Enzymes that Perform 36 Million Processes a Minute
Every second, more processes than can be counted are carried out in the bodies of all living things. So complex and detailed are these processes that at every stage, the intervention of “super-regulators” is essential to control the whole system that maintain order and accelerate events. These super-regulating chemicals in the human body are enzymes.
Every living cell contains thousands of enzymes, each of which performs its own tasks, such as assisting with the copying of DNA, breaking down foodstuffs and producing energy from them, and constructing chains of compounds from simple molecules.
Enzymes are produced by mitochondria inside each cell. Large parts of enzymes consist of proteins, the rest of are vitamins and vitamin-like substances. Were it not for these enzymes, none of our functions, from the simplest to the most complex, could take place, or else would occur so slowly as to stop altogether. In either case, the result would be the same—death. We could not speak, eat, digest, see or even breathe– in short, we could not live.
Enzymes’ most important tasks are to initiate, halt and accelerate various chemical reactions in the body. As the cells perform their functions, the chemicals inside them must react accordingly. Higher temperatures are needed to initiate most chemical reactions. Yet such high temperature could pose a danger to living cells, causing them injury or death. The solution to this dilemma lies in enzymes.
An obvious miracle of creation, enzymes manage to initiate or accelerate chemical reactions even in the absence of high temperature, yet as catalysts, they do not enter into—or are themselves changed—by these reactions. Take one example from your daily life of how enzymes accelerate the processes taking place within your body: Thanks to an enzyme involved in the removal of carbon dioxide from the blood as you inhale, you do not suffocate. An enzyme known as anhydrase accelerates the process of cleansing carbon dioxide by a factor of 10 million times! At this speed, the anhydrase can transform 36 million molecules every minute.
The Body’s Rapid and Economical Production Vehicles
Enzymes permit vital reactions to take place as quickly as possible, and also to exploit the body’s energy in the most efficient way. If you compare the human body to a factory, with the many enzymes working within its cells as various means of production, no source of energy would be able to run with that factory. Because the level...