http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag99/apr99-cover.html
Digestive Enzymes:
The
Missing
Link
Enzymes are a vital component of the digestive process, essential to the body's
absorption and full use of food. The capacity of a living organism to make
enzymes diminishes with age, and some scientists believe that humans could live
longer and be healthier by guarding against the loss of our precious enzymes.
by Marilyn Bitomsky
Enzymes are responsible for every activity of life-even thinking requires
enzyme activity. There are two primary classes of enzymes responsible for
maintaining life functions: digestive and metabolic. The primary digestive
enzymes-proteases, amylases and lipases- function as biological catalysts,
helping to break down protein, carbohydrates and fats. Raw foods also provide
enzymes that naturally break down food for proper absorption. Metabolic enzymes
are responsible for the structuring, repair and remodeling of every cell, and
the body is under a great daily burden to supply sufficient enzymes for optimal
health. Metabolic enzymes operate in every cell, every organ and every tissue,
and they need constant replenishment.
Digestion of food takes a high priority and has a high demand for enzymes. When
we eat, enzymatic activity begins in the mouth where salivary amylase, lingual
lipase and ptyalin initiate starch and fat digestion. In the stomach,
hydrochloric acid activates pepsinogen to pepsin, which breaks down protein,
and gastric lipase begins the hydrolysis of fats. Without proper enzyme
production, the body has a difficult time digesting food, often resulting in a
variety of chronic disorders.
Poor eating habits, including inadequate chewing and eating on the run, can
result in inadequate enzyme production and hence malabsorption of food. And
this is exacerbated with aging, since that is a time of decreased hydrochloric
acid production as well as of a general decline in digestive enzyme secretion.
Saliva is rich in amylase, while gastric juice contains protease. The pancreas
secretes digestive juices containing high concentrations of amylase and
protease as well as a smaller concentration of lipase. It also secretes a small
concentration of maltase, which reduces to dextrose. Animals eating raw food
often have no enzymes at all in saliva, unlike humans. However, dogs fed on a
high carbohydrate, heat-treated diet, have been found to develop enzymes in
their saliva within a week in response to enzyme depleting foods.
One of America's pioneering bio-chemists and nutrition researchers Dr. Edward
Howell, in his book Enzyme Nutrition, cites numerous animal studies showing
that animals fed diets that are deficient in enzymes suffer from enlargement of
the pancreas, as huge amounts of pancreatic enzymes are squandered in digesting
foods that are devoid of natural enzymes. The result of this wasteful
outpouring of pancreatic digestive enzymes is a decrease in the supply of
crucial metabolic enzymes and impaired health.
How significant is an enzyme deficiency to overall health? For starters, organs
that are overworked enlarge in order to perform the increased work load. Those
with congestive heart failure or aortic valvular disease often suffer from an
enlarged heart-not a healthy condition. When the pancreas enlarges in order to
produce more digestive enzymes, there becomes a deficiency in the production of
life-sustaining metabolic enzymes, as available enzyme-producing capacity is
used in digesting food, instead of supporting cellular enzymatic functions. The
tremendous impact that wastage of pancreatic enzymes can have on health and
even life itself has been established in animal studies. The critical question
is how this applies to human health.
For a good part of the 20th Century, European oncologists have included enzyme
therapy as a natural, non-toxic therapy against cancer. Almost all of the
leading alternative cancer specialists treating Americans prescribe both food
enzymes and concentrated enzyme supplements as primary or adjuvant cancer
therapies. Nicholas Gonzalez, M.D., a New York City cancer specialist, uses
very high doses of supplemental pancreas enzymes as a primary anti-tumor
therapy. Dr. Gonzalez's clinical successes have led conventional drug companies
to seek to duplicate these natural therapies and offer them as adjuvant drug
therapies. One might assume that if pancreatic enzymes are efficacious in
treating existing cancers, that maintaining a large pool of these precious
enzymes in the body would help to prevent cancer from developing in the first
place. Epidemiological studies on human populations show that those who eat
fresh fruits and vegetables that are loaded with natural enzymes have
dramatically reduced levels of cancer and other diseases. Whether the high
enzyme content of these foods is partially responsible for their anti-cancer
effect has not been proven, but the evidence is compelling.
Digestive organs such as the pancreas and liver produce most of the body's
digestive enzymes, while the remainder should come from uncooked foods such as
fresh fruit and vegetables, raw sprouted grains, seeds and nuts, unpasteurized
dairy products, and from enzyme supplements.
Eating food in its natural, unprocessed state is vital to the maintenance of
good health, and a lack of it in the modern diet is directly responsible for
much degenerative disease. Cooking of food, particularly if heat is prolonged
and over 118 degrees Fahrenheit, destroys enzymes in that food, leaving what is
commonly consumed by the modern person - an "enzymeless" diet. This is how by
middle age we become metabolically depleted of enzymes. The glands and major
organs, including the brain. suffer most from this deficiency. The brain may
actually shrink as a result of a cooked, over-refined diet devoid of enzymes
the body so desperately needs. As stated earlier in this article, to try to
meet the deficiency, the pancreas swells. Laboratory mice fed on heat-processed
enzymeless food have a pancreas two or three times heavier than that of wild
mice eating their natural enzyme diet of raw food.
