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Systemic enzyme supplements are used to instigate various chemical reactions within cells
and not necessarily for food digestion. The clinical use of enzymes is most widely practiced
in Germany, where they are commonly used for their anti-fibrotic, anti-inflammatory,
immune-supportive and blood- thinning properties. More than 50 studies have confirmed
their use in treating rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis, sports injuries and maintaining
good heart health and immune function. One systemic oral enzyme preparation is the No.
1 non-aspirin, over-the-counter medicine for pain and inflammation and the ninth-leading
natural medicine among all medical drugs in Germany. In the United States, systemic oral
enzymes have been overlooked by most physicians and consumers, but this trend is
changing.
Proteolytic systemic enzymes (proteases), such as those found in bromelain, papain and
pancreatin, cleave protein compounds by hydrolysis. That is, they split their substrate by
incorporating water. These enzymes are absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract into the
bloodstream and travel to specific sites where they break down cell debris, fibrin and
toxins. They also stimulate phagocytosis within the immune system and accelerate
elimination by way of the lymphatic system and blood vessels. This translates into
improved circulation and reduced inflammation.
In contrast to chemical inhibitors of inflammation such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory
drugs (NSAIDs), enzyme preparations support and accelerate the natural inflammatory
process without contributing to pain, redness and swelling. This is accomplished by helping
degrade and remove plasma proteins and fibrin that invade the interstitial space within
tissues at the site of inflammation. Improved microcirculation and removal of inflammatory
products results in an analgesic effect and complaint relief.
Proteolytic enzymes, which when taken with a meal is used to help digest food. Proteolytic
enzymes are known as systemic enzyme supplements and are taken on an empty
stomach, 45 minutes to one hour before meals or 3 hours after a meal, to digest
proteinaceous or fibrous waste material throughout the body including the outer coating of
bacteria, cysts, tumors, necrotic tissue and immune complexes. The only negative effects
are for people with rare cases of protein allergies.
ANTI-INFLAMMATORY ACTION OF PROTEOLYTIC ENZYMES
Inflammation in its many forms is perhaps the most general and fundamental reaction in
all possible pathological conditions, for there is hardly any disease condition, which would
not include in its course at least some inflammatory phase.
After an injury, circulation in the tiny blood vessels is slowed by small blood clots. The
body's defenders, leukocytes, or white corpuscles rush in and deposit fibrin, an elastic
enzyme, around the affected area until an inflammatory membrane has been laid down.
Edema (the accumulation of fluid) and pain follow. The classical symptoms of inflammation
are: redness, swelling, heat and pain, which are secondary symptoms after the initial
changes have taken place.
At the moment any injury occurs, a series of defense actions begin. The object is the
elimination of the harmful damage, or to prevent its further spreading in the organism, by
isolation of the offender, and to restore the original physiology as far as possible. All of
these defense reactions are grouped together under the elective name of inflammatory
reactions. An inflammatory condition should be treated according to the severity, the
extent, the cause and the state of reaction of the organism.
Synthetic "inflammation inhibitors" which are active at certain points during the course of
the inflammatory reactions are available. They are sometimes associated with undesirable
side effects such as insomnia, depression, systemic fungal infection, increased calcium
excretion, gastrointestinal irritation, visual complaints, fever and fatigue. These
"inflammation inhibitors" are divided mainly into two groups: Steroids, i.e., cortisone and
its derivatives, and the Non-Steroids, which are usually salicylic acid derivatives such as
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small intestine) after plant enzymes have begun the digestive process in the stomach.
3. Plant (Food) Enzymes
Plant, or food, enzymes are essential in the proper digestion of food. Present in all raw
plants (and also available as supplements), plant enzymes include protease (digests
protein), amylase (digests carbohydrates), lipase (digests fat), disaccharidases (digest
sugar), and cellulase (digests fiber). Unlike pancreatic enzymes, plant enzymes work in the
mouth and the stomach where they predigest foods. Plant enzymes also operate in the
small intestine, aiding pancreatic enzymes in continuing the digestive process.
Each plant enzyme does its work only at its own specific pH (see quick definition) and
temperature ranges and in the presence of moisture (water). Outside its pH range, the
enzyme is deactivated but not destroyed, while outside of its temperature range, the
enzyme is denatured (destroyed). Enzymes, more heat-sensitive than vitamins, are
destroyed by cooking temperatures above 118 F, pasteurization, canning, and
microwaving.
How Plant Enzymes Work
Plant or food enzymes are responsible for three classes of work: pre-digestion, nutritional
support, and acute or chronic support.
