Systemic enzymes are those that
operate, not just for digestion, but throughout your
body in every system and organ. But let's take first
things first, what is an enzyme? An enzyme is a
biocatalyst - something that makes something else
work or work faster. Chemical reactions are
generally slow things, enzymes speed them up.
Without enzymes, the chemical reactions that make up
our life would be too slow for life as we know it.
(As slow as sap running down a tree in winter). For
life to manifest, as we know it, enzymes are
essential to speed up the reactions. We have roughly
3000 enzymes in our bodies and over 7000 enzymic
reactions. Most of these enzymes are derived or
created from what we think of as the protein
digesting enzymes. But while digestion is an
important part of what enzymes do, it's almost the
absolute last function. First and foremost, these
body-wide protein-eating enzymes have the following
actions:
Natural Anti-Inflammatory Enzymes
are the first line of defense against inflammation.
(1,2,3). Inflammation is a reaction by the immune
system to an irritation. Let's say you have an
injured right knee. The immune system, sensing the
irritation in the knee, creates a protein chain
called a Circulating Immune Complex (CIC for short),
tagged specifically for that right knee. (A
scientist who found the tagging mechanism won the
Nobel Prize in biology in 1999). This CIC floats
down to the right knee and causes pain, redness and
swelling - the classic earmarks for inflammation.
This, at first, is a beneficial reaction; it warns
us that a part of ourselves is hurt and needs
attention. But, inflammation is self-perpetuating,
it creates an irritation that in response, the body
makes CIC's for! Aspirin, Ibuprofen, Celebrex, Viox
and the rest of the Non Steroidial Anti Inflammatory
Drugs all work by keeping the body from making all
the CIC's. This ignores the fact that some CIC's are
vital to life, like those that maintain the lining
of the intestine and those that keep the kidneys
functioning! Not to mention the fact that they,
along with acetaminophen, are highly toxic to the
liver. Every year 20,000 Americans die from these
over the counter drugs and another 100,000 will wind
up in the hospital with liver damage, kidney damage
or bleeding intestines from the side effects of
these drugs. (4,5). Systemic enzymes, on the other
hand, are perfectly safe and free of dangerous side
effects. They have no LD-50, or toxic dose. (6).
Best of all, systemic enzymes can tell the
difference between the good CIC's and the bad ones.
This is due to the fact that hydrolytic enzymes are
lock and key mechanisms and their "teeth" will only
fit over the bad CIC's. So instead of preventing the
creation of all CIC's, systemic enzymes just "eat"
the bad ones and in so doing, lower inflammation
everywhere. With that, pain is also lowered.
Anti Fibrosis
Enzymes eat
scar tissue and fibrosis. (7). Fibrosis is scar
tissue and most doctors learn in anatomy that it is
fibrosis that eventually kills us all. Let me
explain. As we age, which starts at 27, we have a
diminishing of the body's output of enzymes. This is
because we make a finite amount of enzymes in a
lifetime and we use up a good deal of them by the
time we reach our 40's (Cystic Fibrosis patients who
have virtually no enzyme production to speak of,
even as children usually don't make it past their
20's before they die of the restriction and
shrinkage in the lungs from the formation of
fibrosis or scar tissue).
So our body
begins to dole out our enzymes with an eyedropper
instead of with a tablespoon. Result: the repair
mechanism of the body goes off balance and has
nothing to reduce the over abundance of fibrin it
deposits in nearly everything from simple cuts, to
the inside of our internal organs and blood vessels.
It is then when most women begin to develop things
like fibrocystic breast disease, uterine fibroids,
and endometriosis. We all grow arterial sclerotic
(meaning scar tissue) plaque, and have fibrin begin
to spider web its way inside of our internal organs,
reducing their size and function over time. This is
why as we age our wounds heal with thicker, less
pliable, weaker and very visible scars.
If we
replace the lost enzymes, we can control and reduce
the amount of scar tissue and fibrosis our bodies
have. As physicians in the US are now discovering,
even old scar tissue can be "eaten away" from
surgical wounds, pulmonary fibrosis, and kidney
fibrosis even keloid years after their formation.
Medical doctors in Europe and Asia have known this
and used orally administered enzymes for such for
over 40 years!
Blood Cleansing
The blood
is not only the river of life; it is also the river
through which the cells and organs dispose of their
waste. Enzymes improve circulation by eating the
excess fibrin that causes blood to sometimes get as
thick as catsup or yogurt, creating the perfect
environment for the formation of clots. All of this
material is supposed to be cleaned off by the liver
on "first pass" or the first time it goes through.
Given the sluggish and near toxic or toxic states of
everyone's liver these days, that seldom happens. So
the waste remains in the blood, waiting for the
liver to have enough free working space and enough
enzymes to clean it. This can take days or in some
people, weeks! (8).
When
systemic enzymes are taken, they stand ready in the
blood and take the strain off of the liver by:
-
Cleaning excess fibrin from
the blood and reducing the stickiness of blood
cells. These two actions minimize the leading
causes of stroke and heart attack: blood clots
(8).
-
Breaking dead material down
small enough that it can immediately pass into
the bowel. (8).
-
Cleansing the FC receptors on
the white blood cells, improving their function
and availability to fight off infection. (9).
And here we come
to the only warning we have to give concerning the
use of Vitalzym or any other systemic enzyme - don't
use the product if you are a hemophiliac or are on
prescription blood thinners like coumadin, heparin
and plavix. The enzymes cause the drugs to work
better, so there is the possibility of thinning the
blood too much.
Immune System
Modulating Enzymes are adaptogenic, seeking to
restore a steady state to the body. (9). When the
immune system is running low, we become susceptible
to infectious disease. When it's cranked up too
high, then the system creates antibodies that attack
it's own tissues, as are seen in the autoimmune
diseases of MS, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Lupus.
Here the Vitalzym will tone down immune function and
eat away at the antibodies the immune system is
making to attack its bodies own tissue. When the
immune system is run down too low, the enzymes
increase immune response, producing more Natural
Killer cells, and improving the efficiency of the
white blood cells, all leading to improved immunity.
Virus Fighting
Viruses harm us by replicating in our bodies. To do
this, a virus must bond itself to the DNA in our
cells through the medium of its exterior protein
cell wall. Anything that disrupts that cell wall
inhibits the ability of viral replication by
rendering individual viruses inert. (10, 11).
Systemic enzymes can tell the difference between the
proteins that are supposed to be in your body and
those that are foreign or not supposed to be there
(again the enzyme lock and key mechanism). Vitalzym
has the strongest protein eating effect of any
enzyme due to its Serrapeptase content and can be of
help in combating viruses.
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