Guest guest Posted January 9, 2003 Report Share Posted January 9, 2003 FlaxSeedOil2 , DaRocksMom@a... wrote: Enzymes: Our life force by James Balch, M.D. Anyone who's spent an evening sitting around a campfire can understand how enzymes work. In the beginning, the flames are bright and strong, crackling with light and warmth for the camp site. Later, as the wood supply is consumed, the flames weaken and eventually die out in a cold blanket of ashes. So it is with the body's supply of enzymes. We're given a good supply in our youth, burn it up as we age and see it depleted at death. We need enzymes to live in just the way that fire needs wood to burn. Without sufficient enzyme levels, we sicken and we die before our time. But just as the campfire can be kept going by adding fresh branches and logs, we can build up the body's supply of enzymes and keep it from dying out prematurely. Enzymes are the locomotive engines in your cells. They either start chemical reactions or help speed them up. And these dynamic little catalysts are in all living things; pushing the flowers to bloom, trees to bud and birds to take flight. Enzymes provide us with the vitality that is needed for any activity. They give us the energy to head to work, build bridges and conquer new worlds. They are the burst of flame in our camp fire, without which life could not exist. There are thousands of enzymes in your body, each custom-designed to carry out individual tasks. But there are three basic categories of enzymes that are calling all the shots: digestive enzymes, food enzymes and metabolic enzymes. Digestive enzymes are the body's scavengers. They attack our food like a swarm of ants, busily breaking down last night's dinner into tiny components that can be absorbed more easily into our systems. While we're given a good supply of digestive enzymes at birth, our body needs to keep adding to the stockpile throughout life with food enzymes we contribute through our diet. Raw fruits and vegetables are the primary source of these enzymes, which are activated by the heat and saliva in our mouths and help our systems digest what we've just eaten. Without this outside source of food enzymes, the body automatically reaches for reserves from the metabolic enzymes, which, when left to their proper function, act as soldiers in the line of defense against disease, combating our illnesses and building up our immune systems. For thousands of years we enjoyed the health benefits of enzymes without knowing the scientific reason for it. When Jesus fed the multitudes with five barley loaves and two fishes, the unrecognized miracle could be found in the enzyme-rich barley that passed from hand to hand. Today you can buy green barley leaves in powder supplements and enjoy a host of benefits that include superoxide dismutase, an antioxidant enzyme that plays a critical role in helping the body fight disease-causing free radicals. While we have gained an enormous store of knowledge over the years, though, we have become experts at eliminating food enzymes from our diet. Either we cook the enzymes out, or food manufacturers do it for us through canning, drying and irradiating our foods so they can lie dormant on store shelves until we buy them at the checkout counter. And food marketers have been steadily pushing us to a diet of unhealthy products. Those simple loaves of bread from Jesus' hands have been replaced too often by white bread, once the privilege of only the very rich and now a universally useless and enzyme-dead food product. That has left many of our bodies badly out of tune and has turned the heat up on our digestive enzymes, burning up our body's natural store prematurely and triggering a raid on our metabolic enzymes to make up for the imbalance. As we start to starve our system of metabolic enzymes, our bodies start to veer out of control like a badly loaded truck. Enzyme deficiency causes us to age prematurely and suffer unnecessarily from disease. The everyday stresses of modern life added with alcohol abuse, smoking (either first hand or second hand) and drug use all take an added, heavy toll on the remaining enzymes in our systems. There are a variety of symptoms of enzyme deficiency, ranging from poor digestion to the gradual accumulation of harmful free radicals. Some of those free radicals may be introduced by outside factors like smoking or stress, other are produced by our bodies, and both can lead to disease, premature aging and a shortcut to the graveyard. We know now that we eliminate enzymes at our own peril. But you can break the cycle! Fortunately, we can restore the body's supply of enzymes through a proper diet of raw vegetables and fruits or with the help of enzyme supplements now readily available at health food stores and grocers. It's going to take a little work, and a whole new attitude about our diets, but enzyme therapy is urgently needed to keep us healthy and prevent a host of ailments. Here's why. The Gift of Enzymes All of the cellular activity in your body is orchestrated by thousands of different enzymes. They let us think, smell, eat and breathe. While research shows that there are more than 3,000 enzymes at work in the cells, they fall under the three umbrella groups: digestive