Enzymes Q&A

1. What are enzymes?

Enzymes are protein chemicals, which carry a vital energy factor needed for every chemical action, and reaction that occurs in our body. There are approximately 1300 different enzymes found in the human cell. These enzymes can combine with coenzymes to form nearly 100,000 various chemicals that enable us to see, hear, feel, move, digest food, and think. Every organ, every tissue, and all the 100 trillion cells in our body depend upon the reactions of metabolic enzymes and their energy factor. Nutrition cannot be explained without describing the part that enzymes play.

2. Why haven't I heard about enzymes before now?

Pharmaceutical companies placed the focus on vitamins and minerals. During the 1930s, Dr. Wolfe in Germany discovered the use of animal enzymes. During the same time period, Dr. Howell in America discovered the use of plant enzyme supplements. Research from these two health pioneers has paved the way for the enzyme supplementation that is used today.

Research in the mid 1940s established that the presence or absence of an enzyme in the body is heritable and governed by our DNA. In other words, we inherit our ability to produce or not produce the necessary enzymes needed for life.

Science has further established that our very life is made possible by enzymatic action. In other words, we could not exist without enzymes and as we age our ability to make metabolic enzymes lessens. Disease is considered nothing more than the lack of or imbalance of enzymes. Enzyme imbalances may be inherited or they can be created.

Even with all this information, enzyme education in America did not begin until the mid 1980s. Enzyme supplementation has become an accepted health care alternative in the 1990s because research has proven:

Enzyme supplements are not destroyed by stomach acid. (It was thought and taught that enzyme supplements could not be useful because they were destroyed in the hostile environment of the stomach).
Anyone who eats cooked or processed food requires supplementation to assist digestion.
So far as science has been able to discover, the only function any vitamin has is the role it plays in supporting enzymes.
Vitamins and minerals are coenzymes meaning they require an enzyme to work.

3. Does raw food or juicing in our diet guarantee enough enzymes to meet our needs?

Raw food provides only enough enzymes to digest that particular food. There are no extra enzymes in raw food to digest cooked or processed food. Although a totally raw diet may appear to be the best solution, it is generally not practical, and in most cases, not medically advisable. Due to the risk of bacterial contamination, many foods should not be eaten raw, including meats, poultry, eggs and beans. Many people find the fiber content in large quantities of raw food difficult to digest.

4. Why is enzyme supplementation important?

Most people will choose cooked foods over raw foods. Gas ripened and irradiated foods have no enzyme activity because of this processing. Our body makes our metabolic enzymes from the complete amino acid food we ingest. Complete amino acids are only found in animal products. It takes a combination of many plant products to make a complete amino source, and these sources are usually processed or heated, destroying the enzymes. We usually cook our animal products, robbing them of their enzymes. As we age, our bodies ability to produce enzymes decreases. Nuts that are raw contain an enzyme inhibitor (as do most beans). Grains and flour are processed, robbing them of their enzymes. Enzyme supplements assure an adequate enzyme supply.

5. What about supplements such as C0Q10, blue green algae, green barley,vitamins and minerals?

CoQ10 is a coenzyme and was first isolated from a cow's heart. A coenzyme is an organic molecule, usually containing phosphorus and some vitamins. A coenzyme and an apo-enzyme must unite in order to function. Vitamins and minerals are considered coenzymes. A coenzyme is dependent on another energy and an enzyme to work. Blue Green Algae and chlorophyll products are wonderful foods that contain minerals, vitamins, and enzymes because they are a plant food. However, they do not have the digestive action of supplemental plant enzymes and at best, their enzymes will only deliver the nutrients they contain. Hydrochloric acid, or HCL, is a normal constituent of gastric juice in human beings. Although administered to aid digestion, it is not an enzyme nor does it act as an enzyme.

6. What constitutes a healthy body?

Complete health is the sum total of the soundness of our own individual enzyme system. The health of our organs and glands is completely dependent upon our enzyme making abilities. When we are ill, it is because our organs and glands, individually or collectively, cannot function at ideal levels. This is completely influenced by the absence or deficiency of metabolic enzymes. Inherited genes (DNA) control our body's production of metabolic enzymes. Research in the mid 1940's established that some people inherit a low enzyme potential and come into this life with an enzyme deficiency. For those of us born with normal enzyme potential we still loose our ability to produce metabolic enzymes as we age.

