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Enzyme Therapy

Raw foods are generally easier to digest than cooked food with some exceptions. It is difficult to digest large amounts of raw vegetables due to the amount of cellulose present, cellulase is an enzyme that can help cellulose digestion, but only to a limited degree, hence the importance of juicing vegetables rather than simply eating raw.  Grains are also difficult to digest raw. The food items that we evolved to eat are actually still the most easy to digest and assimilate; the human system in terms of digestive structure and ability has changed little over millions of years, so the healthiest tribes and groups of people all around the planet are those that consume a diet of mainly raw food. One explanation for the obvious question "why does man cook food” is as follows. Man was originally a hunter gatherer, in this situation grains were rare, some roots and root vegetables were eaten occasionally, green leaves of various types more frequently, fruit at various times depending on climate, and animal meats. Fire was only used occasionally to cook food, all other animals eat their food raw, and it has shown by many researchers (whether one likes the idea or not), that raw meat, raw fish and raw eggs are far easier and more efficiently digested than cooked. The fact that man always cooked meat is an unfortunate myth. The problem began as man became more populace in certain areas, could not find enough hunter-gatherer food, and began to live in fixed locations. The discovery that grain could be grown and eaten if cooked may also be a main factor that led to the introduction of cooking.

Proteolytic enzymes are essential regulators and modulators of the inflammatory response. Any disorder ending in ‘itis’ can be helped and most usually is with Multi-Enzymes, these include chronic bronchitis, sinusitis, urinary tract infections prostatitis, cystitis and pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) as well as providing relief for some of the most painful cases of ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, and Multiple Sclerosis. Women will be happy to know that they will also be able to get relief from the painful disorder of fibrocystic breast disease with the aid of enzymes. They can help reduce heart disease and circulatory disorders

Multi-enzyme therapy can be, and has been successfully used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and Osteoarthritis, and all auto-immune disorders can be potentially helped as Multi-enzymes help to re-balance and strengthen the immune system, by overcoming immune complexes as discussed, but also by helping in the production of T cells and natural ‘killer-cells’ (cancer).  

Multi-Enzyme therapy for Lupus, Cancer & viral diseases (activates immune response)

Multi-enzymes hinder pain and inflammatory reactions in a number of ways.

• Remove "fibrin,” the clotting material that prolongs inflammation (especially important in helping circulatory disorders)
• Break down proteins in the blood that cause inflammation by helping their removal through the blood and lymphatic systems.
• Remove chronic inflammations, one of the main causes of arthritis.
• Eliminate edema fluid retention in areas of inflammation.

Enzymes can have a powerful effect on helping to eliminate harmful bacteria and virus by;

• General immune support as discussed  in the use of systemic enzymes in cancer support
• Enzymes can directly help to dissolve and digest the outer coating of anaerobic bacteria or virus, leaving them to be mopped up by the immune macrophages.

E.G. Kleine (1990) found that Herpes Zoster responds well to Systemic enzyme therapy.

Conventional treatments of inflammatory diseases use drugs that unlike Multi-enzymes, can cause harmful side effects and do not remove the cause of the problem, largely enzyme deficiency, and unlike Multi-enzymes, such treatments do not improve immune system health. Multi-enzymes not only remove inflammation they allow the healing phase to proceed once the true cause of the chronic inflammation is resolved. Enzyme therapy has long been part of the methods of treatment of traditional medicine. Meanwhile, systemic therapy with proteolytic enzymes has become an important method of treatment in natural medicine. There is hardly any regulatory system in our body which does not depend on enzymes. Enzymes control coagulation and fibrinolysis, inflammation and complement activity, phagocytosis, wound healing and tissue regeneration as well as the specific and nonspecific defense systems. Here the enzymes function as biocatalysts. The idea of supporting the weakened or stressed human body in fighting disease by administering enzymes seems very reasonable. After all, the structures and various functions of some 2700 enzymes have already been discovered in the human organism. 

The most important enzymes used in therapy are hydrolases, which split ester, peptide and glycoside bonds by introducing a water molecule. The tasks and goals of enzyme therapy are manifold. Enzymes are used to support the body in stress situations, such as chronic or acute inflammations, digestive disorders, vascular or malignant diseases. A further field of application for enzymes is substitution in enzyme deficit disorders. The classical examples of this are pancreatic insufficiency or blood clotting disorders due to deficient clotting factors. Each enzyme has different effects. It is therefore reasonable to use combinations of enzymes to ensure a sufficiently broad spectrum of effects and via synergism for greater efficacy.