enzymes, food enzymes and metabolic enzymes. By breaking these enzymes into three categories, we can better understand the role they play, how they interact, and how important enzyme therapy is to our health. Enzymes work with a variety of molecules to stimulate chemical reactions, These molecules range from minerals like zinc and calcium to coenzymes that link with inactive enzymes to create a dynamic enzyme. Under good conditions, they are fast and efficient workers. But once they weaken and age, other enzymes move in to break them down and carry them out of our systems. We usually think of digestive enzymes as scavengers, busily tearing apart the substances we eat so that we can absorb nutrients and dispose of toxins without doing any damage to the organs responsible for sweeping our systems each and every day. They are particularly active during the first 30 to 60 minutes after we eat, allowing the body's acid levels to rise to the point where the food enzymes can take a break. During this initial stage, our food is " predigested " in the upper portion of our stomachs. That's where the digestive enzymes in our food are expected to do the initial work of breaking food into components of carbohydrates, fat and protein. While there are a myriad of digestive enzymes at work, there are four key types that keep our digestion churning. Protease enzymes are responsible for digesting protein while lipase enzymes break down fats. Amylase and cellulase digest carbohydrates and fibers. We are given a great gift of enzymes at birth, but we experience a steady and continual loss of enzymes as we grow older. Numerous studies have shown that enzyme levels are many times higher in young people than in old. In young adults, for example, one study showed their saliva held 30 times the enzymes of people 69 and older. In another, the enzyme amylase was found in much higher concentrations in the young than the old. Because the body's natural store of digestive enzymes is routinely depleted as we age, nature compensated by giving us a ready source of fresh food enzymes in fruits and vegetables to make up for the imbalance. " Civilized " man, though, has taken our basic meals and emptied them of virtually all enzymes. That's a point I'll be taking a hard look at later in this chapter. In addition to the age factor, disease, anxiety and just daily wear-and-tear constantly throw up obstacles that weaken and destroy enzymes in our system. Without a fresh supply of food enzymes to fill the ranks, a depletion of digestive enzymes causes the body to start switching to its store of metabolic enzymes. But this is like paying the mortgage with money we've set aside for the IRS, and it can just as surely lead to irreparable harm. Metabolic enzymes are the body's catalysts for chemical reactions in our cells. They create energy and detoxify. All those proteins, carbohydrates and fats that are the body's building blocks are tools for the metabolic enzymes. In addition to giving us vitality, metabolic enzymes also make our immune systems work against the " bad guys, " free radicals. At the top of the list of these enzymes is superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase. One of the most common disease-causing free radicals in our bodies is superoxide, SOD is the body's chief protector against it. SOD breaks down superoxide into hydrogen peroxide and oxygen and passes them on to another key metabolic enzyme: catalase. Catalase, which is stored in our red blood cells, removes the dangerous hydrogen peroxide from our tissues, metabolizing it into safe water and oxygen. A very important side effect this process is that more harmful free radicals are stopped from forming. This is rather like seeing the sheriff disarm the bad guys in a western, breaking up the gang and having the deputy escort the offenders to the local jail. And the enzymes don't stop there. There's a whole posse of metabolic enzymes at work in our bodies keeping the free radicals behind bars. Catalase has its limitations. It limits its attacks to the peroxide floating within the cells, important for protecting the genetic DNA code system. But it can't scavenge the lipid peroxides on the fatty acids of cell walls. That takes another metabolic enzyme, glutathione peroxidase. Glutathione peroxidase is another posse member with a chemically sworn duty to go after the remaining peroxides in your system. This in turn allows your cell membranes to heal from the attack of a free radical. In order to do its job, glutathione peroxidase requires small amounts of selenium, another key antioxidant. Once the glutathione peroxidase does its work fighting free radicals, it ends up as a disulfide called GSSG. Glutathione reductase turns GSSG back into glutathione, so it can go back into the fray as glutathione peroxidase. Finally, the last of the good guy antioxidant enzymes is glutathione transferase, which is there to tackle any of the free radicals that escape the first round of the attack. Some recent studies have also shown that glutathione transferase may play a role in helping the immune system fight AIDS. While it's fun to cast these characters as if we were shooting a movie, the drama they play out is all too real, and the consequences of enzyme