What role do enzymes play in biological processes?

Enzymes are critical biological catalysts that significantly increase the rate of chemical reactions within living organisms. They achieve this by lowering the activation energy required for reactions to occur, thus enabling processes such as metabolism, digestion, and synthesis of essential molecules to happen much more efficiently and swiftly. Without enzymes, many biochemical reactions would proceed too slowly to sustain life, highlighting their vital role in all biological processes. This ability to speed up reactions is why enzymes are often referred to as catalysts, emphasizing their function in facilitating the body's numerous chemical transformations while remaining unchanged at the end of the reaction.