix -ase indicates the enzyme that will break down the sugar, such as lactase. Enzymes usually begin with the substrate (substance) they are breaking down. For example: maltose, a disaccharide, is broken down by the enzyme maltase (by the process of hydrolysis), resulting in a two glucose molecules, a monosaccharide.
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The "detergent" function of bile salts is essential to fat digestion, for the lipase (fat-splitting enzymes) can "attack" the fat globules only on their surfaces. The smaller the fat particles, the better digestion. Pancreatic lipase is the most important enzyme in fat digestion. In concert, the epithelial lining of the small intestine ... releases a small amount of lipase. Both lipases (pancreatic and intestinal) act to digest fat. Bile salts also form micelles, small sphericle globules.
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The treatment that fats and oils undergo during digestion in the small intestine is a bit more complicated than that of carbohydrates or proteins. Since fats are not soluble in water, pretreatment with bile to physically emulsify the fats is required. The Gall Bladder stores Bile which is produced by the Liver. Bile is used to solubilize fats so that they can be digested by Lipases (enzymes that digest Lipids).
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The pancreas makes pancreatic juice consisting of enzymes (amylases, lipases, and proteases) and bicarbonate, which helps neutralize acidic secretions produced during digestion. The pancreas delivers the pancreatic juice to the small intestine, in response to a signal of food in the intestine and the release of the hormone secretin. The pancreas ... has another function, the secretion of the hormones insulin and glucagon, which helps maintain a steady state of blood sugar in the body (insulin decreases blood glucose concentration, while glucagon increases it).
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Enzymes