deficiency too serious to be lost in the analogy. Your body is constantly at work keeping free radicals below a minimum toxic concentration. While your system has many ways to accomplish this, your metabolic enzymes are hard at work keeping our systems in balance. Unfortunately, we know that metabolic enzymes are often being called away from the fight against disease-causing free radical oxidants to make up for a deficiency in digestive enzymes. It's like calling firefighters away from the site of a blaze to pour water on another erupting fire. As we grow older, and the fires sprout more routinely, the body's ability to fight oxidants and ward off disease weakens. If we strip the defenses in one area to make up for a deficiency somewhere else, we're inviting disease to make a series of breakthroughs which we will not be able to control. The body responds to any illness by producing higher levels of enzymes to help us mend. That in turn has helped doctors use enzymes to help diagnose disease, particularly in the pancreas. Pancreatic disease is often associated with high levels of lipase. Studies using animals have shown that the pancreas is enlarged during enzyme deficiencies. Researchers studying one group of animals saw their enzyme-producing pancreas triple in size when enzymes were withdrawn from their diets. Because our own pancreas and other organs are likely to swell due to enzyme deficiency, researchers believe that they have discovered a link between enzyme deficiency and hypoglycemia, low blood sugar levels associated with depression and fatigue. A supplement of amylase can help stabilize the blood sugar levels and protect against hypoglycemia. The dangers of enzyme deficiency were particularly acute in one study done at Washington University, where the enzyme-rich pancreatic juices were drained from dogs. Despite abundant food and water, but without enzymes, the dogs all died within a week. Enzyme researchers have been particularly grateful for studies of Eskimos. The word " Eskimo " is believed to have evolved from an old Indian word meaning " to eat raw fish, " one of their most unique habits. Without plant foods to rely on, Eskimos get their meats from seals, polar bears and fish and let them age before eating, a process that stimulates the growth of digestive enzymes like lipase, amylase and protease in the meat. That aging process of burying food until the enzyme level shoots up, is called predigesting. By providing themselves a rich source of food enzymes to supplement the body's store of digestive enzymes, Eskimos are much more efficient at digesting the foods without relying on their own stockpile of enzymes. Stocks of aged, raw blubber in the Eskimo's diet ñ which is high in lipase content -- is also given credit for the rarity of heart disease like atherosclerosis in their population. Some researchers feel that this lipase-rich food helps eliminate the faulty fat metabolism that lies at the heart of the problem. In one study at Stanford, researchers found that patients suffering from hardening of the arteries also had low levels of lipase. The anecdotal and scientific evidence has been mounting in this area for years. Researchers have shown that the use of lipase enzymes is an effective method in lowering cholesterol and combating arthritis. High levels of lipase are also believed to combat obesity, as lipase is an effective catalyst for burning fat to gain energy. As Dick Douey and DicQie Fuller point out in their excellent book, Living Longer, that's why pig farmers feed lipase-dead cooked potatoes to their pigs. It helps them get fat. If they fed lipase-rich raw potatoes to their animals, they stay lean. Other researchers warn that the swollen organs created by enzyme deficiency also demand more food, which can lead to over-eating. An enzyme-less diet of cooked food stresses the pituitary gland and pancreas by over-stimulating these organs in search of enzymes. This over-stimulation leads to fatigue, which in turn allows the body to retain fat. The Eskimo, like the wild animals they feed on, have a high enzyme level because they eat their food raw. We destroy the healthy effects of meat by cooking it. But that doesn't mean I'm advocating a diet of raw meat! Even lightly cooked meat carries the danger of bacteria that has led to severe poisoning around the globe. For the rest of us, an enzyme supplement or raw vegetables and fruit can work just as effectively as raw animal fat without any of the dangers of uncooked meat. Additional research has found that diabetics with high blood sugar levels show low levels of amylase enzymes. In one study, bolstering the body's level of amylase helped diabetics control blood sugar levels without insulin. There is also encouraging evidence that suggests raw foods are equally effective when fighting allergies. Because enzymes are responsible for breaking down foreign deposits so they can be easily excreted, researchers believe that an enzyme deficiency can just as easily cause the body to react by forcing excretions through the nose and mouth, creating an allergic response. I have no doubt that as we see the number of studies of enzymes increase, we'll better gauge the positive effect they have on our bodies. The key here