Enzymes promote the body's own regeneration processes. Certain proteolytic enzymes possess pronounced anti-inflammatory and anti-oedematous properties. They promote the breakdown of toxic metabolites and inflammatory products and thus contribute substantially to the detoxification of the human body. Simultaneously, the additional fibrinolytic activity of the enzymes and the "vessel-sealing" effect of rutin accelerates the blood flow. Together with the dissolution of fresh blood clots (microthrombi), this allows normalization of the microcirculation. This especially applies to the enzymes Serrapeptase and Nattokinase. Therefore, the inflammatory products that mediate pain are eliminated more quickly, the improved blood supply enhances local oxygenation, and tissue tension decreases in parallel, the Medical data is for information only.  All of this provides some analgesic effect. In sharp contrast to the mechanisms of action of conventional non-steroidal and steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, systemic enzyme therapy thus does not block the natural healing processes of inflammation

Proteolytic Enzymes Bring Relief to Sufferers of Lupus

Ron Davis, M.D. has had excellent success bringing about complete remissions in patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and Progressive Systemic Sclerosis. Dr. Davis’ method is available on the website, http://www.arthritistrust.org/, under the same title, "Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and Progressive Systemic Sclerosis.” For our treatment protocol for Lupus please see our Lupus page. Enzymes help to dissolve circulating immune complexes and antibodies that cause the severe inflammation of Lupus. A 1996 study of Lupus patients demonstrated how clinical and laboratory immuno-inflammatory activity decreased more quickly when medical drugs were used in combination with Multi-enzymes. Enzymes may be particularly important for Lupus sufferers for another reason: they’ve been strongly shown to help prevent kidney disease and failure, both of which are commonly associated with Lupus.

Proteolytic Enzymes and Cancer

About 100 years ago, a British embryologist, John Beard, started the research concerning the use of protein digesting enzymes and the treatment of cancer. He had some successes using enzymes taken from the pancreas of young animals. He injected them into his patients and achieved some good results, but there were side effects from the immunological reactions to injecting components of raw pancreas into the blood stream. He was later followed by Kelly who treated thousands of cancer patients and claimed very high success rates.

Today, enzymes are produced by in large using bacteria, and their activity units are measured, so stronger and more effective enzyme blends are now available. Using large amounts of activity units of enzymes to treat advanced cancers requires clinical supervision, since the toxins released from the tumour break down, when there are large/many tumors present should only be achieved at the rate the system is able to detoxify them. For this reason we recommend a wider selection of remedies known to overcome some of the other causative aspects of cancer such as correcting cellular pH and overcoming oxygen deficiency at a cell level. These can systematically be overcome with the use of suitable nutritional remedies (Alka Vita, Germanium, and Live cell Immunocomplex) as discussed in our article: Cancer, Helping to win the Battle with Nutritional Therapy

Prof. Wolf wanted to continue the study of these wonderful biological agents, he noticed that by using purified mixtures of enzymes there were no risks of frequent allergic reactions. Each cancer cell has on the surface of its membrane, specific antigens. It is naturally ideal when the body can recognize these markers - by being released from the fibrin - because the cancer cell can be destroyed after this. Although the cancer cell is destroyed, however, the antigen remains. By means of a change in its membrane, the cancer cell can sometimes throw off its antigen. It seems that cancer cells do this, so that our defenses go in the wrong direction. Regrettably, this trick really works. If the number of formed immune complexes is kept within the normal limits and our defenses are all right, then our macrophages can embrace and dissolve these immune complexes. If the number of immune complexes is superior to the strength of the macrophages, then some immune complexes remain not dissolved in the blood, as well as in the lymph. By means of a complicated mechanism - we talk about activation and aggregation of thrombocytes - it promotes a greater formation of fibrin, by depositing the un-dissolved immune complexes in the tissue. This normally diminishes the body’s defenses, and this is especially dangerous in the cancer situation.