Pre-digestion
As discussed, plant enzymes initiate pre-digestion of foods in the upper portion of the
stomach. They can eliminate digestive problems leading to food allergies by increasing the
supply of the deficient enzyme during this predigestive process.
The main food enzymes which initiate the process of digestion are: protease for protein
digestion; lipase for fat digestion; amylase for carbohydrate digestion; disaccharidases for
the digestion of disaccharides (sucrose, lactose, and maltose) into simple sugars; and
cellulase for the digestion of the soluble parts of fiber into smaller units. Since cellulase is
not made by the human body, it's important to chew all raw foods well in order to release
the cellulase enzyme.
Eating a diet rich in raw foods and/or taking plant enzyme supplements will not make your
pancreas lazy because pancreatic enzymes don't operate in the stomach. On the contrary,
food enzymes--and only food enzymes--spare the pancreas from having to compensate for
inadequate predigestion. The pancreas was never meant to be totally responsible for
digestion--early humans consumed primarily raw foods.
Nutritional Support
Food enzymes augment delivery of nutritional support by ensuring digestion of a needed
nutrient. Vitamin and mineral deficiencies resulting from a refined-food diet, or the inability
to digest whole foods, may be treated by combining small amounts of foods, high in the
desired nutrients, with the plant enzymes required to digest them. In this way, the delivery
of those nutrients is guaranteed. This is a much better way of relieving nutritional
deficiencies than taking isolated vitamins or minerals.
For example, if you have a particular B-vitamin deficiency, taking that one isolated B
vitamin will not solve the problem. Instead, taking a combination of brewer's yeast and the
right amount of enzymes required to predigest the yeast, provides the lacking B vitamins
in proper ratio with the B complex.
ENZYMES AND THE GASTROINTESTINAL TRACT
Plant enzymes start digesting food in the mouth and stomach, and they also are active in
the small intestine. Pancreatic enzymes (of which there are 22 different kinds) are
secreted by the pancreas, located behind the stomach; their work occurs mainly in the
small intestine.
Acute or Chronic Support
Taken as a supplement on an empty stomach, plant enzymes enter the bloodstream,
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where they assist the immune system by digesting and disposing of toxins (any substance
that does not belong in the blood) and "eating" the protein coating on certain viruses,
enabling immune system workers to then destroy them. Thus, taking enzymes in this way
can help reverse inflammation. Each type of enzyme has a specific anti-inflammatory action
and will relieve inflammatory conditions related to a deficiency in that enzyme.
Since plant enzymes digest toxins rather than killing them off (as antibiotics do in the case
of bacterial infection, for example), the process involves no side effects if the digested
toxins can be properly eliminated through the urinary tract, colon, skin,and lungs.
Supplemental plant enzymes can thus be used as therapy inthree ways, depending on the
particular health condition and needs of the individual: to optimize digestion, absorption,
and assimilation of food which in turn keeps a healthy pH balance in the blood; to reverse
nutritional deficiencies; and as anti-inflammatories and detoxifying agents.
The Primary Digestive Enzymes
No matter what specific foods we eat, our diets are composed of protein, fat,
carbohydrates, sugars (disaccharides), and fiber, and we need the appropriate enzymes
(protease, lipase, amylase, disaccharidases, and cellulase) to break them down in
digestion. When a person is lacking in one or more of these primary digestive enzymes,
the food category associated with that enzyme does not get digested properly and that
person is said to be intolerant to that food. For example, without enough protease, a
protein-intolerance develops; without sufficient lipase, the individual is fat-intolerant,
simply meaning that fat is not being digested properly. When the enzyme deficiency is left
untreated, health problems inevitably result. Specific symptoms and conditions tend to
develop with each particular enzyme deficiency. Following is a more detailed discussion of
the primary digestive enzymes and some of the health problems arising when the enzymes
are in short supply.
A Primer on Digestion
Digestion begins in the mouth--if you adequately chew your food--with digestive enzymes
secreted by the salivary glands. These enzymes include amylase, lipase, and some
protease. Also at work in the mouth are the enzymes present in whatever raw foods are
being eaten. In addition to amylase, lipase, and protease, plant enzymes include cellulase,
which is not made by the human body.
Salivary enzymes combined with plant enzymes (from either raw foods or taken as a
supplement) continue the work of digestion in the upper or cardiac portion of the stomach.
