Question: what is the point of a protein in the body?

Seyyed Shah answered on 19 Jun 2012:

Hello again. I enjoyed answering your questions in the live chat.

If I remember correctly, I was unable to finish answering this one. But I will do so now.

Proteins control every aspect of our bodies. Special proteins called enzymes control and speed up chemical reactions, like digestion of food. For example, there is an enzyme called amylase in our saliva which breaks down sugar in the food we eat.

Proteins bind to DNA and they can switch genes on or off. Proteins also make movement in the body possible. There are proteins in your muscles which use energy to move along other proteins in muscle, causing the muscle to contract (get shorter). This is how we move our arms and legs, and other parts of our bodies.

Our hair and skin is made of a protein called keratin. So, without protein, we would have no hair! There are many other examples of what proteins do in the human body.

When proteins don’t work properly, we can become ill. For example, if we stop eating food that contains vitamin C, our skin will become cut and our gums will start to bleed because vitamin C is needed for the protein in the skin, and without it the skin will become weak and eventually come apart.