The immune complexes can weaken the body's defenses in another way. Too many immune complexes inhibit the activity of the macrophages, which are the main destroyers of the cancer cells. Their capacity to destroy and to clean out the system is paralyzed. Thus cancer cells can grow without being bothered by macrophages. What the enzymes do to help, is that they discover the receptors. Enzymes also facilitate the reaction of recognition. Another important action of the enzymes is to improve immunity, which is done by breaking the circulating immune complexes, by activating the natural killer cells and the T-cells, and also by inducing mediators and cytokines, such as TNF, Tumor Necrosis Factor. b

Enzymes have the ability to reduce the thick fibrin layer which is abnormally 15 times thicker than normal. By reducing this fibrin layer the stickiness of the cancer cells is also diminished, and by this means we can prevent metastasis.  

The world-famous professor and doctor from Vienna, Dr. Wrba, states that enzymes are a new approach to cancer treatment. There are two main factors in the treatment of cancer cells (1) defense of the host and (2) virulence of the cancer cells. As has been already said, systemic enzyme therapy increases the defense mechanism, that is, improves the recognition reaction of the cancer cells, plus lowers its virulence. In doing so, Wrba feels that this action causes modulation of the cell membrane, uncovers the cell surface and receptors, improves immunity, facilitates the recognition reaction and reduces the stickiness of the tumor cells.

The Enzyme of Enzymes – Nattokinase  By Dr. Nicholas Calvino

Recently a new enzyme with potent fibrinolytic activity, that rivals pharmaceutical agents, has been discovered and shows great potential in providing support for hypercoagulative states and in supporting the activation of many of the bodies 3,000 endogenous enzymes. This all natural enzyme, Nattokinase, is derived from fermented soy and the bacteria Bacillus natto. Already, backed by strong and novel research, Nattokinase shows promise in supporting areas such as cardiovascular disease, stroke, angina, venous stasis, thrombosis, emboli, atherosclerosis, Fibromyalgia/chronic Fatigue, claudication, retinal pathology, hemorrhoid, varicose veins, soft tissue rheumatisms, muscle spasm, poor healing, chronic inflammation and pain, peripheral vascular disease, hypertension, tissue oxygen deprivation, infertility, and other gynecology conditions (e.g. endometriosis, uterine fibroids).

There are three major groups of biological enzymes: (1) Food Enzymes, (2) Digestive Enzymes and (3) Metabolic Enzymes. In the past, the therapeutic use of enzymes has largely focused on the use of digestive enzymes. Digestive enzymes can be directly beneficial because they assist in digestion, help regulate immune responses in the intestinal tract, and relieve the body of its relative requirement of digestive enzyme production, allowing for biological energy and resources to be further allocated to the production of metabolic enzymes, indirectly. Recently, however, a new enzyme has been isolated from a traditional fermented Japanese food (although it is consumed by other cultures in the same or similar forms), that appears to have metabolic effects and to work directly in concert with the metabolic enzymes. This means that it will complement the somewhat different digestive enzymes.

The name of this new enzyme is Nattokinase (meaning the enzyme from Natto) and has been called, "The Enzyme of Enzymes” by its discoverer, Dr. Hiroyuki Sumi. Natto has been used in Japanese culture for over 1000 years for its popular taste and as a folk remedy for heart and vascular diseases, and now we know why: it contains Nattokinase, a very potent fibrinolytic (breaks down fibrin, a blood clotting protein) enzyme, which has shown remarkable ability to affect blood clotting and a possible ability to regulate and activate various other metabolic enzymes. Natto is produced by a fermentation process by adding Bacillus natto, a beneficial bacterium, to boiled soybeans. The resulting nattokinase enzyme, is produced when Bacillus natto acts on the soybeans. Nattokinase has been the subject of 17 studies, including two small human trials. While other soy foods contain enzymes, it is only the natto preparation that contains the specific nattokinase enzyme.

Nattokinase’s Affect on Fibrin

Fibrin is a protein that when activated forms fibrinogen, which is responsible for blood clotting. This is an important and protective mechanism that protects the body from excessive bleeding, say, when you cut yourself. However, in many instances, this process becomes over-activated or becomes "stuck” in high gear. This irregular clotting has been implicated in a variety of serious health conditions, namely, cardiovascular disease. The magnificent thing about Nattokinase is that it appears to have many, if not most, of the benefits of pharmaceutical agents designed to regulate blood clotting (e.g. Warfarin, Heparin, t-PA, Urokinase, etc), without any of the side effects of these medications. Furthermore, while these medications have to be injected and only provide a very brief time of benefit (a few hours), Nattokinase is effective when taken orally and its benefits linger many times longer. Standard doses of Nattokinase vary from 250-1,000 mg and positive effects can be seen with as little as 50 mg.

