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Enzymes and Your Health, What Are Enzymes
By: Loring A. Windblad
This compilation of information is Copyright 2005 by http://www.organicgreens.us and Loring Windblad. The references for this series of articles is the author’s personal knowledge and experience, the book “Enzymes for Autism and other Nurological Conditions” and the web site enzymestuff dot com. This article may be freely copied and used on other web sites only if it is copied complete with all links and text, including this header, intact and unchanged except for minor improvements such as misspellings and typos.
First, we need to have an understanding of just exactly what enzymes are and what they do for us.
Enzymes are proteins made by cells in our bodies and by all living organisms. They are specialized proteins that do work, such as synthesizing chemicals, rearranging molecules, adding elements to compounds, and breaking down compounds. Enzymes are protein catalysts. They cause biological reactions to occur under conditions that sustain life. Many types of enzymes exist and each type does one specific function. For an enzyme to work, the material it works upon must be present. If no such material is available to the enzyme, the enzyme performs no function. There are also metabolic enzymes in our body, but this discussion is limited to the digestive enzymes that help break down food.
We see in this description of enzymes that they break down compounds. In our gut – stomach and intestines – they help to break down food into basic nutritional bits our bodies can use for nourishment. Without this enzymic activity our bodies could not extract nutrition from food and we would wither and die. Let’s see exactly how enzymes work.
In general, enzymes work as catalysts of biochemical reactions. A catalyst increases or accelerates the rate of a reaction. The thousands of chemical reactions that occur in our body every second could not happen without enzymes to speed up these reactions. For example, a protein can be broken down into amino acids in the lab without the use of an enzyme, but to do so requires extreme temperatures, high pressure, or very strong acids; conditions not compatible with life. Even with these conditions, it often requires hours to complete the reaction in the lab. Enzymes, in this case a mixture of proteases, can complete this reaction within minutes in water at normal temperatures. Another unique aspect of enzymes is that they facilitate the reaction without being destroyed or changed in the process. Because of this, one enzyme molecule could theoretically change an infinite amount of substrate if given an infinite amount of time. Increasing the amount of enzyme decreases the time required for completing the process. If you double the number of enzyme molecules, you decrease the time for the reaction by half.
It is said that we need to have up to four (4) pounds of enzymes, in at least a ratio of 3:1 (good to bad), in our “guts” in order to facilitate the proper breakdown of food as it passes through our stomach, small intestine and large intestine, and provides nourishment to our bodies.
Natural “greens” products are created to supplement that process, the process of breaking down food into the basic nutritional units to provide our bodies with essential nourishment. One of those supplements is Bio88+ (Plus), a pure enzyme product designed specifically to aid in digestion.
The producers of Bio88+ (Plus) use only the very finest “certified” organic components in the making of their highly nutritious food product. In itself it provides virtually all of the added nutrition, in the form of vitamins and minerals, that you need in your diet in order to maintain excellent health. Bio88+ (Plus) is produced in a government supervised laboratory using an ancient Native North American fermentation process. Feel free to contact the author by email for additional information.
Our next article, Part III, will deal with where enzymes come from.
Disclaimer: These articles in no way should be taken as “medical advice” on any product or condition, nor do they constitute in any way “medical advice” endorsing any specific product, specific result, nor any possible cure for any condition or problem. They are meant as a source of information upon which you may base your decision as to whether or not you should begin using a “greens” product as a dietary supplement. If in doubt, or if you have questions, you should consult your physician and, if possible, consult a second physician for a possible different opinion. The author (nor the book referenced and its authors) bear any responsibility for your decisions nor for the outcome of your actions based upon those decisions.
About the Author
Loring Windblad has studied nutrition and exercise for more than 40 years, is a published author and freelance writer. His latest business endeavor is at
http://www.organicgreens.us
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How to Benefit from the Mind-Body Connection
(excerpt)
You are about to gain insight into the
mind-body connection. The number of
people who truly understand these principles on our
planet are relatively few.
There is an undeniable connection between our minds and
bodies, you can learn
to use this fact to your benefit.
Dr. Bernie Siegel, author of "Love, Medicine and
Miracles" was once a
distraught cancer surgeon until he
began to understand the greater principles
of the mind-
body connection. He felt dragged down by the artificial
barriers
that existed between patient and doctor, and the
helplessness he often felt as
a result of his inability
to effectively serve those patients. Eventually, those
barriers
were disintegrated by Dr. Siegel's recognition
and growing understanding of the
mind-body connection and
how it could serve his patients and himself.
Dr. Siegel, or Bernie as he began to have his patients
refer to him, had some
startling realizations as a cancer surgeon. He found that
there were actually
quite a few people in the world that successfully beat
the statistics on cancer
survival. He began to recognize that a patient's ability
to defeat something as
serious as cancer had to do with the patient's mind and
attitude about their
disease.
If you would like to see the rest of
this article, please go here:
http://www.tobeinformed.com/repository/mind-body.html
copyright 2004 - David Snape
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