A Permanent Cure for Arthritis October 2009

Enzymes are proteins that are an integral part of Nature. In fact, life without enzymes would not be possible. Enzymes are needed for each and every chemical reaction that make life possible. No vitamin, mineral or hormone can exert its beneficial effects in the human body without the involvement of enzymes. Despite their central role in all bodily functions, it is only now that the full import of enzymes in human health and disease has begun to be fully appreciated. MUCOS Pharma, the pioneer in systemic enzyme therapy, has been the standard bearer for the last fifty years in having paved the way to elucidate the function of enzymes, and their use as an oral systemic therapy.

The history of enzyme research reads quite like a detective story, as diligence of dedicated scientists tested the secrets of enzyme function and developed preparations to alleviate human pain and suffering. It all started with a simple question: What are the enzymes? Years, even decades, of work finally yielded insights into the architecture of enzymes, which is beguiling in its simplicity and elegance, yet embodies the intricacies of their function.

What Are Enzymes?

Enzymes are proteins composed of amino acids, the basic building blocks of life, arranged in chains that spontaneously fold into three-dimensional structures. These three-dimensional structures confer specificity of function. Whereas all enzymes are proteins, not all proteins are enzymes. Enzymes are involved in nearly all metabolic and physiological processes in the body. Thus, they are a key in the maintenance of a strong immune system, a robust cardiovascular tree,a healthy and intact central nervous system, and optimal hormonal balance in the body.

The body produces its own supply of enzymes in requisite amounts, as and when they are needed. The enzymes, however, do get "used up" at rates faster than the body can replenish its supplies under a variety of conditions, such as consumption of "junk" foods or intake of medicines. In fact, with advancing years, the body loses its ability to produce sufficient amounts of enzymes to keep up the demands of the body imposed by metabolic attrition. This insufficiency is the root cause of susceptibility to chronic and age-related diseases.

Given that enzymes are required in all cells of the body to assist in chemical reactions, they participate in a myriad of reactions that allow organs, tissues and glands to function optimally and thrive. If the body is imagined as an efficient chemical factory, it is the enzymes that fuel each and every reaction in that factory. As such, enzymes function as catalysts. That is, they make things work at a faster rate. The reason enzymes are needed for bodily functions is that, in their absence, most of the physiological processes would either not take place, or would proceed at an excruciatingly slow speed. In other words, at normal body temperatures, it will be virtually impossible for the cells to perform their tasks speedily and efficiently. That means that enzymes initiate, maintain, accelerate, and terminate biochemical processes in the body to foster health and vitality.

Functions of Enzymes

Since they have unique structure, each enzyme is meant to carry out a specific task. Any given enzyme is evolved to fulfill a definite function, and this specificity allows the body to strictly control the use of enzymes. Once activated, an enzyme will perform its specific function until it is "exhausted," or it is inhibited by another enzyme, in which case its activity is curtailed and/or stopped. As researchers have found out after years of painstaking and laborious work, there is a good reason for this control: It prevents bodily processes from spinning out of control, which may be deleterious to health and wellbeing.

Even casually, the specificity of enzymes suggests that there will be particular types. In fact, Nature has "engineered" families of enzymes for specific tasks. One of the most beneficial and abundant classes of enzymes is referred to as proteolytic enzymes. Enzymes in this category have the ability to "nibble" at other proteins, and break them down into smaller chains of amino acids. Hence the name, proteolytic enzymes, which literally means "chewing up proteins."

On the surface, it might appear counterintuitive to degrade proteins in the body. Are proteins not required for optimal cellular function, and do they not afford good health and vibrancy well into the golden years? Indeed, they do! In disease, however, the human body produces proteins that could potentially have injurious effects, and further compromise health if left unattended. It was precisely this goal that Drs. Max Wolf and Helen Benitez set themselves roughly one-half a century ago when they started their quest to find a wholesome, effective and safe alternative for human health and wellbeing. Of course, their objective was to understand how cancer comes about and whether natural alternatives could be designed that will not wreak havoc on the human body as radiation and chemotherapy do. Despite their scientific astuteness, little did Drs. Wolf and Benitez anticipate that their systemic enzymes will afford man immense health benefits, irrespective of whether or not systemic enzymes "cured" cancer.

Drs. Wolf and Benitez, along with Dr. Karl Ransberger, a young biomedical researcher from Germany, tested a large number of enzymes from animal and plant sources. The work was slow, and it progressed in fits and starts, since the researchers had to optimize the conditions to isolate and purify the enzymes. Not only that, they had to struggle to maintain the activity of the enzymes, because the enzymes are notorious for being finicky and unstable. That is, if the enzymes are not handled properly under precisely defined condition, they become inactive. After all, the researchers were working in the 1950s, a time when the basic enzyme technology was still in its infancy, and individual scientists had to rely more on their wits than technology to tweak answers from Nature.

Once Drs. Wolf and Benitez had optimized the conditions necessary to maintain the enzyme activity, they started the next part of their work to combine and evaluate various enzyme formulations in assessing their beneficial effects. These must have been trying times for Drs. Wolf and Benitez. By its very nature, the work was slow, and required almost superhuman patience. After years of dedicated work, they finally experienced the Eureka effect! Their systemic enzymes worked! Perhaps, better than they thought, since beneficial effects of their enzymes were far more varied than they had expected in their wildest expectations.

See Dr. Stallone today to decide if Wobenzym N is right for you!!