is balance. A growing number of studies spotlighting enzymes show we need to keep the body's supply of digestive and metabolic enzymes in sync. Because our dietary lifestyle effectively eliminates digestive enzymes, our bodies respond by raiding their supply of metabolic enzymes, leaving us far more vulnerable to disease. Anything that increases our metabolic rate, and that includes fevers, heart problems or simple indigestion, shocks the body into producing a surge of enzymes. All the cells and tissues in the body are called upon to produce enzymes to counterattack foreign substances, breaking them down so the body can more easily flush them out of the system. That's why many researchers like to call enzymes scavengers. But your body can only produce a certain amount of enzymes on its own. During chronic illness, the body will see its supply of enzymes start to steadily dwindle away as the body weakens and dies. Some researchers have linked pancreas-produced enzymes to the aging process. As our enzyme production in the pancreas decreases, it requires more outside cellular material to create the enzyme complex. If you can delay the reduction of enzymes throughout our system, I believe you will be able to delay aging and add years to your life. First, though, we have to identify the worst threat to a well balanced system of digestive, food and metabolic enzymes. As you'll see, all too often we are our own worst enemies. The Enzyme Assassins: Many years before we learned anything about enzymes and molecular biology, we were able to build up the body's stockpile of enzymes. Raw fruits and vegetables grown by our own hands or collected from trees and fields proved a bountiful and healthy harvest filled with enzymes. After we discovered the use of fire, and the wonderful way cooking with it softened and unlocked taste in our food, the inventor in us took over. Being capable of great intelligence and extraordinary enterprise, mankind has now made a multibillion-dollar industry that has recklessly eliminated most enzymes from our diet. Our food processing and packaging industry has made a science out of destroying enzymes. In order to lengthen a product's shelf life and keep it free from disease-causing bacteria, food is systematically stripped of enzymes. Wheat, a cornucopia of enzymes at harvest time, ends by having its food enzymes -- proteases, peptidases, oxidases and more -- stripped away during the milling process. Even so-called fresh food we find in the produce aisle is often irradiated, bombarded by millions of radiation particles to keep it from rotting in transit. For any of us who learned canning at our grandmother's knee, it's no surprise that the high heat that's needed to kill bacteria does just as good a job executing enzymes. Long before food processors get their hands on the nation's food supply, farmer's in huge numbers rely on the heavy use of pesticides to control insects, fight of animals and weeds and stop toxins before they can invade a crop. This kind of technology has increased our food supply, but robbed us of enzymes. In battling a host of dangers, pesticides also very effectively stunt the plant's ability to absorb minerals from the soil. Many of our enzymes can't function properly without these minerals. If any enzymes do survive the long, hard road to our homes, they rarely survive the kitchen. They're so easy to kill off! Even lightly cooked food, over 118 degrees F, destroys enzymes from the food. Cooked food becomes " dead food. " Put it in the oven for a few minutes or zap it in the microwave, and you can be sure to kill any of the hardy survivors before they make it to the dinner table. Dr. Edward Howell, one of the pioneers of enzyme research, once wrote that " disease and cookery originated almost simultaneously. " As evidence, he points to the great health of wild animals, free of heart attacks, arthritis and cancer and attributes much of that health to their enzyme-rich diets of raw food. So if the recipe says boil, bake, broil or fry, think twice before you " kill " your food. Modern life with its complex tapestry of stresses can exact other, even heavier tolls on our body's supply of enzymes. We deprive ourselves of sleep and celebrate hard work with hard play. We use artificial stimulants like caffeine to make us feel more energetic and alcohol to help us tolerate the trials of life. As we push ourselves to the limit every day, meals grow shorter and shorter, grabbed from the microwave or fast food place. It's as if we planned a lifestyle aimed at robbing us of enzymes and cutting short our lives. These are just some of the bad habits that need a hard look if you're serious about enzyme therapy. Here are some others. So you say you don't have a drug " problem? " Okay, so you don't use cocaine or abuse other illegal drugs. But don't forget that even over-the-counter drugs taken for everything from allergies to gas affect your digestion, your appetite and, in many ways, the enzyme levels in your body. Take antacids as an example. In order to settle your stomach, an antacid neutralizes the acid in your stomach, the same acid needed to activate the digestive enzyme pepsin. Antacids destroy your ability to digest food! If you do take hard drugs