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Enzymes / Digestive Enzymes / Enzyme Supplements
General Description All living things need enzymes in order to maintain life. The body depends upon enzymes to help purify the blood, break down fats, cleanse the colon, maintain proper cholesterol levels and maintain peak energy levels. Food enzymes are not something new, but have been known to exist since the time of Hippocrates. It has long been recognized that illness is related to improper diet and inadequate nutrition and that fasting, juicing, and diets rich in herbs and raw foods help restore the body to health. Traditional foods and ethnic diets with herbs were the rule prior to the introduction of modern processed foods. One of the longest living populations on earth, the Hunz, subsisted primarily on a raw food diet, a diet abundant with enzymes. Enzymes act within different ranges of temperature and pH, depending upon their type and function and are easily destroyed by cooking, including microwave ovens. Work being done in Europe with raw food diets show that patients with long-standing degenerative diseases are able to make remarkable recoveries, and the National Institute of Health has recently released a study showing that eating smaller meals leads to a longer life. This suggests that our intrinsic enzyme production is better able to take care of smaller dietary loads than a larger intake of food.
What Enzymes Do Enzymes are complex protein molecules that are found in every cell in your body. Enzymes can become activated, and are capable of specific tasks such as, the production of energy or exchange of oxygen, and carbon dioxide, when we breathe. They are able to transfer energy to other molecules, making it easier for them to be produced, and utilized by the body, creating a domino effect, and therefore, speeds up all bodily functions. Our body contains 1,300 different enzymes that break down nutrients, rebuild cells, and cause the body to function disease-free. The digestive system transforms food into energy for the body's use by breaking down complex proteins, fats and carbohydrates into smaller, simpler, and more usable forms. Without this transformation, digestion and assimilation of nutrients is difficult to impossible. Your health is more overtaxed, and abused by excesses of processed foods, and stimulants: baked flour, dairy, and, caffeine, soft drinks, sugar, and alcohol. Digestion begins with the sight and smell of food that stimulates the secretion of enzymes. The tasting and chewing allows saturation of the salivary enzyme, amylase, which breaks down the starch to glucose when chewing potato or bread. The pH drops to an acid range as low as four or five. The upper portion of the stomach called the fundus continues to use amylase and other enzymes for predigestion. The stomach contents are then passed through the pyloric valve into the small intestine where it is mixed with pancreatic juices. These juices are rich in enzymes such as protease (protein), amylase (starch) and lipase (fat, digesters). They continue to digest and prepare food for assimilation. The alkaline nature of the pancreatic secretions helps to neutralize the stomach acids (which aid in digestion), and protects the small intestine.
Enzymes Natural Protection from Illness Enzymes have a great effect upon the entire immune function. White blood cells contain digestive enzymes such as alkaline phosphatase, lipase, protease, amylase and peptidase, which are part of the pancreatic juices, and are only a part of many enzymes that increase immune function. Pancreatin contains the pancreatic enzymes amylase, lipase, and trypsin. These useful pancreatic enzymes assist in the breakdown of starches, fats, and proteins. These white blood cell enzymes act to destroy bacterial and viral proteins (which may cause disease) and also act on improperly digested food. It has been shown that the white blood cell concentration in the stomach and the intestines increase with digestion as white blood cell enzymes are needed to help with the breakdown and assimilation of food. A diet rich in raw food, and using herbs as food and medicine is rich in enzymes, which predigest the food in the stomach sparing the body's white blood cell reserve. This is why a decreased appetite and/or nausea often accompanies a disease process. Also, digesting cooked or processed foods requires energy and white blood cells that are needed elsewhere to fight the disease process. Brain chemistry turns off the hunger center in the brain as needed so the immune system can be at peak function to fight the disease process.
Nutritional Enzyme Therapy Enzymes are very useful in treating various illnesses. They are absorbed by the body as intact molecules and are distributed to the body through the bloodstream as needed supporting the body's needs against the disease process.
Enzyme Supplementation The use of enzymes as a supplement with meals has been popular for some time. We consume cooked and processed foods such as fast foods that are nutritionally incomplete. This adds to the burden of the pancreas and immune system to replace lost enzymes, robbing the body of energy production, enzyme reserve and function. Enzyme supplementation with meals is a very good preventive measure. A good general digestive formula, which also helps the body to adjust to its proper weight and works great for weight loss, should contain betain HCI (increases stomach acidity), pancreatin and pancrelipase ( digests starches, fats, proteins), papain (digests proteins), pepsin (digests proteins), diatase (digest starches), and Ox Bile (digests fat). Many herbs are enzyme activators that potentiate and enhance enzymatic action while reducing inflammation, removing gas and increasing digestion: Fenugreek (Trigonella foenumgraecum) is one of these herbs. Fenugreek is cleansing to the bronchial passages of catarrh and other irritants and extraneous materials. It is useful for all mucus conditions and for lung congestion; soothing to inflamed conditions of the stomach and intestines and for ulcers; effective as a poultice on wounds, inflamed areas, boils and carbuncles. May be used as a lubricant for the intestines, as a digestive aid, for fevers, diabetes, gout, and as an aphrodisiac and rejuvenator. A suggested dosage of Fenugreek is two or more 500 mg capsules, 10-15 minutes before meals. If more is needed you should consult your health practitioner. It is important that your physician evaluates persistent digestive problems.
References: Krusel, Thomas: Health Foods Business, June 1993 Berst, Truman: Herbal Descriptions, 1976 - 1996 Berst, Truman: Tru’s Health & Herb News -1996 | |||
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