Diet is an influence on the health of our glands and organs, and it interacts directly with our genetics. However, good nutrition alone is not enough to attain the genetic potential of your organs and glands. Only if we eat the best of foods with the proper enzymes to assist in their digestion, can we alleviate stress on the entire system and increase the body's ability to fight off disease. Enzymes are vital to the ability of glands and organs to receive the specific nutrients they require to function properly.

7. What is good nutrition?

Simply stated, nutrition is the body's ability to consume the 45-known nutrients in their proper amounts, digest these nutrients, absorb these nutrients, carry these nutrients into the cells, metabolize these nutrients, and eliminate the waste without getting fat. The following is a list of the 45-known nutrients:

•carbohydrates
•Lipids
•Proteins
•Water
•9 - Amino Acids
•13 - Vitamins
•19 - Minerals

Eating these nutrients (along with their enzymes) in their proper amounts will normally ensure good nutrition. Enzymes are responsible for digesting, absorbing, transporting, metabolizing, and eliminating the waste of these nutrients. To emphasize again, every organ, every tissue, and all the 100 trillion cells in our body depend upon the reaction of metabolic enzymes and their energy factor.

8. What enzymes should I take for proper digestion?

Protease breaks down protein, amylase breaks down carbohydrate and starch, and lipase breaks down fat. These three enzymes break down the majority of the type of food you eat. Added to these are: lactase (break down lactose-dairy), maltase & sucrase (break down food sugars), plus cellulase (break down cellulose and needed by those with food allergies).

9. Where do we get enzymes?

Our body makes enzymes called metabolic enzymes. They are responsible for every action that takes place in our body including digestion.

Enzymes are found in raw foods. However, there are just enough enzymes in each particular food to assist in the breakdown of that food.

Supplemental plant enzymes are grown from food and measured by their action. They are sold in capsules or powder form. These enzymes can be ingested with food to assist in the digestion of food and the absorption of the nutrients. They can also be taken between meals to energize the body, fortify organs and build our biological defense system.

10. How do enzymes work in our bodies?

When we eat raw foods, heat and moisture in the mouth activate the enzymes in the food. Once active, these enzymes digest all of our food and make it small enough to pass through the villi (small pores of the intestines) and into the blood. The metabolic enzymes found in the blood then take the digested 45-known nutrients and build them into muscles, nerves, bones, blood, lungs, and various glands. Every cell in the body depends on certain enzymes. A protein digestive enzyme will not digest a fat; a fat enzyme will not digest a starch (carbohydrate). Each enzyme has a specific function in the body; this is referred to enzyme specificity. Enzymes act upon chemicals and change them into other chemicals, but enzymes themselves remain unchanged. Simply stated, our chemicals are changed from their original identify by the enzyme to other chemicals with a different identity. Without enzymes nothing in our body would work.

11. How can you preserve your body's enzyme level?

It seems that we inherit a certain enzyme potential at birth. However, if we depend solely on our body to produce all the enzymes we need, our enzyme potential will be depleted at a much faster rate than nature intended. To fortify your enzyme potential, you must eat raw foods as much and often as possible and/or take certain enzyme supplements. Failure to do so may result in serious illness or even early death.

12. What is some other evidence that we waste our enzymes?

Only humans can live a long time on enzyme-free food. All wild animals get their enzymes from raw food. Wild animals using raw food do not have the rich concentrations of enzyme activity in their digestive juices that humans do. For example, wild animals (deer, elephants, and other ruminants) have no enzymes at all in their saliva. When we examine human saliva, we find high concentrations of ptyalin (an amylase enzyme that digests starch). When dogs and cats eat their natural raw, carnivorous diet, there are no enzymes in the saliva. However, when dogs are fed on a high carbohydrate, heat-treated diet, like humans, enzymes show up in the saliva within about a week. This indicates that we waste our enzymes to digest cooked food. Our body has to adapt and start making more digestive enzymes thus reducing the availability of many of the other metabolic enzymes needed to run and maintain our body's systems and cells.

Other evidence that suggest we may be wasting our reserves of enzymes is the fact that, with relation to total body size, a wild animal has a smaller pancreas in comparison to the human pancreas. This suggests that wild animals get along with far less pancreatic enzymes than humans do.

13. Can our bodies make enzymes to replace old worn-out excreted ones?

The body can make enzymes. However, research confirms that it is self-defeating to obligate the body to make excessive amounts of highly concentrated digestive enzymes for digest due to the drain this places on the rest of the organs and tissues. Stress and hard physical labor in hot temperatures seem to use up more enzymes, which could shorten your life. To prevent this enzyme loss from shortening your life span, you have only one solution: you must provide enzyme reinforcements from an outside source in order to cut down the secretion of digestive enzymes and allow your body to make enough metabolic enzymes.

