Enzymes
are responsible for constructing, synthesizing, carrying, dispensing,
delivering, and eliminating the many ingredients and chemicals our body uses
in its daily business of living. Your body produces enzymes. When you were
young and unpolluted, your body had an abundant supply of enzymes. Thus, you
felt great and your energy level seemed never-ending. There
are three main groups of enzymes: Metabolic, digestive, and food enzymes.
Metabolic enzymes cause various chemical reactions within the cells, such as
the rebuilding of organs, bones, connective tissue and energy production.
Digestive enzymes are secreted along the gastrointestinal tract to break
down food so the nutrients can be absorbed into the bloodstream. The
digestive enzymes, which our own bodies produce, include pepsin, trypsin,
lipase, and cellulase to help with the breakdown of protein, carbohydrates,
fats, and fiber in the foods we eat. Food enzymes are found in any kind of
natural unprocessed food and are there to aid the digestion or breakdown of
that food. For example, if you bite into an apple and let it sit for a
while, it will turn brown and soft. The enzyme ‘amylase’ is causing the
apple to digest itself. Previously,
it was thought that enzymes from the food we eat were sufficient to augment
the body’s enzyme supply. However, we now know that because of a variety
of factors, including soil depletion, pesticide use and long-term food
storage and processing techniques, most foods are nutrient poor, toxin
laden, mineral deficient, and enzyme dead. Compounding the problem is the
fact that since they are extremely sensitive to heat, enzymes are destroyed
during the cooking or microwaving of food, anything that raises the
temperature over 115 degrees. This
means that when we ingest this cooked food, we have to pull from our
body’s own source of digestive and metabolic enzymes to break down that
food. It’s not that we can’t produce more, but it’s a struggle for the
body to keep up when we are continually consuming cooked, processed, and
radiated foods. When we draw from our metabolic enzymes, which help to
rebuild organs, bones, connective tissue, and energy production, we are
weakening our immune system. Our bodies are busy trying to digest the
enzyme-dead foods instead of fighting off illnesses and disease. As
time goes on, you slowly being to lose your surplus of self-created enzymes.
You become less able to eat the spicy foods you love, and less able to
recover as quickly from the aches and pains of weekend sports or even daily
living, not to mention the reduced stamina. Studies
done in Europe by American and German doctors have shown that after taking
protealitic enzymes, there is an increase in macrophage (white blood cell)
activity up to 700%, and an increase in T-cell activity up to 1300%. These
same doctors found that injuries heal in half the time. Enzymes are also
great for breaking down undigested fat and protein that lingers in the
bloodstream and eventually blocks arteries. So
in truth, AGING directly correlates with the LOSS OF ENZYMES.
The
Missing Link to Vital Health If
you were to take only one thing to supplement your diet, it is believed that
due to the prevalence of cooked and processed foods, enzymes may be the
single most important support for your health and well-being. The following
will provide you with sufficient information to gain your own understanding
and make up your own mind. There
is convincing evidence derived from the works of Drs. Francis Pottinger,
Jr., Weston Price, and Edward Howell that the destruction of enzymes in the
cooking and processing of food is, perhaps, the most significant factor in
chronic and degenerative diseases in both humans and animals. It begins with
a phenomenon known as digestive leukocytosis. “Leukocytosis” is a
pathological condition defined in Dorlands Illustrated Medical Dictionary as
“a transient increase in the number of leukocytes in the blood, resulting
from various causes, such as hemorrhage, fever, infection, inflammation,
etc.” Leukocytosis
was first discovered in 1846. At first, it was considered normal because
everyone who was tested had it. Paul Kautchakoff, M.D. later found that
leukocytosis was not normal. In fact, the major cause of leukocytosis was
discovered to be the eating of cooked food. An entire category of
leukocytosis was classified as “digestive leukocytosis”, that is, the
elevation of the white blood cell level in response to the lack of enzymes
in the cooked food in the intestine. It is pathological because the pancreas
was never intended to provide 100% of the digestive enzymes needed. Dr.
