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Before or after?

Q: My doctor recommended that I take digestive enzymes after meals, but when I bought them, the instructions on the package said to take them before eating. When should I take them?

Dr. Wright: Your doctor is correct: Even though most digestive enzyme supplement labels instruct people to take them before meals, it's actually better to take them afterwards.

When digestion is functioning normally, there's first an acid phase and then an alkaline phase. Digestive enzymes help boost the alkaline phase. So if you take digestive enzymes before meals, the digestive enzymes, which are naturally activated by alkaline in the stomach, are thrown into the acid environment. They may be inactivated partly or completely. Or they may even buffer the stomach's acidity, causing it to not do its job as well.

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