14. As we age, do our enzymes get weaker?

Yes. Research found that the enzyme of the saliva in young adults was 30 times stronger than in persons over 69 years old. Another researcher found amylase to be stronger in the urine of young adults as compared to older adults. There is an abundance of literature that shows experimental animals live longer when their food is significantly reduced. An explanation of this research finding could be that less food means fewer digestive enzymes are required to digest the reduced food intake. This could contribute to a higher enzyme potential, which could keep death away as well as arm the body against disease.

15. Why does our ability to produce enzymes grow weaker as we grow older?

One research study enlisted 10 young and 10 older men and used a drug to stimulate the pancreatic juice flow. The juice was then pumped out and tested. It was found that the enzyme amylase was much weaker in the older men. It was determined that the enzyme deficiency of the older group was due to exhaustion in the cells of the pancreas. Other research indicates that not only do our enzymes get weaker in the pancreas, but they also weaken in the trillions of cells in our body. One explanation for this might be that our pancreas, which weighs only 3 ounces, cannot begin to supply the vast amount of enzyme activity required by the pancreatic secretion, not to mention the tremendous need for protein to equip the enzyme complex (molecular structure of the enzyme). The pancreas must borrow these entities stored in the cells to make the enzyme complex. This could be a definition of "old age". Because old age and debilitated metabolic enzyme activity are synonymous, if we postpone the debilitation of metabolic enzyme activity, then we might delay the aging process.

16. Should children take enzymes?

Yes. Children usually eat the same enzyme-deficient foods as their parents. Breast-feeding is an important way babies receive enzymes. Children that are breast-fed acquire dozens of enzymes from their mother's milk. Bottle-fed babies receive pasteurized milk that has been heated, which destroys the milk enzymes. Drinking pasteurized milk causes the baby's enzyme factory to begin using its reserve of enzymes from day one. Research indicates that this could be harmful for the child. A study involving 20,061 babies was divided into three groups: breast-fed, partially breast-fed, and bottle-fed. They studied the morbidity (sickness) rate for the first nine months of the infant's life. They found that 37.4% of the breast-fed infants had sickness; in comparison to 53.8% of the partially breast-fed; and 63.6% of the bottle-fed. It is obvious that babies who were entirely breast-fed were healthier than babies who were only partially breast-fed or who were bottle-fed. They also examined the mortality rates of these different groups. The mortality rate among the bottle-fed infants was 56 times greater thanamong the breast-fed. In the United States one deformed child is born every 5 minutes, which is the equivalent of one in every ten families. This adds up to 250,000 deformed babies yearly. Dr. Andre Hakannson at Lund University in Sweden discovered that when he added mother's milk to cultured cancer cells that were alive prior to the addition of the milk, he soon found them to be dead. Further tests indicated that the milk killed only tumor cells, while normal adult cells were left intact. Research is trying to tell us that we, which includes pregnant women and children, must eat raw foods that contain enzymes and/or take supplemental enzymes.

17. Can enzymes control obesity?

Very definitely. Obese individuals were found to have deficiency in the enzyme lipase. Lipase is found in abundance in raw foods. Cooking destroys lipase in raw foods. Lipase is the enzyme that aids the body in breaking down and storing fats. Without lipase, our fat stagnates and accumulates in our arteries, which could lead to heart disease. Lipase also helps us to burn fat for energy. By eating cooked foods, which have no enzymes, we will put weight on more abundantly than if we eat raw foods. For example, pig farmers will not feed their pigs raw potatoes because the pigs stay lean. Instead, the farmers feed the pigs boiled potatoes and the pigs become fat.

Another reason why enzymes reduce obesity is because cooked foods cause drastic changes in the size and appearance of the pituitary gland. Researchers have found that enzymes affect our hormone-producing glands and hormones influence our enzyme levels. Cooked foods cause our pancreas, thyroid, and pituitary glands to exhaust their enzymes to digest our food. This causes our body to become sluggish, leading to weight gain. Raw food calories are relatively non-stimulating to glands and stabilize body weight more so than cooked food calories.