Kautchakoff divided his findings into four classifications according to the
severity of the pathological reaction in the blood. Raw
food produced no increase in the white blood cell count. Commonly cooked
food caused leukocytosis. Pressure cooked food caused even greater
leukocytosis. Man-made, processed, and refined foods, such as carbonated
beverages, alcohol, vinegar, white sugar, flour, and other foods,
caused severe leukocytosis. Cooked, smoked, and salted animal flesh
brought on violent leukocytosis consistent with ingesting poison. This
phenomenon occurs after eating cooked food, since prolonged heat above 115
degrees Fahrenheit destroys enzymes in food. Three minutes in boiling water
destroys the enzymes; pasteurization destroys 80-90%; and baking, frying,
broiling, stewing and canning destroys 100%. Nature designed food with
sufficient enzymes within it to digest that food when it is ingested. When
enzymes are destroyed to cooking or other processing, ingesting that food
triggers the body’s immune system, and it responds with leukocytosis. Many
health professionals are coming to the conclusion that this syndrome is an
abusive scenario that puts significant stress on the pancreas, accounting
for the enlarged pancreases of people in industrialized societies, and
contributing to blood sugar problems such as diabetes and hypoglycemia, as
well as the proliferation of chronic degenerative diseases.
What
is an Enzyme? The
medical dictionary defines an enzyme as “a protein produced in a cell
capable of greatly accelerating, by its catalytic action, the chemical
reaction of a substance (the substrate) for which it is specific”. This is
the standard definition taught in medical school. But more significantly,
enzymes are the body’s workers. Enzymes operate on a biological and
chemical level, perhaps even the radiological level, and although vitamins,
minerals, hormones, proteins and other substances are essential to life, it
is enzymes that perform the work and utilize these substances in restoring,
repairing, and maintaining health and life. Enzymes are the closest thing to
what can be described as a “life force”. Without them, life would not
exist. In fact, when enzyme levels fall below a given level in any living
system, life ceases. Attempts
to produce synthetic enzymes have failed. Science has identified over 80,000
different enzyme systems, and it is suspected that there may be hundreds of
thousands, even millions of different types of enzymes. Yet although science
endeavours to know what certain types of enzymes are made of, no one has yet
been able to directly measure or take a picture of one.
What
Do Enzymes Do? Enzymes
build, orchestrate, and unify the physical expression we call ‘life’.
They seem to know precisely what to do and when to do it. They
‘assemble’ molecules during their formative growth and they take
molecules apart when individual cells are fractured. Enzymes create and
modulate every system in the body. Enzymes help assemble a human body from a
one-cell organism into a 50 to 70 trillion-cell life form. Enzymes are
involved in repairing the body when it is damaged. They transport, use, and
transform oxygen molecules and every other nutrient the body needs. They
break down metabolic waste and the by-products of cells. They quench free
radicals and they split off unwanted molecules from nutrients, adding
necessary ones. The physical existence of every human being and the
existence of all other living organisms is totally dependent upon the
ability of enzymes to do their job.
What
Does This Mean to You? During
the holiday season, our eating habits become a smorgasbord of many taste-tempting
treats, mostly a vast array of cooked foods. There is no more important time
to supplement our enzyme-depleted bodies.
Overloading the digestive system can be so taxing to the body. Enzymes at a
meal will save you much discomfort. If you’re going to eat it… make sure
you ‘digest’ it… or your food will turn on you. Prevention is the key. The
Wolfe Clinic carries a variety of digestive enzymes for varied lifestyles,
health conditions, and eating habits:
Maximizer
Digestive Enzymes
-
for those with heavy digestion, constipation, fatigue, high cholesterol,
weight problems, glycemic problems, arthritis, acidosis, bad
circulation, etc.
Gamma-Zyme
-
a
special formulation without protease, for
people who have a more sensitive GI tract that gets easily irritated
(ulcers, colitis, gastritis, etc.)
Quadra-Zyme
Plus
- specially good for people suffering from allergies and for athletes,
who need to produce more enzymes than most people.
For
further reading, refer to Health Tips Newsletter Dec,
2000
If you want to reach vital health, call
The Wolfe Clinic at 1-800-592-9653 (toll free)
to book your
nutritional
telephone consultation
and together, we will create
a personalized health program
tailored to “your” specific needs.
If
our 1-800 number
is
not available from your area,
please
call us at
250-765-1824
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