If foods are eaten uncooked, fewer of the body's digestive enzymes are required
to perform the digestive function. The body thereby adapts to the plentiful,
external supply by secreting fewer of its own enzymes, preserving these enzymes
to assist in vital cellular metabolic functions. Frying is one of the worst
cooking methods since it occurs at a much higher temperature than boiling,
damaging protein as well as destroying enzymes. Many digestive disorders such
as bloating may be related to an enzyme deficit that begins in middle age.
Enzymes can also be wasted by lifestyle factors. Enzymes do more work with
increasing temperatures, and they are used up faster. For example, a fever
induces faster enzyme action, and hence is unfavorable for bacterial activity.
Enzymes have been found in the urine not only after fevers but also after
strenuous athletic activity.
Animals harness the power of enzymes in food by burying or covering it, thereby
allowing enzyme activity to begin and food to be predigested. That way animals
preserve their own enzyme supply. In fact, animals-and also the people of some
native cultures-teach us not only about how to preserve our enzyme supply, but
also about disease prevention through efficient use of enzymes. Although whales
have up to six inches of fat keeping them warm, for instance, their arteries
are unclogged. Similarly Eskimos, who frequently eat large quantities of fat,
are often not obese. Both these groups eat the fat-digesting enzyme lipase in
the form of raw foods.
In vitro and controlled in vivo studies using internal and parenteral routes
have examined the effectiveness of different types and sources of plant enzymes
in a wide range of conditions, including maldigestion, malabsorption,
pancreatic insufficiency, steatorrhoea, celiac disease, lactose intolerance,
arterial obstruction and thrombotic disease.
Enzymes derived from the Aspergillus oryzae fungus have been subjected to
numerous studies evaluating their role in supporting healthy digestive
function. Moreover, several human studies suggest the proteolytic enzymes
derived from this fungus may play a role in anti-inflammatory and fibrinolytic
therapy. These enzymes appear to be relatively heat stable and they are also
active throughout a wide pH range, important because most enzymes are
deact*ated in stomach acid. These enzymes. synthesized from fungus, contain no
fungal residue even though that is their derivation. Modern filtration
technology enables these fungal enzymes to be ideal for human consumption.
Oral supplementation of digestive enzymes taken just before or at mealtimes can
assist digestion, according to Dr. Mark Percival. Writing in Nurntional Peads,
he says although most supplemental enzymes are labile and will deactivate when
exposed to stomach acid, if they are taken just before or with a meal, some of
the enzymes remain active. "The enzymes are physically protected" by the meal,
allowing for some enzymatic activity to occur in the stomach. And for those
enzymes that make it through to the small intestine. they may help with
digestion there as well. Because pH plays a major role in enzymatic activity,
the enzymes derived from Aspergillus "may be highly useful as they appear to be
remarkably stable, even when subjected to an acidic environment." Dr Howell
says he chews an enzyme capsule with his food in order to start the digestive
process as soon as the food is consumed. Enzyme activity has been shown to
begin even before the food is swallowed.
Dr. Arnold Renshaw, from Manchester in England, reported in Annals of Rheumatic
Disease that he had obtained good results with enzyme treatment of over 700
patients with rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis or fibrositis. "Some
intractable cases of ankylosing spondylitis and Still's disease have also
responded to this therapy." He went on to say that of 556 people with various
types of arthritis, 283 were found to be much improved, and a further 219 were
improved to a less marked extent. Of 292 cases of rheumatoid arthritis, 264
showed improvement of various degrees. The longer the duration of the disease,
the longer time before improvement was observed, although most started to show
improvement after just two or three months of enzyme therapy. Despite these
favorable findings, digestive enzyme therapy in conventional medicine has been
reserved to those diseases that directly result in a pathological deficiency of
pancreas-derived digestive enzymes.
Common digestive disorders may benefit from enzyme replacement. In pathological
digestive diseases, the oral intake of exocrine pancreatic enzymes is of key
importance in the treatment of maldigestion in chronic pancreatitis with
pancreatic insufficiency, according to Schneider et al. They studied the
therapeutic effectiveness of a conventional and an acid-protected enzyme
preparation, and an acid-stable fungal enzyme preparation in the treatment of
severe pancreatogenic steatorrhoea. The results showed that a supplemental
enzyme preparation is best for patients with chronic pancreatitis and prior
Whipple's procedure (a surgical procedure performed on pancreatic cancer
patients), while patients with an intact upper gastrointestinal tract fare best
with an acid-protected porcine pancreatic enzyme preparation.
Dr. Brad Rachman says that 58% of the population suffers from some type of
digestive disorder, and a lack of optimal digestive function associated with
enzyme inadequacy may lead to malabsorption and numerous related conditions.
The problem is exacerbated in the elderly because their production of gastric
HCl may be suboptimal. "This can be a significant factor that can impact
nutrient absorption along with the creation of maldigestive-type symptoms.