18. Can enzymes therapy help arthritis?

Some researchers believe that rheumatoid arthritis might be a deficiency disease arising from an inability to deal adequately with protein digestion and metabolism in the small intestine. Enzymes extracted from intestinal mucosa in the small intestine were given to persons with rheumatic ailments. Among more than 700 patients treated with the enzyme over a period of seven years, good results were obtained in rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis and fibrositis. It should be pointed out that for the first six to nine weeks of therapy there might be no noticeable improvement. The longer the duration of the disease, the longer the lag before improvement is observed.

19. Can enzymes therapy help fight cancer?

It should be pointed out that cancer is a complex problem that requires trained medical attention if enzyme therapy is to be employed. Research has shown abundant laboratory proof of profoundly disturbed enzyme chemistry in cancer patients. Most cancer cells show a deficiency in enzymes. In order for a normal cell to work properly it must have good proteins, vitamins, minerals, etc., (the 45-known nutrients) reinforced daily. But to eat these nutrients in a proper diet is not enough. Your body requires metabolic enzymes (enzymes within the cell) to build these materials into blood, nerves, organs, and tissues. If you allot much of your enzyme power for digestion, and less for running your body, you are inviting cancer. Using outside enzyme supplementation to help with digestion, you will then have plenty of enzyme power to run the cells properly and maybe prevent or help fight your cancer. Also, adding enzymes in supplemental form should be beneficial.

20. Can enzymes help with allergies?

Many researchers theorize that being allergic to a raw food may be nature's way of telling us that the food's enzymes are incompatible with some unhealthy bodily condition and are trying to destroy it. This confrontation between food enzyme and disease could result in the classic symptoms of itching, nasal discharges, and rashes. There are various types of metabolic enzymes, including scavenger enzymes. Scavenger enzymes are believed to patrol the blood and dissolve the waste that accumulates from the millions of metabolic reactions that take place each second within each cell of the body. These special enzymes cruise about in the blood looking for dead, inert, and offensive material that might accumulate and harm the body. In fact, some of our scavenger enzymes are present in the white blood cells. The main function of these enzymes includes the attempt to prevent the arteries from clogging up and the joints from being crammed with arthritic deposits. If the scavenger enzymes find the right substrate, they latch on and reduce it to a form that the blood can excrete. If these scavenger enzymes cannot handle the waste, nature causes some of the wastes to be excreted through the skin, or membranes of the nose and throat, which produces the familiar symptoms that we call allergies. Other researchers believe that incompletely digested protein molecules cause allergies. Allergies may be helped if certain enzyme supplements are taken that can act as scavenger enzymes or as protein digestive enzymes.

21. Can enzymes lower cholesterol?

Yes, in most individuals. Remember that cholesterol is a form of fat. Research has substantiated that consumed animal fats tend to cause cholesterol to settle in the arteries and cause artherosclersosis. However, it has also been found that the crystal clear "purified" vegetable oils (not heated) do not raise the blood cholesterol level. One answer for this might lie with the fact that lipase is found in the fat of animals (including humans) and plants. One researcher found that the fat tissue in obese humans has less lipase than the fat tissues in a slender person.

Three British researchers tested the enzymes in normal individuals and individuals with atherosclerosis to find the relationship between cholesterol and clogged arteries. They found that all enzymes studied became progressively weaker in the arteries as persons became older and also as the hardening became more severe. These researchers believe that a shortage of enzymes is part of a mechanism, which allows cholesterol deposits to accumulate in the inner-part of the arterial walls (intima). Another researcher found a progressive decline in lipase in the blood of atherosclerotic patients with advancing middle and old age. Yet another research found that not only was lipase low in older persons, but that older atheroslcerotic persons had slow fat absorption from the intestine. He also found that some absorbed fat was in the unhydrolyzed state.

When he fed lipase extracted from animal pancreas to the older and younger persons he found a definite improvement in fat utilization.

Research confirms that when we eat fats with their enzymes intact no harmful effect on the arteries or heart results. No atherosclerosis in the arteries will occur. Wild animals do not have atherosclerosis because they eat raw foods containing enzymes. However, when we cook our foods we destroy the enzymes in the fat, which also kills the lipase. The result is cholesterol sticking to the intima (inner lining of the artery) and heart disease. Taking plant enzyme lipase or eating raw food will normally lower your cholesterol and may protect you against heart disease.

22. Can enzymes help with diabetes?

Depends on the type of your diabetes. Type II (adult-onset) normally responds better to enzyme therapy than Type I (juvenile). Research has shown that when there is a lack of blood amylase, blood sugar levels can be higher than normal. When the enzyme amylase is administered, blood sugar levels drop significantly. One researcher showed that 86% of the diabetics that he examined had a deficiency of amylase in their intestinal secretions. He administered amylase to a majority of these patients and found that 50% of the diabetics who were users of insulin could control their blood sugar levels without the use of insulin. Amylase may help with storage and utilization of sugar in the blood.

