Introduction: What Enzymes Can Do
Enzymes have many important functions in the body, besides helping to digest foods. Systemic enzymes are catalysts, facilitating thousands of metabolic reactions, from fighting inflammation to cleansing the blood to deactivating infections. Enzymes can help many people who suffer from debilitating health issues, including acute or chronic inflammations, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid or osteoarthritis, digestive disorders, skin problems, and immune sensitivities. This article will focus on protein-digesting enzymes to reduce symptoms causing these and other painful conditions, thus restoring health.
Some Foods Can be Difficult to Digest
Some of the above mentioned conditions are often directly caused by an inability to fully digest dietary proteins, leading to toxic deposits in the body. The offending proteins are vegetarian source: nuts, seeds, wheat gluten, soy and cow dairy. Wheat gluten for example, consisting of long chain amino acid protein molecules, often 20 polypeptides or more, must be digested or broken down to a single molecule to be excreted from the body. Yet when the body cannot fully digest the gluten, undigested protein molecules circulate and deposit as toxins in different locations: joints, muscles, bursa, cartilage, lymphatic tissue, intestines, skin, and a host of other areas. Protein toxins can be deposited in organs such as liver and kidney, and even affect endocrine glands such as the thyroid. Systemic enzymes taken without food can promote detoxification by dissolving these protein deposits so the body can eliminate them.
Food Rotation: A Useful Concept
Problems can arise when one or more of these proteins is consumed too much or too often (i.e. daily). To assist in prevention of disease, one can rotate these foods, being aware to minimize the intake of nuts, wheat, soy, and dairy, to no more than three days a week each (every other day maximum). This would lessen the chance of protein toxin deposits causing health issues.
Which Enzymes?
There are many different types of enzymes for specific effects. Proteolytic (protein-digesting such as protease) enzymes are the most important enzymes for dissolving protein toxins. It may be helpful to use a broad-spectrum enzyme formula with pancreatin, an enzyme with protease, amylase and lipase to digest protein, carbohydrates and fats. For recent injury or trauma causing inflammation, high potency bromelain along with papain, pepsin or serrapeptase are effective in reducing swelling. Chymotrypsin, a powerful synergist, is useful for increasing the potency and effect of other enzymes.
To resolve health issues, one must take enough of the appropriate enzyme to effect a change. For example, to treat consistent body pain, once should take high-potency pancreatin (50,000+ IU per 500 mg. tablet), at least 2-4 tablets two times per day without food. Tablets should be enteric-coated so they are not neutralized by stomach acids, and taken for several weeks.
Conclusion
Enzymes promote the body’s own regeneration processes. With the use of appropriate systemic enzymes over time, patients have resolved such serious symptoms such as inflammation, back, neck and joint pain, gastritis, sinus pain, skin problems such as acne, cysts and allergic or immune symptoms including congestion, sinus pain and more.
For more information on systemic enzymes, see www.pchoiceline.com, www.garynull.com, or www.life-enthusiast.com.
Annie Osborn has been practicing acupuncture and natural/holistic medicine in Santa Rosa for over 15 years. She can be reached at 707-494-8606, or visit www.anniesnaturalmedicine.com.