you can imagine the profound and lasting damage you're doing to your entire system. While cocaine is notorious for its almost instantaneous " high, " it can not only mug your liver enzymes -- crucial in detoxification -- it can also cause permanent cellular damage in your liver. Recent studies show that moderate amounts of red wine can be healthy. But that's no excuse for drinking heavy amounts of beer, wine or hard alcohol. Researchers have determined that alcohol consumption reduces your ability to absorb zinc, which enzymes rely on. In addition, there can be a host of other problems associated with drinking, which blocks the body's absorption of nutrients. Smokers not only endanger their own health through free radical damage to their system, they endanger their families and coworkers as well. Smoking can cut down on the body's supply of selenium, a key ingredient needed for the proper functioning of the antioxidant enzyme glutathione peroxidase. How many millions of us rely on a cup, or pot, of hot coffee to get the day started?. Unfortunately, that early stimulation can push the body hard, causing an over-stimulation of vital organs you need in top working condition when fighting a disease. Adrenal gland fatigue and hypoglycemia can follow those daily indulgences to your body. And then there's the sun. I can't stress too much how we all need to healing powers of light to make us healthier, happier people. Twenty minutes a day outside can fight depression, invigorate the system and keep our bodies in tune ñ especially if we use the time for a brisk walk. But don't overdo it! We have all been exposed to the rising tide of warnings on skin cancer. Too much sun can stir up all sorts of free radical activity in your skin and reduce the effects of antioxidant enzymes like superoxide dismutase and catalase. So by all means, get out, but be sure to wear protective clothing, lather on a high SPF sunscreen and don't overindulge in a good thing. Technology has thrown other obstacles in our path to health. We spend much of our lives now in the electromagnetic fields of power lines or in close proximity to computers and cellular phones. The debate over electromagnetic fields (EMF) has been raging for years now, and much of the evidence of their unhealthy effects on the body is anecdotal. But I believe that research has sufficiently proved that EMF can slow the body's production of melatonin, which further erodes our body's immune system. While a change of diet and use of supplements may help reverse the ebbing tide of enzymes, we have to stop working against our health. There are too many unavoidable enzyme assassins stalking us as it is. So take note of the threats and start steering clear of the dangers of the enzyme assassins. Once we've started safeguarding the enzymes in our bodies, we can get down to the daily regimen of enzyme therapy needed to equip ourselves for better health. Here's how. Enzyme therapy: Different people need different amounts of enzyme-rich foods, and all of us need higher levels as we age. We burn enzymes as fuel, just as we do vitamins, minerals and protein. Athletes and others who may engage in hard, physical activity should know that enzymes can be excreted with sweat. Any activity that can lead to cramping and dehydration, whether it's running three miles or chopping down a tree, requires us to increase our levels of enzymes to compensate. Remember, too, that an efficient body can do the best and the most work. If you're helping your digestive system with a source of food enzymes, it's taking less energy to adsorb the food you eat. If you add vitamins and other coenzymes ñ which are needed to get your enzymes fired up -- you're helping yourself even more. For the very same reason, pregnant women should ensure they're getting enzyme-rich foods. Not only do they need it to bring a healthy baby to full term, but the baby can go on enjoying a fresh source of enzymes through breast milk. Study after study shows that breast fed babies are healthier than those fed on bottled milk. Like other processed foods, bottled or powdered milk is enzyme dead,. While children have the greatest fund of nature-bestowed enzymes, getting started early on a healthy diet of whole food is the best way to establish the good habits necessary for a long life. You won't have to worry about an addiction to processed foods, drugs and alcohol if you never get started! We've been starving our bodies of enzymes for far too long. That's the bad news. The good news is we can quickly rectify that through a diet of raw vegetables and fruits or through the use of enzyme supplements. In addition, we need to make sure that we're bolstering the body's minerals that work with enzymes; zinc, selenium, and so on. There are a variety of foods that we need to start introducing back into our diet, and there are some tasty ways to do it. First, eliminate as many of the " dead " foods that you can from your life. This first step would be to stop eating the kinds of concentrated foods that place a hefty tax on our body's enzymes. This is not always easy to do. Being practical, keep in mind that while cooked rice and potatoes don't contain enzymes, they also are relatively easy to digest, making them far