For example, amylase will digest up to 60% of carbohydrates, protease up to 30% of
protein, and lipase up to 10% of fat, before HCl (hydrochloric or stomach) acid and pepsin
(the main enzyme secreted in the stomach) begin to work on food in the stomach. After
about an hour, stomach cells, called parietal cells, secrete enough HCl from the blood to
further acidify the predigested food to a low pH (from 3.0 to 1.5). This acidic pH
temporarily deactivates the plant enzymes, and the predigested food passes to the lower
or pyloric portion of the stomach, from which chief cells also secrete pepsin. It is here that
pepsin continues the digestion of protein. Adequate HCl is required to activate pepsin from
its inactive enzyme form pepsinogen inside the chief cells, and to maintain the stomach pH
below 3.0, the optimum pH at which pepsin does its work. In the next stage of digestion,
the partially digested food and the deactivated plant (food) enzymes pass through the
pyloric valve into the upper part of the small intestine (the duodenum). Here digestion
continues, with the help of bile, pancreatic enzymes, and an alkalizing substance
(bicarbonate), which reactivates the food enzymes, if there is proper alkalinity. Then
digestion continues in the jejunum (next section of the small intestine) where
disaccharidases (sugar-digesting enzymes) are secreted if the jejunum is healthy. From
the small intestine, the majority of nutrients from digested food are absorbed into the
blood.
Protease (digests protein)
Protease digests protein into smaller units called amino acids (see quick definition);not
only protein from food, but also other organisms which are composed of protein, such as
the coating on certain viruses, toxins from dead bacteria and other microorganisms, and
certain harmful substances produced at sites of injury or inflammation.
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As mentioned above, someone deficient in protease is protein-intolerant. Although proteinintolerant people may become vegetarians because meat and other high-protein foods
don't "agree" with them, that doesn't solve their problem. Their bodies can't digest any
form of protein, including that found in vegetables. Both the faulty digestive process and
the resulting deficiency in protein lead to a deterioration in health.
A protease deficiency compromises the immune system, leaving a person vulnerable to
frequent or chronic infections, either bacterial or viral, and more serious conditions,
including cancer. Protease deficiency can also lead to edema (fluid retention) anywhere in
the body, including swelling of the hands and feet or fluid in the ears. Toxic colon
syndrome (a buildup of toxins in the large intestine) is another result of the inability to
digest protein. It can lead to various intestinal problems including chronic constipation,
appendicitis, and even colon cancer.
In addition, since about half the protein you digest is converted to sugar, protease
deficiency and inadequate protein digestion can lead to hypoglycemia (low blood sugar),
with such symptoms as moodiness, depression, and irritability.
Protein, when digested properly, supplies acidity to the blood. If protein isn't digested, the
blood acquires excess alkaline reserves, which must be continuously dumped via the
kidneys into the urine. These excess alkaline reserves can produce a state of anxiety, often
treated with prescription tranquilizers which do nothing to address this simple underlying
imbalance. Since calcium is carried in the blood partly bound to digested protein and partly
inionic (salt) form, inadequate protein digestion, and the resulting excess alkaline reserves,
can lead to calcium metabolism problems, such as osteoporosis, osteoarthritis,
degenerative disc problems, and bone spurs. Protease also plays an important role in
preventing and eliminating blood clots.
Protease supplements can be taken with meals to increase digestion of protein. Between
meals, protease helps alleviate infections (bacterial and viral), and enhances the immune
system in general. Protease alleviates inflammatory conditions of any kind, especially those
associated with soft tissue trauma, as occurs in an accident or surgery. I have also had
patients who passed large worms while on high doses of protease (not over-the-counter
formulas) followed by total relief of symptoms (rashes, anal irritation, and so on). Some
but not all types of kidney problems, such as nephritis and drug-induced kidney damage,
can often be relieved with protease.
When a person is lacking in one or more of the primary digestive enzymes, the food
category associated with that enzyme does not get digested properly and that person is
said to be intolerant to that food. When the enzyme deficiency is left untreated, health
problems inevitably result.
The only people who cannot tolerate high doses of protease are those who suffer from
ulcers, gastritis (inflammation of the stomach), or hiatal (in the stomach) hernia, since
damaged mucosal tissue in the stomach cannot handle extra acidity from digested protein.
Many people have asked if the protease inhibitors currently being used to treat AIDS
patients interfere with plant protease. The answer is no, they can be used simtaneously.
Amylase (digests carbohydrates)
Amylase digests carbohydrates (polysaccharides), breaking them down into smaller units
called disaccharides, which are later converted into monosaccharides (simple sugars) such
as glucose and fructose. People who can't digest fats often eat--and tolerate--large
amounts of sugar to make up for the lack of fat in their diet. If their diet is excessive in
sugar, they can develop an amylase deficiency in addition to the original lipase deficiency.
