Enzymes are biological molecules that act as a facilitator to speed up the process of chemical reactions and help complex reactions occur everywhere in life. The multitude of reactions within our cells are sped up by enzymes. Without these biomolecules, these biochemical pathways would be as slow as a turtle. For example without enzymes, your body would not be able to break down and absorb all the food you just had for lunch. The food would simply sit there until reactions slowly started to happen on their own.
Like with everything that is involved with work, enzymes have optimal work conditions. specific temperature and pH levels have especially big effects. If the enzymes are present in cold temperatures, the reaction rate will slow down, and as the temperature increases, molecules will have more kinetic energy so they’ll moving around faster, increasing the probability that they’ll collide and thus cause a reaction. Each enzyme has a specific optimum temperature where the reaction rate is at a maximum. Very hot temperatures can distort the enzyme up, lowering the reaction rate again to the point where it’s denatured and it can no longer work.
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