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The Consumer Guide to Enzymes

In this guide...
  What Are They?
  Benefits and Uses
  Daily Requirement
  Deficiency Risk Factors
  Optimal Intake
  Types Of Products
  Safety
  References
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What are they? Enzymes are protein compounds essential to almost all of the chemical reactions that sustain life. The body makes its own enzymes, and enzymes in foods aid their own digestion. Enzymes are extremely sensitive to heat, and cooking and food processing eliminate them from foods. Most people consume a diet high in cooked or processed foods, and their digestive process relies entirely on internally-produced enzymes.

Three types of enzymes from various internal and external sources, perform critical metabolic functions in the human body:

• Metabolic enzymes are produced by the liver and inside all cells. They control most chemical reactions within cells, including critical reactions associated with respiration, detoxification, and energy production.
• Digestive (pancreatic) enzymes are produced by the pancreas and secreted by intestinal tissues, to break foods down into usable nutrients.
• Dietary enzymes occur naturally in raw foods of animal or plant origin, and include three of the principal digestive enzymes produced in the body — lipases (for fat), proteases or proteolytics (for protein), amylases (for carbohydrates). Raw plant foods also offer cellulase, a fiber-digesting enzyme that humans do not produce internally.

• Proteolytic enzymes such as trypsin, chymotrypsin, and bromelain are partially absorbed by the body, and display anti-inflammatory activity and may have anti-tumor effects.
• Proteolytic enzymes may improve immune system function against viruses like herpes zoster (shingles).
• Bromelain (from pineapple) and papain (from papaya) are often added to protein supplements to aid in their digestion.
• Bromelain is a clinically proven anti-inflammatory agent, with safe therapeutic potential in sports injuries and inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis.
• Fat-digesting enzymes (lipases) are used in treating malabsorption diseases.
• Proteolytic enzymes have been clinically shown to alleviate symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, and may help alleviate other inflammatory conditions, which are exacerbated by leaky gut syndrome. This condition is caused by certain microbes, yeasts, steroids, anti-inflammatory drugs (aspirin, ibuprofen) and antibiotics. Dietary enzymes can help dissolve undigested food particles, and clusters of antibodies and food particles that perpetuate the inflammatory response.
• Any digestive enzymes present in the intestinal tract—whether from internal sources or foods—will work to break down foods into energy and essential nutrients, thereby promoting optimal nutrition. When they lose their enzymes through exposure to heat, foods can decay in the stomach, permitting bacterial toxins to be produced, absorbed into the blood and carried throughout the body.

Deficiency risk factors: Enzymes are extremely sensitive to heat, and cooking and food processing eliminate them from foods. Preference for cooked foods is a very recent development within the history of human evolution. Human bodies are adapted to a diet high in raw foods and the digestive enzymes many contain. But current approaches to preventive health rarely take this recent, radical dietary shift into account. Most people consume a diet high in cooked or processed foods, so their digestive process relies entirely on internally-produced enzymes. Optimal intake: There is no certain amount of dietary enzymes that produces optimal digestive or anti-inflammatory effects. A dose of 3-4 grams of 4X pancreatin (or a higher dose at lower potencies) with each meal is likely to help digest food in people with pancreatic insufficiency.

Weight is an unreliable measure of enzyme potency. Instead, potency should be measured according to units of biological activity based on the Food Chemical Codex. Products using this accepted scientific standard will express enzyme potency in terminology established by the National Academy of Sciences. The Food Chemical Codex unit potencies shown here are representative of those found in a moderately strong multi-enzyme formula:

Protease 6,000 HUT
Amylase 2,500 DU
Lipase 36 LU
Cellulase 40 CU
Lactase 100 LacU
Bromelain 36,000 PU
Papain 36,000 PU

Animal-derived pancreatic enzymes are measured by an entirely different method, and potency is expressed in USP (U.S. Pharmacopoeia) units. The USP baseline standard for pancreatic enzyme products is a potency of 1X, which means that each millgram of the product contains at least 25 USP units of amylase activity, 2 USP units of lipase activity, and 25 USP units of protease activfity. A 2X extract is two times stronger than the standard, a 10X pancreatic exract is ten times stronger, and so on.

There is no agreed formula for making comparisons between FCC and USP units. Manufacturers are not legally required to use FCC units to express the potency of plant source enzymes, and may simply express them as milligrams of enzyme, a measure that reveals little about actual potency.

Safety: Dietary enzymes are quite safe, with few contraindications. Proteolytic enzymes can digest lipases, so it may be prudent for people with enzyme deficiencies to avoid proteolytic enzymes in order to spare lipases. Proteolytic enzymes should not be taken with betaine HCl, or hydrochloric acid, which would destroy the enzymes.

References

• Ambrus JL, Lassman HB, DeMarchi JJ. Absorption of exogenous and endogenous proteolytic enzymes. Clin Pharmacol Ther 1967;8:362- 8.
• Avakian S. Further studies on the absorption of chymotrypsin. Clin Pharmacol Ther 1964;5:712-5.
• Cichoke AJ. The effect of systemic enzyme therapy on cancer cells and the immune system. Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients Nov 1995:
• Cohen A, Goldman J. Bromelains therapy in rheumatoid arthritis. Pennsyl Med J 1964;(67):27-30.
• Deitrick RE. Oral proteolytic enzymes in the treatment of athletic injuries: a double-blind study. Pennsylvania Med J Oct 1965; pp 35-7.
• Felton GE. Does kinin released by pineapple stem bromelain stimulate production of prostaglandin E1-like compounds? Hawaii Med J 1977 Feb;36(2):39-47
• Gullo L. Indication for pancreatic enzyme treatment in non-pancreatic digestive diseases. Digestion 1993;54(suppl 2):43-7.
• Kleine MW, Stauder GM, Beese EW. The intestinal absorption of orally administered hydrolytic enzymes and their effects in the treatment of acute herpes zoster as compared with those of oral acyclovir therapy. Phytomedicine 1995;2:7-15.
• Izaka K, Yamada M, Kawano T, Suyama T. Gastrointestinal absorption and anti-inflammatory effect of bromelain. Japan J Pharmacol 1972;22:519-34.
• Kleine MW, Stauder GM, Beese EW. The intestinal absorption of orally administered hydrolytic enzymes and their effects in the treatment of acute
• Layer P, Groger G. Fate of pancreatic enzymes in the human intestinal lumen in health and pancreatic insufficiency. Digestion 1993;54(suppl 2):10-14.
• McCann M. Pancreatic enzyme supplement for treatment of multiple food allergies. Ann Allerg 1993;71:269 (abstract#17).
• Miehle W. Controversial and so-called alternative therapeutic approaches. Z Rheumatol 1987 Jan-Feb;46(1):1-12.
• Oelgoetz AW, Oelgoetz PA, Wittenkind J. The treatment of food allergy and indigestion of pancreatic origin with pancreatic enzymes. Am J Dig Dis Nutr 1935;2:422-6. pp.30-32 (review).
• Seligman B. Bromelain: an anti-inflammatory agent. Angiology 1962;13:508-10.
• Steffen C, Menzel J. [Basic studies on enzyme therapy of immune complex diseases.] Wein Klin Wochenschr 1985 Apr 12;97(8):376- 85.
• Taussig S. The mechanism of the physiological action of bromelain. Med Hypothesis, 1980;(6):99-104.
• Wolf M, Ransberger K. Enzyme therapy. New York: Vantage Press 1972; pp 135-220 (review).

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