There have been some ideas that though outdated or incorrect
simply refuse to die. Why don’t unworkable ideas die
when shown not to be serviceable or no longer true? My guess
is that the people who hold those ideas can’t come
up with anything to replace them with and, that they have
held these ideas for so long that is is incomprehensible
to them that they might not be true. The notion held by many
in US academia that socialism can still be made to work is
a great example of an idea that despite repeated massive
failures, moral and financial bankruptcies and even genocide
just refuses to go away.
In the biochemical / medical world the idea that enzymes
can’t be absorbed because they are too large a protein
to pass through the intestinal wall is another untrue idea
that still gets plenty of airing. Folks who still hold to
this belief ignore the fact that they know that salmonella
can easily cross the intestinal wall despite being 5 times
larger than the largest enzyme! What magic does salmonella
have that enzymes don’t? These adherents to old ideas
continue to believe enzymes can’t be absorbed through
the GI tract despite over 200 peer reviewed studies showing
not only that they do pass through the intestinal wall but
also that they get into the blood and have both physiological
and therapeutic effects throughout the body! What about 200
peer reviewed studies published in respectable medical and
pharmaceutical journals world wide is not to be believed?
Another old idea is the one that reads that enzymes are
too sensitive to survive in the body. This line goes something
to the effect that body heat and stomach acid will kill off
the enzymes. Enzymes were first isolated and preserved by
a biochemist pharmacologist from Bombay named Rathi in the
1920’s or 30’s. Dr. Rathis’ Papain was
a famous digestive aid in Asia for decades. Other words of
old wisdom hold that ALL enzymes must be enteric coated to
help them survive stomach acid if they are to get into the
small intestine intact to be absorbed. If enzymes are not
enteric coated, this line of reasoning says, then they are
not effective.
The idea that systemic enzymes must be enteric coated is
truly an old one, and not in keeping with modern technology.
In the past, enzymes were subject to destruction by acids
and heat over 125 degrees. An enteric coating is one which
does not dissolve in an acid (6.5 pH or lower) but does dissolve
in an alkaline medium (7.5 pH and higher). The enteric coating
was meant to protect the enzymes from stomach acid and dissolve
only in the alkaline environment of the small intestine.
That still needs to be so ONLY if the enzymes used are from
a raw material supplier who has NOT cultured the enzymes
to be acid resistant, or if the enzyme itself cannot as of
yet be cultured to resist acids. Specialty Enzymes / Advanced
Enzyme, Dr. Rathis’ company, has been able to culture
enzymes to be acid and heat resistant. I was at their enzyme
manufacturing plant and saw enzyme fermenters for proteolytic
enzymes running with a 4.3 pH! That is amazing since proteolytic
enzymes are not supposed to be able to survive below 6.8
pH. No other enzyme maker that I know of can claim a like
achievement, not the Japanese, not the Germans or the Danes.
Their enzymes still need to be enteric coated to survive.
These stronger cultured enzymes are the ones developed for
and used in the systemic enzyme products from Specialty Enzymes
of Chino California. All of the individual enzymes and the
blends are pharmaceutical grade not the much lower food grade.
Most all of the enzymes and blends are both heat and acid
resistant.
