Izabella Wentz presents more about leaky gut with these practitioners: scdlifestyle.com/ The discussion was more than an hour but the portion about digestive enzymes was of interest to me as it was always difficult to choose one and I wasn't sure how helpful the ones I tried have been.
Proteolytic enzymes definitely made improvements in my health which work in the bloodstream, digestive enzymes work in the stomach and must survive stomach acid. You can take them up to one half hour after eating a meal or during the meal. He included that low stomach acid is epidemic in his patients. But we also lose enzymes as we age and when we have low thyroid and leaky gut our pancreas may also be sluggish. They mentioned the inclusion of lactose in the formulas actually dilutes the enzymes so I looked at a few of them sold online and almost all contain lactose. Thorne does not add lactose to their formulas which I guess makes them more expensive. Also Numedica does not add lactose. There may be others. Without digesting your nutrients especially the oily ones such as vitamin D, K2 and vitamin A you are going to be deficient. Dr. Kharrazian suggested you may not even metabolize the supplements you take. If you have difficulty raising your levels that might be the proof.
Another interesting statement they made was that next to gluten, nsaids are the second cause of leaky gut in their opinion. When you have undigested food particles leaking out of the gut all sorts of problems arise. The two men do have a program at a discount for a few days but their theme is 'make simultaneous changes for sixty days'.
I do think we have to assume we are not getting enough nutrients due to not producing enough enzymes to do so. If you have deficiencies this may be the proof. Without enzymes we may rob our body of the nutrients we need to heal and I do believe we can heal.