less harmful, say, than a fast-food burger and fries! Salads are great for minerals and vitamins, but by and large don't have the kind of enzyme content your body demands. We have to do more to help our bodies. Fortunately, there are a host of plant and animal sources for food enzymes that assist us in the digestion process. Sprouts offer us one of the richest sources. Then there are mangos, pineapples, grapes, olives, bananas, avocados and papayas. Dr. Howell favors a formula of 75% calories from raw food and 25% of calories from cooked food. In addition to the raw foods above, you can add raw dates, figs, honey and butter from unpasteurized milk and also certain grains, seeds and nuts. By mixing these foods with nutritious cooked food and salad vegetables, you can ensure a healthy diet that combines high enzyme content with all the nutrition your body needs. However we get them, a steady diet of raw fruits and vegetables has been shown in many research projects to boost the body's levels of antioxidants like the critical superoxide dismutase, beta-carotene and vitamins C and E. Vegetarians, though, often found themselves with less of the selenium needed for glutathione peroxidase than people who also ate meat. The antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase can be found in many different foods; barley grass, broccoli, cabbage and most green plants. Taking our enzyme blinders off for a moment, fruits and vegetables are, of course, loaded with the kind of nutrients needed to keep us healthy. They also boost fiber in our bodies, which has been clinically shown to help combat chronic disease. Fiber in our diet can fight constipation, keep weight down and prevent heart disease. If you let raw fruits and vegetables dominate your diet, you'll also be eliminating fat ñ one of the greatest threats to good health. It will help you lose weight, keep it off and avoid a Pandora's Box full of ailments: heart disease, obesity and perhaps even cancer. So keep in mind that what's good for our enzymes intake is ultimately good for our whole body. We also have to keep in mind that the Food & Drug Administration recently cleared the way for food distributors to irradiate fruits and vegetables to avoid spoilage. That's great for eliminating rot, and enzymes. So when you go out to buy these items, ask your grocer what treatment his food gets. Or switch to an organic grocer that can guarantee your enzymes. Juicing is perhaps the best single way to guarantee your body's enzyme wealth. By juicing fresh fruits and vegetables in our homes, we can make sure that we are avoiding any of the contaminants or cooking factors that inhibit our enzyme supply. Some folks favor adding fruit and vegetable concentrates to their juices to make sure they are getting the proper amount of enzymes. Others are sure to include a good variety of enzyme supplements to make sure they have the right diet. Either way, the liquid diet of protein and enzymes is easy pickings for your digestive system, which is gaining the help nature intended from the enzymes already in your food. And several juice advocates are quick to point out that juice makes a great alternative snack in the midmorning or afternoon, when our bodies start demanding something extra. Used properly, you can not only enhance your enzyme levels with juice, but use it as part of an effective diet plan. Pineapple and papaya, while they're still green, can be used to obtain enzyme extracts called papain and bromelain, proteolytic enzymes. Bromelain has been particularly effective for people who cannot take food proteins. Proteolytic enzymes, by the way, are also found to be a good anti-inflammatory agent. They can also be purchased in supplement form as pepsin, trypsin, pancreatin and chymotrypsin. For best results against inflammation, take these supplements at least two hours before or after eating a meal. Pancreatin is extracted from the pancreas of hogs and contains several of the most .important digestive enzymes: protease, amylase and lipase. An increasing number of research studies are focusing on pancreatin, as cancer patients have been found to be highly deficient of this enzyme. In addition to treating poor digestion, it's also believed to work on food allergies, viral infections and sports injuries. Pepsin is made from pigs, and helps break down proteins. Personally, I believe that much of our meat supply is badly tainted, and that makes me more than a little wary of products that could be produced from diseased animals. Those risks are eliminated, though, when we turn to plant-based enzyme supplements. The best source of digestive supplements is plants. Aspergillus enzymes, often created in the laboratory, are considered some of the most effective supplements on the market today. Aspergillus is a type of fungus and these enzyme supplements are particularly helpful in predigesting food in the upper stomach and assisting the body to absorb nutrients. Plant enzymes are food and that's the way the FDA classifies them. They're safe. You can't overdose on them and your body will love you for making sure it gets a fresh, daily supply. One of my favorite ways of adding digestive enzymes to my diet is with dried papaya seeds. I like to grind them into