Bacterial production of hydrogen and methane are determined after a
carbohydrate challenge. Excessive levels of these gases reflect overgrowth of
bacteria in the upper gut." Help is at hand, he says, with enzyme replacement.
Dr Rachman says enzymes administered orally at meals may improve the digestion
of dietary protein and thereby decrease the quantity of antigenic
macromolecules leaking across the intestinal wall into the bloodstream. Such
leaks may trigger the body's defenses against exposure to what it perceives as
foreign protein or polypeptide invaders, producing the symptoms of allergy.
Dr. Howell agrees that allergies can also be helped by enzyme additions to the
diet. So too can excessive cholesterol levels, he says. Discussing cholesterol
and atherosclerosis, he quotes a 1962 study by three British doctors, CW Adams,
OB Bayliss and MZ Ibrahim, who set out to discover why cholesterol clogs
arteries, ultimately manifesting in heart disease. They found all enzymes
studied became progressively weaker in the arteries as people aged, and the
hardening became more severe. They suggested a shortage of enzymes is part of
the mechanism which allows cholesterol deposits to accumulate in the inner part
of arterial walls. Blood tests conducted by Stanford University researcher LO
Pilgeram in 1958 demonstrated progressive decline in lipase in the blood of
atherosclerosis patients with advancing middle and old age.
About the same time, Becker, Meyer and Necheles at Michael Reese Hospital in
Chicago found enzymes in the saliva, pancreas, and blood became weaker with
advancing age. They speculated that fat may be absorbed in the unhydrolyzed
state in atherosclerosis. They also found definite improvement in the character
of fat utilization following the use of enzymes. Intravenous administration of
brinase, a proteolytic enzyme preparation from Aspergillus oryzae, was found by
an Irish research group, Fitzgerald et al, to be beneficial in the treatment of
chronic arterial obstruction. Patients were observed for three months before
receiving six intravenous infusions of either saline or brinase over two weeks.
During the observation period, no changes were observed. After the infusion, 17
of the 27 obstructed arterial segments were found to have resumed blood flow,
and the number of patent segments increased from it to 27. No improvements were
observed in the placebo-treated patients.
Considerable evidence exists to support the beneficial effects of enzymes,
natural and supplemental. And it is obvious that plant enzymes benefit specific
conditions. Research dealing with intact absorption of food substrates proves
undoubtedly that non-digested food substrates enter the blood and that plant
enzymes break down different food substrates that would otherwise be passed
into the blood without being fully digested.
The time when our normal ability to produce enzymes is greatest is in our
youth, a time of rapid growth, and in most cases a time of no serious illness.
When we age and our food enzymes become depleted, we begin to suffer a broad
range of health complaints.
How long we live and in what state of health is determined by our enzyme
potential, according to Dr. Howell. Referring to a study by Dr. Meyer and his
associates at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, Dr. Howell said the enzyme of
the saliva in young adults is 30 times stronger than that in people aged over
69 years. Similarly, a German study by Eckardt of 1200 urine specimens found
almost twice as much of the starch-digesting enzyme, amylase, in young people
as in old.
So humans eating an enzymeless diet use up vast quantities of their enzyme
potential through secretion of the pancreas and other digestive organs,
resulting in a shortened life-span, illness, and lowered resistance to all
types of stress.
University of Illinois researcher. GA Leveille discovered in the early that
enzyme activities in the tissues become weaker with aging. Conducting
experiments on rats, he found that at the age of 18 months - which is
considered old age for rats - enzyme free fabricated diets, enzyme activity had
shrunk to less than 20% of its level at one month of age. And Dr. Howell
agrees: "the more lavishly a young body gives up its enzymes, the sooner the
state of enzyme poverty, or old age. is reached."
The answer is substitution of raw food for cooked as much as possible. By
eating foods with their enzymes intact and by supplementing cooked foods with
enzyme capsules, Dr. Howell suggests we can stop abnormal and pathological
aging processes. He singles out raw milk, bananas, avocados, seeds, nuts,
grapes, and other natural foods as rich in food enzymes. He also suggests
enzyme supplements be taken with all cooked food and, under medical
supervision, large doses in enzyme therapy to treat certain diseases. We are
what we eat. Few would disagree with this adage, but not everyone realizes it
is not quite so simple. Enzymes make the digestion of food possible. This means
we must make maximum use of enzyme activity, both internal enzymes and those we
consume either in food or as supplements.
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Further Reading
Annals of Rheumatk Disease (1947)
Fitzgerald DE, Frisch EP, Milliken jC. Relief of chronic
arterial obstruction using intravenous brinase.
Scand j Thor Cardiovasc Surg 1979; 13:327-32
Howell E. Enzyme Nutrition: The Food Enzyme
Concept. Wayne, NJ; Aver' Publishing Group,
1985 Percival M. Nutritional Pearls (vol 35)
Rachman B. Unique features and application of
non-animal derived enzymes.
Clinical Nutrition Insights 1997; 5(10)
Schneider MU, Knoll-Ruzicka S, Domschke et al.
Pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy
Hapatogastroenteroogy (1985)
Apr; 32(2):97-102
Now if I could just find some nice MLMer to sell me some. *;*
Jan