The Importance of Enzymes for Health

Although systemic and digestive enzymes are absolutely vital to human health, you hardly ever heard of them in the dietary supplement industry until recently.  I've found them to offer more benefits than almost any other supplements I've taken, and are an integral part of any effective colon or liver cleansing program.

Just what makes them so important?

Essentially, every metabolic process in the body requires the catalytic action of enzymes.  They're involved with digestion (obviously), breaking down and digesting the food we eat in order to release the nutrients they contain.  But enzymes also play a key roll in the immune system, the circulatory system, the liver, kidneys, spleen and pancreas, and even our ability to see, breathe and think.

Every organ and gland in your body has a set of enzymes unique to itself.  One researcher found over 98 enzymes carrying out metabolic functions in the arteries alone.  Pretty much the same is true all all body tissues.  (That's why I've found the use of glandular and organ tissue supplements so helpful.)

Where do we get our enzymes

Some of the enzymes we need are present in the foods we eat.  (At least they're supposed to be.)  Some are synthesized by the body itself.

However, when our food provides us with insufficient levels of enzymes, our bodies must produce its own. In the case of digestive enzymes, the need to — in effect — overproduce the enzymes needed to fully digest our food limits our ability to produce enough metabolic enzymes to carry out other body functions, including the clearing of our blood stream of foreign proteins, balancing fibrin in the blood and detoxification of the tissues.

Our enzyme-depleted diet

Unfortunately, in our modern world, most of the foods we have available to us are enzyme-deficient, and are then processed and prepared in a manner that renders them all but dead and inert.  What do we do to our foods to turn them into toxic waste?

• Chemical cultivation: When foods are grown in an artificial environment of chemicals, their enzyme content is all but destroyed.  Add to this the fact that most of our seed is hybrid for production, not food content, and we start out in quite a hole.
• Heat: Enzymes start breaking down at 118 degrees F., and are totally destroyed at 129 degrees F.  So many of our foods are super-heated during cooking, it's no wonder they're enzyme-deficient.
• Modern processing: The standard processing methods of pasteurization, sterilization, canning, freezing and microwaving all render enzymes inactive.

Early signs of enzyme deficiency:

Some of the early signs of enzyme deficiency include:

• obesity;
• digestive complaints; heartburn; gas; bloating; stomach aches;
• diarrhea; constipation;
• fatigue; chronic fatigue;
• headaches;
• yeast infections;
• nutritional deficiencies;
• pain; joint stiffness;
• colon, liver, pancreas and intestinal problems;
• skin eruptions, psoriasis, eczema.

To this list you could add cardiovascular problems and even cancer; and an enzyme deficiency might very well play a roll in such diseases as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, MS and other disorders that are becoming so prevalent today.

The need for enzyme supplementation:

Given the manner in which our food is grown and brought to market, is it really realistic to think that we can get the enzymes we need from our foods?

Not really.

Therefore, it really is important to supplement your diet with systemic and digestive enzymes.

But which ones?

This is an important question, since clinical studies conducted at the Young Life Research Clinic have found that, of the enzyme products by 21 of the leading manufacturers, none were effective in a clinical setting.  That is: they were enzymes alright; they just were not active.  David Thropp, at Allegany Nutrition, has said the same thing.  His awareness of this problem is a driving force behind his careful testing of ingredients used in the Allegany Nutriton line of dietary and systemic enzyme complexes.

To regain or maintain your health, you really need the highest-quality enzymes possible.  If you must skimp on your supplements somewhere, this isn't the place to do it.  I've found a set of systemic and digestive enzyme supplements that I can recommend without hesitation.  I've used them and found them to be very effective.