Digestive Enzymes
Your Metabolic Companions to a Healthy Immune System

Your digestive system is your body's most miraculous food transport system. Without adequate digestive enzymes your whole body is nutrient deficient, because digestion is accomplished by digestive enzymes that break down your food into simpler chemical components that can be absorbed into your blood stream and then transported into your cells The larger molecules of digestion are called proteins, carbohydrates and fats and the smaller components are vitamins and minerals. These components are present in adequate amounts when a well balanced diet is followed. However many people do not eat properly, or have so much stress in their lives that they fail to digest and absorb what they do eat.

Assimilation (absorption) and elimination (elimination of waste products from cells and the colon) need to be balanced in order to provide optimal conditions to maintain and/or restore health at the cellular levels. Many of our lifestyle choices can create an unbalanced digestive system, putting us at risk for cancer or other diseases. While not everyone has cancer, everyone has a greater risk of developing cancer and other diseases if their diet is deficient of nutrients and digestive enzymes, and their body is burdened by poor eliminations of toxins.

Your Oral Cavity and Salivary Glands - An Important Digestive Step
Digestion begins in your mouth, as food is mixed with saliva and to and to do this requires chewing. Many people have problems with dentures and the structure of their jaws that affect chewing. Saliva contains the enzymes ptyalin, an amylase enzyme, which helps digest carbohydrates (starches) into smaller sugars. Many times during a colonic I will see large pieces of food go by the viewing tube and invariably the client will admit they chew very little.

Step Two - Your Stomach
The greatest digestion occurs in the stomach, as hydrochloric acid, pepsin, rennin and water are added to begin protein digestion. Some digestion of fats and carbohydrates occurs here. The stomach also secretes intrinsic factor, which is necessary for the absorption of B12 in the small intestine. If intrinsic factor is missing you will develop pernicious anemia. When my elderly clients tell me they have low iron the most common nutrient missing is hydrochloric acid, which is needed for iron absorption, and this often decreases with age. Often if clients are not responding well to iron replacement it is because this nutrient is low. Clients who use antacids on a regular basis often have low levels of hydrochloric acid, putting them at risk for low iron and low absorption of calcium. Even though antacids contain calcium its absorption requires adequate hydrochloric acid. If you are taking Tums for calcium please STOP and get started on a good calcium supplement that does not compromise your hydrochloric acid levels.

The stomach churns food from one-to-four hours depending on the combinations of foods eaten, and then it is passed as a liquid into the duodenum of the small intestine. I place emphasis on food combining in my health consultations because it can affect the breakdown of foods and the time it takes food to complete digestion. Incomplete digestion compromises the whole body. For example, there is less hydrochloric acid produced for the breakdown of starch then for protein and fats. A common combination is protein and starch [meat and potatoes] eaten at the same meal, which creates a situation of incomplete digestion of protein and fats. The stomach tries to meet both needs by producing less hydrochloric acid. How and when liquids are taken can affect digestion. People with low hydrochloric acid will slow digestion even more when liquids are taken at meal time, as the enzymes are diluted even further. Raw fruits eaten as a desert following a heavy meal are digested quickly, but become trapped with the rest of the food and do not pass readily through the digestive tract. Instead of the fruit providing a good energy boost it causes fermentation and gas in the bowel. From my own journey to wellness I found changing my food combining at mealtime did more to improve my digestion than any other dietary changes I had made.

Step Three - The Small Intestine
This is the major power house for the body and in size it is actually quite long, between 20- 21 feet. A normal small intestine takes three hours to further break down foods from the stomach, with carbohydrates broken down into simple sugars, proteins into amino acids and fats into fatty acids. A colonic does not clean this area, but a colonic quickly reveals how digestion is happening. I will often see large amounts of undigested foods, with carrot, broccoli, fruit etc being passed just like it was eaten from the stomach, to the small intestine, on down to the colon. These people often complaint of diarrhea alternating with constipation, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, general malaise, digestive disturbances, allergies, chemical sensitivities, premenstrual syndrome, constipation or have autoimmune diseases, such as arthritis. Many of these people live with high levels of stress. They rarely take time to eat slowly or are always eating on the run, or have a lot of tension at mealtimes. One lady told me that she would never eat at all if she had to find a time when there wasn't stress and tension at the dinner table. My suggestion if this is happening to you is, EAT ALONE, at least you will digest more. Stress depletes digestive enzymes, as the body stops producing enzymes as it directs its attention to handling stress levels.

Enzymes from the pancreas provide about one and a half quarts of alkaline digestive juices, while the gall bladder releases bile [made in the liver], which acts as a fat emulsifier to break down fats so the pancreatic enzymes can complete the digestion of fats. I often see poor fat digestion while doing a colonic, which is evident by very pale stools, indicating inadequate bile being added during the digestive process. When fats are not digested adequately there is risk of a deficiency of fat soluble vitamins and essential fatty acids, which is often evident by dry skin, cracked nails, fatigue, aching sore joints, frequent colds, dry mucus membranes, tear ducts, mouth, vagina, and dry lifeless hair. I make inquires about factors that may be affecting their gallbladder or liver functions. When bile is low or inhibited toxins stay in the liver longer. The most common cause of inhibited bile flow is gallstones. Gallstones and liver function can be improved with a low fat and high fiber diet and supplements of easily absorbed essential fatty acids and digestive enzymes. Persistent low bile needs to be evaluated by your family doctor.

