Healthy help through enzymes
By Donna Werner, DC

The 20th century saw remarkable gains in wiping out the nutritional scourges of the past, such as scurvy, pellagra and rickets. Certain advancements in the last century also brought about an explosion of chronic, degenerative disorders, including cancer, cardiovascular disease and type-2 diabetes.

Research has proven that many of these conditions can be directly attributed to our modern diet s.

Nature endowed us with remarkable digestive mechanisms, many of which are now failing us at an early age. Nature doesn’t typically make mistakes, so why is this happening?

What nature didn’t anticipate was humankind’s increasing reliance upon a diet of cooked and processed food as the primary source of nutrition.

Enzymes for digestion essentially come from two sources: internally from our own digestive organs (digestive enzymes) and externally from the food we eat (food enzymes).

Food enzymes, however, are present in raw food only. Cooking or processing food at temperatures greater than 118˚ F destroys all of its enzymes and places the entire burden for digestion on the body. The impact of this destruction of food enzymes has been largely overlooked in allopathic medicine.

The pioneering work of Dr. Edward Howell in the 1920s and 1930s led to the current practice of enzyme supplementation. His research indicated that people were suffering from various chronic diseases, because their bodies were expending so much energy digesting their food, it left them little energy for important metabolic functions.

His premise was this: If enzymes that are lost during the cooking and processing of food could be replaced; the body would be spared some of the energy-intensive process of digestion and could devote more of its resources towards maintaining optimum health.

Today, healthcare practitioners in many different disciplines are beginning to recommend enzyme supplements and are noticing improvements in the health of their patients and, subsequently, the profitability of their practices.

In his book, Enzyme Nutrition: The Food Enzyme Concept, Howell states: “The length of life is inversely proportional to the rate of exhaustion of the enzyme potential of an organism. The increased use of food enzymes promotes a decreased rate of exhaustion of the enzyme potential.” Howell believed the number of enzymes the body is capable of producing is finite and their depletion leads to chronic conditions and eventually the loss of life.

Based on our current knowledge of genetic predisposition and the effect of stress on organ function in the body, Howell’s premise has merit. The lack of naturally occurring enzymes in food puts undue stress on the pancreas and other enzyme-producing digestive organs to produce all of the enzymes needed for complete digestion of food.

It is well documented that continuous stress on an organ or system of the body will eventually result in diminished functioning of that organ or system.

Since a top priority of the body is obtaining nutrition through digestion, the body’s resources are readily made available to complete this function. If an excessive amount of these resources are constantly used for diges-tion, the other metabolic functions in the body will suffer.

Therefore, the goal of enzyme supplementation is to relieve the digestive organs of unnecessary stress and allow the body to allocate its valuable resources to maintaining healthier metabolic function.

ANIMAL OR VEGETARIAN?

In order to accomplish this goal, the right enzyme supplements must be used. Enzymes from animal sources, such as pancreatin, are most active in the more alkaline environment of the small intestine (approximate pH 6.0 – 8.0) after the body has already produced enzymes to complete digestion.

This means animal enzyme supplements do nothing to spare the pancreas and other digestive organs from producing excess enzymes.

Vegetarian enzymes, on the other hand, are active over a broad pH range (pH 2.0 to 11.0) so they are able to begin digesting food immediately after entering the stomach.

The presence of digested food in the stomach signals the body to produce fewer enzymes for the digestive process. Vegetarian enzymes, therefore, are a better choice because they relieve the body of some of the burden of digestion.

While nutritional enzyme supplements are available to the consumer at health-food stores, on the Internet and even in the neighborhood pharmacy, the most therapeutically effective supplements are those available only through healthcare practitioners.

These enzymes contain higher potency and are full-spectrum. They would not be appropriate for a self-diagnosing consumer.

Healthcare practitioners, however, are able to assess each patient’s health status and tailor an individualized enzyme supplementation program.

To recommend enzyme supplementation to your patients, follow these guidelines:

• Select vegetarian enzymes. Animal enzymes (pancreatin) and basic plant enzymes (bromelain and papain) concentrate their digestive activity on breaking down protein.

But, vegetarian enzymes from safe, mycological sources provide a full spectrum of enzymes for more complete digestion.

• Include four common enzymes. When selecting an enzyme supplement to recommend, be certain at least the four primary types are present to assure digestion of the main food components.

These enzymes include amylase (starch digestion), cellulase (fibrous foods breakdown), lipase (fatty acid splitting) and protease (protein digestion).

• Consider other enzymes. Many other enzymes, such as glucoamylase, sucrase, lactase, alpha-galactosidase, phytase and peptidase, to name a few, ensure further digestion of all food groups.

• Recommend systemic supplementation. In addition to adding an enzyme supplement to assist with digestion, recommend taking enzyme supplements between meals to reduce inflammation, boost immune function, maintain cardiovascular health, maximize endocrine effectiveness, detoxify and promote normal respiratory function.

This type of enzyme supplementation is referred to as “systemic” and typically uses proteolytic enzymes (proteases).

The 20th century provided medical advancements at a rate unprecedented throughout history. What will the 21st century hold for the health of mankind, and what role will nutritional enzyme supplementation play?

Based on the exceptional clinical results seen thus far, the future of enzyme supplemen-tation proves extremely promising.

Donna Werner, DC, is the director of technical services of Enzymes, Inc., located in Parkville, Mo. For more information call 800-637-7893 and visit www.enzymesinc.com.