Possessing antihistamine properties amylase can relieve many kinds of skin problems, such
as hives and rashes, contact dermatitis, and allergic reactions to bee stings, bug bites, and
poison oak or ivy. Amylase, combined with certain herbs, relieves herpes of any kind,
including canker sores, genital herpes, shingles, and chickenpox. Combined with certain
skin-healing herbs, it can heal acne, eczema, and psoriasis.
Although asthma is a direct result of sugar intolerance, amylase combined with lunghealing herbs helps alleviate the wheezing of asthmatics. This combination acts as a lung
expectorant and relieves the coughing accompanying colds and bronchitis. Amylase is
useful for athletes because it eases muscle soreness and pain following exercise. It also
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can treat writer's cramp and joint stiffness that is worse in the morning upon rising or
after sitting for long periods.
Amylase is important in preventing the proliferation of dead leukocytes (white blood cells),
which manifest as pus. For example, if you have an infected gum area, which antibiotics
don't heal, it may not be an infection, but rather an abscess--that is, pus with no bacteria.
With adequate amylase, the abscess could disappear or at least be dramatically diminished
within 48 hours.
Lipase (digests fats)
Lipase breaks down neutral fats (triglycerides) into glycerol (an alcohol) and fatty acids
(see quick definition). Before lipase can digest fat, bile, an emulsifier or degreaser, must
break the fat down into smaller units. People who are low in HCl cannot make adequate
bile. HCl deficiency is caused by protease deficiency (required to provide adequate acidity)
and lipase deficiency (required to carry chlorides). Thus lipase deficiency, inadequate HCl,
and stagnation of bile are interrelated.
There are two types of lipase-deficient people. The first are those who are truly fat
intolerant, get sick when they eat fat, and have gallbladder problems. These people
substitute sugar for fat. The second are people who are complex-carbohydrate intolerant
and make up for it by eating excessive amounts of fat. These people gradually develop a
lipase deficiency.
Lipase is important in maintaining optimum cell permeability, which allows nutrients to flow
easily into the cells and wastes to flow out. Two conditions arising from lipase deficiency
are diabetes and glucosuria (sugar in the urine without symptoms of diabetes). Most
people associate diabetes with sugar intolerance, but fat intolerance is the major enzyme
culprit. The inability to digest fat interferes with insulin metabolism and the transport of
glucose into the cell by insulin.
Lipase-deficient people may also have one or more of the following conditions or a
tendency towards them: high cholesterol and/or high blood triglycerides, high blood
pressure difficulty losing weight, and varicose veins. They may also be deficient in many
fat-soluble nutrients, including vitamins A, D, and E.
Disaccharidases (digest sugar)
People who cannot tolerate sugar or disaccharides tend to turn consume more protein. This
is a good choice because 46% of digested protein is converted to glucose upon demand
and glucose is a major source of energy for the brain and cells. Disaccharidases
(sometimes called carbohydrases) break down disaccharides into simple sugars such as
glucose and fructose. The three major disaccharides are sucrose (cane sugar), lactose
(milk sugar), and maltose (grain sugar). In particular, the digestion of sucrose produces
glucose plus fructose; lactose produces glucose plus galactose; and maltose produces two
glucose units.
Probably the major cause of sugar intolerance is excessive consumption of refined sugars.
Just as an enzyme deficiency can produce intolerance to the food digested by that enzyme,
eating too much of that food can result in intolerance to it because the body is unable to
keep up with the demand for the enzyme necessary to digest it, and deficiency results.
Thus, eating too much sugar leads to a deficiency in disaccharidases and sugar intolerance
develops. For most people in the United States, it is likely that both factors--intitial
enzyme deficiency along with excess consumption of sugar--are in operation due to the
lack of enzymes in the standard American diet of refined, processed foods and the average
per-person consumption of 150 pounds of sugar every year. Before the advent of the
processed food industry, Americans consumed an average of only five pounds of sugar per
year. This excessive sugar consumption is far beyond the capacity of the small intestine to
produce enough disaccharidases to digest all that sugar.
There are physical, mental, and emotional symptoms of a deficiency of disaccharidases and
the attendant sugar intolerance. Many of these symptoms also occur in people who have
an under active thyroid gland (hypothyroidism, see quick definition). Common physical
symptoms include diarrhea, especially from lactose intolerance, but both diarrhea and
constipation may result from maltose and sucrose intolerance as well. Lung problems,
especially asthma are common in sugar-intolerant people. People with environmental
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