A lack of pancreatic enzymes have been associated with many conditions including: food allergies; inflamation conditions; autoimmune disorders; hypoglycemia; hyperglycemia; cystic fibrosis; candidiasis; parasites and worms; obesity; acholic stool; bloating and gas.

Step Four - Absorption
The absorption of food happens at different sections of the small intestines. For example the duodenum absorbs calcium, vitamin A, thiamine, and riboflavin; the jejunum absorbs fats and the ileum absorbs vitamin B12. Vitamin K, water, electrolyte minerals are absorbed in the ascending colon and the final section of the digestive tract. Disease in any of these areas can cause nutrient deficiencies.

The large intestine is your body's sewer system where waste produced by the digestive process is stored until eliminated. This is the area that a colonic is very effective at cleaning. Low enzyme activity enables bacteria and parasites to multiply. The bacteria in the bowel can increase and produce more toxins as a result of the rich undigested food supply that promotes multification. These toxins promote allergies and disease. Elimination is important in order to sustain the whole digestive process, while low levels of digestive enzymes can slow digestion causing constipation.

Yogurt and probiotics introduce friendly bacteria needed to maintain a healthy colon and small intestine. The intensional flora of the digestive system helps maintain the nutritional status of the body, boosts the immune system, aids in cholesterol metabolism, destroys carcinogens, and decreases yeast and bacterial growth. I use a specially prepared probiotics designed for humans that is manufactured to high standards and kept frozen until sold. I offer probiotics to all my clients following colonics to restore normal flora and I suggest their use on a daily basis.

What Makes You At Risk For Low Digestive Enzymes?
If you live a life that is highly stressed, fail to take adequate time to eat slowly, have a low fruit and vegetable diet, eat a lot of protein, have poor food combining habits, then you are at high risk of having low digestive enzymes. Under stress the body is busy directing its attention to raising your cortisol levels to help you cope with stress and as a result digestive enzymes are decreased or not produced. AVOID EATING WHEN HIGHLY STRESSED OR ANGRY.

The foods we eat supports the enzymes function of the digestive system. Raw food, such as salads, provide live enzymes to our digestive system, while processed, refined foods deplete enzymes. Cooking, frying, and pasteurization has a similar effect. For example, if you do not eat raw fruits or vegetables every day you provide no live enzymes to your body and your body is challenged to provide them. This is one of the reasons raw food is so emphasized in the Kelley program for cancer patients. It frees your body from the need to produce so many enzymes to digest food, while raw food has some of the enzymes necessary for its own digestion. This allows your body to produce more enzymes needed for healing repair and breaking down fibrin tissue, such as tumors. Low levels of digestive enzymes have been linked to cancer and degenerative diseases, autoimmune disorders, food allergies, viral infections, and other digestive disturbances.

If you find eating raw fruits and vegetables difficult and you are relying on canned or prepared juices, you are still deficient in live enzymes. Unless you prepare fresh fruits and vegetable juices daily or eat raw foods daily you will be deficient in live enzymes. Dr. W. Kelley believed a good juicer was a more important appliance in the kitchen than a stove!

Enzymes are also depleted and destroyed by infections, parasites, smoking, pollution, over-the-counter and prescription drugs, excessive ultra-violet light, high caffeine and alcohol consumption.

Do Digestive Enzymes Help?
Extra digestive enzymes, especially Pancreatin can help restore the enzymatic system of the body and may have a sparing effect on the body's own digestive enzymes. Research has shown the body tries to conserve its pancreatic digestive enzymes and when they are supplemented they are absorbed intact by the digestive gut and then taken up again by the secretory cells. I recommend to my clients that they use pancreatic enzymes in a cycle, which gives the body a ten day supply of supplemental enzymes, followed by a five day rest. During the time the body is being supplemented the body can increase its enzyme production without further stress on the pancreas and during the rest period the body must try to maintain its own levels, thus increasing the efficiency of the pancreas.

In times of injury causing inflamation pancreatic enzymes can help prevent tissue damage. High levels of circulating immune complexes and their deposition in body tissues occurs in autoimmune diseases. Diseases associated with high levels of circulating immune complexes include: rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, lupus erythematosus, Scleroderma, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, and Aids. Pancreatic enzymes can help with these conditions, along with diet changes.

Cancer has also been treated with pancreatic enzymes by William Kelley, D.D.C. and Nicholas Gonzalez, M.D., but there is little evidence yet in the scientific literature to support their use as a cancer treatment, which is also true for many alternative treatments for cancer. However, using digestive enzymes will boost your body's ability to fight the disease as it allows for fuller utilization of your food.

Other clinical applications of Pancreatin include the treatment of cystic fibrosis, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, athletic injuries, and tendonitis. Pancreatin has a positive effect on weight control as it appears to suppress appetite. Pancreatin has also been found to be effective in treating herpes zoster (shingles). Pancreatic enzymes are tolerated well and are not associated with significant side effects.

At the Optimum Health Clinic I use many different combinations of digestive enzymes, based on an individual needs assessment. A colonic may help identify your particular digestive weakness.