Blood clots form when strands of protein called fibrin accumulate in a blood vessel. In the heart, blood clots cause blockage of blood flow to muscle tissue. If blood flow is blocked, the oxygen supply to that tissue is cut off and it eventually dies. This can result in angina and heart attacks. Clots in chambers of the heart can mobilize to the brain. In the brain, blood clots also block blood and oxygen from reaching necessary areas, which can result in senility and/or stroke.  Fibrinolytic enzymes are normally generated in the cells of the blood vessels. As the body ages, production of these enzymes begins to decline, making blood more prone to coagulation. Since these cells exist throughout the body, such as in the arteries, veins and lymphatic system, poor production of thrombolytic enzymes can lead to the development of clotting prone conditions virtually anywhere in the body.

Researchers from Biotechnology Research Laboratories and JCR Pharmaceuticals Co. of Kobe, Japan, tested Nattokinase’s ability to dissolve a thrombus in the carotid arteries of rats. Animals treated with Nattokinase regained 62 percent of blood flow, whereas those treated with plasmin regained just 15.8 percent of blood flow. Researchers from JCR Pharmaceuticals, Oklahoma State University, and Miyazaki Medical College tested nattokinase on 12 healthy Japanese volunteers (6 men and 6 women, between the ages of 21 and 55). They gave the volunteers 200 grams of natto (the food) before breakfast, and then tracked fibrinolytic activity through a series of blood plasma tests. The tests indicated that the natto generated a heightened ability to dissolve blood clots: On average, the volunteers’ ELT (a measure of how long it takes to dissolve a blood clot) dropped by 48 percent within two hours of treatment, and volunteers retained an enhanced ability to dissolve blood clots for 2 to 8 hours. As a control, researchers later fed the same amount of boiled soybeans to the same volunteers and tracked their fibrinolytic activity. The tests showed no significant change.

Nattokinase appears to have the added benefit of significantly reducing elevated blood pressure (an often concomitant condition in cardiovascular disease risk factors, such as high fibrin). Nattokinase appears to be safe, and has been used for over 1,000 years safely with no reports of toxicity. Various other nutritional supplements / herbs have been reported to have fibronlytic activity; however, the potency of Nattokinase appears to be superior. Furthermore, Nattokinase also appears to be an activator of various other metabolic enzymes and vitamins, cleaving them from their inactive to their active forms. The strength and magnitude of this direct support for the metabolic enzymes of the body, from an oral enzyme supplement, is unique to Nattokinase and shows great promise as a nutritional supportive agent in exciting and diverse ways.

Final points regarding digestive plant enzyme studies 

Animal studies have shown that the difference in lifespan between groups of animals eating dead (cooked) food with no enzymes and groups eating live (raw) food with all the natural enzymes present is a 30% increase.  While no studies have been performed on humans there is no reason to believe that human studies would not obtain similar results.

The Pottinger Cats Study is a great example of what happens when eating cooked and processed foods over a long period of time. The Pottinger cats study lasted for ten years, with three generations of cats being studied.  Approximately 900 cats were involved. Dr. Francis Pottinger took 2 sets of cats and fed them only raw milk and raw meat.  He took 3 more sets of cats and fed them cooked meat and pasteurized milk. This study was specifically designed to show the difference between eating raw foods versus cooked and processed foods over a long period of time.  The cats eating the raw food were disease free and healthy generation after generation after generation. The cats eating the cooked and processed foods, that humans eat, had different results. By the end of the 1st generation the cats started to develop degenerative diseases and became quite lazy. By the end of the 2nd generation the cats had developed degenerative diseases by mid-life and started losing their coordination. By the end of the 3rd generation the cats eating the cooked foods had developed degenerative diseases very early in life and some were born blind and weak and had a much shorter life span. Many of the third generation cats couldn't even produce offspring.  The cats study gives us a little insight into why children today are getting degenerative diseases that used to only show up in humans at an age of 50 years or older.