Free Digestive Wellness: Strengthen the Immune System and Prevent Disease Through Healthy Digestion, Fourth Edition by Elizabeth Lipski

ripen tomatoes or bananas sitting on our counter. Enzymes are also what continue to “compost” those tomatoes and bananas if we don’t eat them fast enough.
    Foods have the highest enzyme activity level when they are fresh or when they are fermenting. So, growing your own or buying local gives you the most enzyme activity. Raw fish, such as sushi or sashimi, is rich in active enzymes. Raw milk is high in enzymes. Fresh pineapple has bromelain enzymes, but canning or cooking deactivates the bromelain. Soy sauce is rich in enzymes to help digest the protein in the meal.
    Cooked, packaged, or processed foods are enzyme depleted. Cooking at temperatures as low as 118 degrees Fahrenheit destroys enzymes. Since these kinds of foods are what we eat, most of us will benefit from enzyme supplementation.
Supplemental Enzymes and Their Clinical Use
    Studies reveal that about 10 percent of 10-year-olds have enzyme deficiencies, 20 percent of 20-year-olds have enzyme deficiencies, 50 percent of 50-year-olds have enzyme deficiencies, and so on. This can occur from stress or low-grade inflammation in the stomach, called gastritis, and infections, such as H. pylori.
    Enzyme deficiencies are obvious in children with cystic fibrosis, but less obvious as a pivotal factor in type 2 diabetes and obesity in our children. Enzyme supplementation has been helpful in the treatment of these health problems.
    Supplemental enzymes have also been used successfully to treat several types of arthritis in adults, working more effectively than drug treatment. Moreover, they have been used successfully to treat children and adults with food allergies, eosinophilic gastroenteritis, asthma, and other illnesses. Along with probiotics, they are the first thing I think of when working with children and adults who are failing tothrive. Other diseases that enzymes have been used clinically for include Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, hay fever, pulmonary fibrosis, sinusitis, multiple sclerosis, bladder infections, and in breaking up and preventing blood clots. The effect on blood clots also protects us from heart disease.
    Protein-splitting enzymes are used to reduce swelling and pain throughout the body and can be used to treat injuries. In one study, soccer players were given enzymes or placebos after they were injured. Injuries healed more quickly when enzymes were given, sometimes up to twice as fast. They can be used to reduce the time that bruises take to heal by about 50 percent.
    Enzymes have also been used for decades in cancer treatment, especially in Europe. I recently heard oncologist Dr. Mahesh Kanojia speak at a medical conference. He said that use of Aspergillus-derived protein splitting, also called proteolytic enzymes, enzyme supplements lessens the side effects of chemotherapy, including hair loss, and enhances the results of the treatments. Nicholas Gonzales, M.D., in New York, uses pancreatic enzyme supplements as a critical part of his individualized programs for people with all types of cancers. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) was so impressed, they funded a study to reproduce his work. This study did not show effectiveness of Dr. Gonzales’s treatments, but he has contested the way in which the evaluation was performed.
    According to Dr. Brad Rachman, proteolytic enzymes improve protein digestion and decrease the quantity of antigens that leak into the bloodstream. This can reduce issues with food allergies and food sensitivities.
Categories of Enzyme Supplements
    There are three major types of supplemental enzyme products: pancreatic enzymes, enzymes grown on a fungal base, and plant-based enzymes.
    Pancreatic enzymes have been used and are part of common medical practice for illnesses such as cystic fibrosis. They are actually derived from animal pancreatic tissue. They work well to assist with digestion and to help stabilize blood glucose levels in people with diabetes and hypoglycemia. When I was in my 20s I suffered from