Another researcher found that cooked starch foods, where amylase and other enzymes had been destroyed, caused the blood sugar levels to rise significantly in one-half hour after ingestion. After two hours the cooked food starch eaters' blood sugar level fell quickly and significantly. This resulted in fatigue, anxiety, and sluggishness. In comparison, the raw starch eaters' blood sugar levels only experienced a slight rise and drop. These patients experienced a much steadier metabolic rate and emotional stability.

Many diabetics could lower their insulin requirements if they would eat raw foods or take plant enzyme supplements.

23. Can enzymes help with hypoglycemia?

Probably. Authorities have estimated that anywhere from ten to one hundred million Americans are suffering from hypoglycemia. When we suffer from hypoglycemia, every organ in our body is going to be affected by the low blood sugar level. A drop in one's sugar level will cause mental fatigue, depression, and sluggishness because our brain depends on glucose for its food. Our endocrine glands, especially the pituitary, adrenals, thyroid, and pancreas, control our glucose (sugar) level. The pancreas secretes insulin, which causes a decrease in our glucose level by facilitating the movement of glucose into the cell. Glucagon, another pancreatic hormone, causes our glucose level to rise when it is too low. Our thyroid gland secretes thyroxin that controls the rate of our cells basal metabolic rate, and usage of oxygen for energy. All of these glands are controlled by the pituitary gland which, in turn, is controlled by an area of the brain called the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus receives information from all parts of the body via the nervous system. This includes relating whether a person is hungry, depressed, happy, tired, or sluggish.

When there is a deficiency of enzymes from our food, the pituitary and other organs can hypertrophy (enlarge). When this happens we are more susceptible to disease, especially hypoglycemia. When there is a lack of amylase, blood glucose levels can be higher than normal. Intake of amylase, either supplemental or by eating raw foods, causes the glucose level to stabilize, thus protecting against an erratic rise or drop in the blood glucose level. This helps us with our depression, fatigue, and sluggishness.

24. Can enzymes help with psoriasis?

Many dermatologists have reported favorable results with enzyme therapy. In the 1930s researchers found they could treat psoriasis by having their patients eat large quantities of raw butter. Raw butter contains large amounts of lipase. Recent research has also found that massive doses of lipase will help cure psoriasis. However, when large amounts of concentrated enzymes are used, it is essential that the patient be observed by a doctor with experience in this type of treatment.

25. Will enzymes interfere with my medication?

Pharmaceutical plant enzymes only breakdown and deliver natural food sources. Enzymes do not deliver synthetics so they do not interfere with your medication.

26. Do athletes and physically active people have different enzymes needs than others?

Yes, in theory athletes have a greater need for enzymes. Research has shown that enzymes are lost in perspiration and the body uses up enzymes during exercise. This is especially true for those that push their body to extreme endurance levels, such as levels that are characterized by cramps and dehydration problems.

27. I'm trying to body build and I was wondering if enzymes will help me with that?

Most likely. If muscle tissue enzymes were not working in the muscle tissue, there would be no muscular growth, not even the basic muscular activity to create growth. Enzymes are the catalysts that turn food into energy to make the muscles move and grow.

28. Can supplemental enzymes help slow the aging process?

According to Bob Farmer, Ph.D., a professor at Baylor University, the DNA of our body's cells is constantly being damaged. When a cell's DNA is damaged one of three things will happen: the cell will die; the change will be detected by the immune system and T-cells will kill it; or the cell will simply cease to do its assigned duty but will still hang around, using nutrients but providing no service. Dr. Farmer feels that the later of these three, the accumulation over a lifetime of millions of freeloading cells, is a primary cause of the aging process. The key then is to enhance the immune system so it can find and destroy these freeloading cells. Enzymes, along with a healthy lifestyle, can help improve the immune system and eliminate cells which are no longer needed by our body.

29. What about controlling the effects of an acquired disease?

Research is ongoing, however enzymes have been shown to benefit some people with everything from migraine headaches, insomnia and allergies to diabetes, heart disease and leukemia. Enzymes aid in the digestion of food and distribution of nutrients through the body. This process allows the endocrine system to function properly resulting in hormonal balance. When the body is functioning properly and efficiently the immune system is better prepared to fight any disease and maintain the balance.