a fine powder and sprinkle them on my food. They taste peppery and is best used when eating cooked, " enzyme dead " food, as it will help your digestion. Otherwise, try to get a supplement that includes all the major digestive enzymes: lipase, amylase and protease, and take them after your meal of enzyme-rich foods. There are a growing number of companies that now specialize in making enzyme supplements. American Biologics makes Infla-Zyme Forte, an enzyme complex product that includes both digestive and antioxidant enzymes. It includes amylase, bromelain, catalase, zinc, superoxide dismutase and pancreatin. Marlyn Nutraceuticals makes Wobenzym N, another enzyme complex that offers a variety of digestive and antioxidant enzymes. And National Enzyme Company and Prevail Corporation both make effective aspergillus enzyme products that include amylase, cellulase, protease and sucrase. As we've already seen, enzymes are a delicate element, easily dispatched with even moderate heat. So always be sure to keep your enzyme supplements in a cool, dry place in a watertight container. Check your expiration date at the store. Under the right circumstances, enzyme supplements can remain active for months if not years, but the last thing you need is a shelf full of " dead " supplements. Perhaps the best way to get started on an enzyme rich diet is to avoid eating altogether ñ at least for a short period. Therapeutic fasting can detoxify your system after years of abuse. Start by eating nothing but raw fruits and vegetables for two days followed by a regimen of 8 eight-ounce glasses of distilled water fortified by fruit juices and two cups of herbal tea every day. The juice will keep pumping enzymes into your body, along with vitamins and minerals. At the end of the fast, follow up by two more days of raw fruits and vegetables. After three days of fasting, you'll find your body detoxified. Five days of fasting restores your body's immune system. A ten-day fast can help fight disease. You'll find yourself invigorated and refreshed at the end of your fast ñ and already well on your way to truly enjoying the kind of foods that will give you enzyme wealth for the rest of your life. There are, of course, some significant precautions to be mindful of. First, if you're going to fast for more than three days, get your doctor involved. Any kind of medical condition, whether it is hypoglycemia, diabetes or any other illness, may prohibit fasting and certainly calls for your doctor's supervision. And pregnant or lactating women of course should avoid fasting. I believe that fasting may be the most beneficial, and fastest, method for getting yourself on track with a good enzyme therapy program. But you don't want to hurt yourself. And don't overdo it! You need juice from lemons or apples, beets, cabbage, carrot and celery to help detoxify. Water alone may lead to headaches and other symptoms common when you release toxins too quickly. Avoid any kind of tomato or orange juice and also anything with additives in it. Keep in mind that you'll probably need your own juicer to make sure that you're getting the kind of fresh, natural juice your body demands. In order to achieve maximum efficiency, enzymes work with molecules to initiate chemical reactions. So don't just look for fresh sources of enzymes, help your body store up zinc, which is needed by the antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase, and other elements that keep your camp fire stoked. Zinc, for example, can be found in wheat germ, legumes and nuts, not to mention zinc supplements. Remember how I said earlier that selenium was necessary to make sure your enzymes could stay as effective fighters in the immune system? Meat, fish, onions, broccoli and molasses, along with several types of grain, all offer us a dietary source of selenium. Herbs like parsley, ginseng and garlic can round out our source list. Garlic, by the way, is a great antioxidant. If you can't stand the taste or smell, you can get a supplement called Kyolic garlic in health stores that can be easily absorbed and is odorless. Other enzyme helpers include beta-carotene, vitamin B1(thiamin), B2(riboflavin), B3(niacin), B5 (pantothenic acid) and B6(pyridoxine). Also folic acid, copper, magnesium and potassium. All of these can be found in foods and dietary supplements. By increasing the amount of enzyme-rich raw food in our diet, we help immediately by providing a fresh supply of digestive enzymes to help break down the food and absorb nutrition. That in turn will help safeguard your metabolic enzymes for the nitty-gritty work involved in preventing and fighting disease. So you see, all those years that your mother kept putting oranges and apples in your lunch box, she was helping champion a healthy way of life that supported enzyme enrichment! Now it's time to make mom really happy, and give your body the break it deserves. Staying Enzyme Rich Good enzyme therapy is simple common sense and builds on the knowledge we've gained through decades of research. It also helps us better understand many of the basic elements of a healthy life. --- End forwarded message --- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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