Unfortunately, the vast majority of us have a disease or degenerative process in our future. Imagine it is an 18-wheeler coming down the highway right at you. You would like someone to warn you of impending danger so you can move out of the way. Unfortunately, most medical diagnostic procedures cannot do that. They can only measure the damage after the truck has hit you.
We recognize that disease is an insidious process that begins with small alterations in body chemistry or function, which usually go undetected by the patient.
1. If these alterations are not corrected exogenously by changing the diet), then the body must compensate biochemical (endogenously) to correct itself.
2. When the body’s ability to compensate is exhausted, it must alter normal physiological functions in order to sustain itself. This process produces symptoms but usually not physical findings.
3. If the process continues uncorrected, then the altered body functions will produce changes is structure or tissue. These changes are referred to as pathology and produce objective or physical signs.
Speaking very generally, in the healing arts today we have two widely divergent methods of restoring health:
1. The medical or drug therapy approach, which dictates the response of the body by taking control of its biochemistry.
2. The nutritional or holistic approach, which attempts to supply the necessary nutrients needed by the body to heal itself.
Food enzymes are essential nutrients. All living things contain enzymes. The enzymes found in food are responsible for the biochemical reactions that bring plants to ripeness. The enzymes found in raw food are the workers responsible for the benefits given to vitamins and minerals, which is called coenzymes and do not have the capacity to do work.
Protease or Pepidase
• High levels found in meats (before cooking), eggs milk, and natural cheese.
• High levels found soy, wheat, barley, bulgur, wild rice, and peanuts
They have been shown to be absorbed in substantial quantities into the blood where they bind to serum proteins and are utilized by tissues involved with immune function. Plant or food proteases have been proven to be effective in dissolving blood clots (fibrinolysis and restoring normal blood flow.
Lipase
• Very high levels found in avocados and olives.
• High levels found in nuts and seeds.
• High levels found in some fruits like bananas, cherries, figs and grapes.
Lipase (lipid-ase) hydrolyzes fats into monoglycerides and fatty acids. The role of the enzyme lipase is being studied extensively in treatment of chronic pancreatitis, pancreatic cancer, malabsorption abnormalities, myocardial inflammation, and cholesterol and triglyceride studies.
Amylases
The most complicated food substances for the body to digest are carbohydrates. There are many steps involved in its hydrolysis. First, the body must strip any protective cellulose layer from the vegetables. It must do this without having any enzyme capable of digesting cellulose. Then the body uses salivary and pancreatic amylase to digest starch into simple sugars. Finally, it digests the simple sugars to glucose. However, some complex sugars, like those found in beans, for example, have always defied digestion for some people.
• High levels found in grains and fruits.
• Amylase digests starches or complex carbohydrates.
Digestion of carbohydrates begins in the mouth as food is chewed and the salivary glands secrete amylase. Supplementary plant amylase allows digestion of carbohydrates to continue in the stomach for about 45 minutes, until stomach acid is produced. The pancreas also secretes amylase, which acts in the small intestine.
Cellulase
• High levels found in vegetables and grains, especially wheat and millet.
• High levels found fibrous fruits like apples, papaya, pears, and some melons.
Cellulase in not found in humans. It occurs in various bacteria, fungi, plants, and lower animals. It digests only soluble fiber by cleaving internal glycosidic linkages, such as occur in cellulose. Plant fiber (cellulose) cannot be broken down in the human body.
The Body’s Own Digestive Enzymes
There are about 24 digestive enzymes that are manufactured and secreted by the body. The most important are the following.
Saliva Small Intestine Stomach
Amylase Enterokinase Pepsin
Dipeptidase Lipase
Sacharidases Cathepsin
Three nucleases
Maltase
Sucrase
Lactase
Poor Digestion
When poor digestion doesn’t occur normally, no attention is paid to the consequences or its restoration. Our society has come to rely on covering up symptoms of poor digestion with antacids, products to relieve the discomfort of abdominal gas, laxatives, and products to relieve diarrhea. However little attention is paid to the prevention of these occurrences. What happens when food is not adequately reduced in size to be utilized for energy production by the body?
• Food particles not digested well enough to pass across the gut wall pass down the alimentary canal, where they will putrefy and form toxins that will be absorbed into the blood.
• Food particles digested well enough to pass through the gut wall and into the blood but not reduced to particles small enough to be utilized by the body for energy production. Specifically, two faulty digestion processes occur. Digestive Leukocytosis and formation of circulating immune complexes.
Digestive Leukocytosis occurs when food molecules, not digested well enough to be absorbed across the gut wall, are acted upon by “unfriendly” bacteria growth in the last section of the small intestine. Unfriendly bacteria feed on food that has not been adequately digested. Most of it is protein in nature. This usually occurs when protein is ingested at the same meal with simple/refined carbohydrate and free oils. Putrefaction of the food in the bowel gives off poisons and toxins. When the mucosal barrier fails, the immune system must make up for the poor digestion.
Circulating Immune Complexes (CICs) occurs when the intestinal mucosa becomes inflamed it becomes more permeable. When digestive remnants enter the blood and excite the immune system, they become know as circulating immune complexes. Circulating Immune Complexes (systemic foreign antigens are the leading cause of fibromyalgia and retard healing, promote and prolong pain from inflammatory processes, and reduce the competency of the immune system. Only intact intestinal mucosal barrier protects the body from entry by foreign antigens and their systemic effects.
Fibromyalgia
Initially, fibromyalgia was believed to be a psychiatric disease. It is now widely accepted that fibromyalgia is an independent physical illness. You will find the symptoms are strikingly similar to those of bowel toxicity. Fibromyalgia (FM) is characterized by:
• Musculoskeletal pain and aching
• Disturbed sleeping patterns
• Fatigue
• Morning stiffness and local tenderness
• Headaches Depression
• Parenthesis (feelings of numbness and tingling restless legs)
• Bowel and bladder disturbances
• Subjective soft tissue swelling
• Raynaud’s phenomenon
• Rhinitis (sinus problems)
• Bruxism (grinding of the teeth, especially when sleeping
• Bursitis
• Sciatica
• Refractory allergies
• Temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMJ)
Unlike rheumatoid arthritis, this connective tissue disorder is not associated with deformity or inflammation of the joints. Thus, the diagnosis has been clinical rather than objective.
The enzyme formula is tested for each patient to achieve optimum results in the shortest amount of time. In a very short period of time the body begins to correct its faulty digestion and symptomlogy begins to fade. In some cases chronic musculoskeltal problems will be related entirely to digestive stress. This is the case where the patient has tried various methods of Chiropractic with no results. Example of this would be digestive stress related to the kidneys with chronic low back pain. No matter how many treatments a patient may have, the patient will not have closure until the digestive stress is removed from the kidneys. There are 18 areas that digestive stress can occur; the key is finding the correct formula that fits the patient’s needs exactly. Dr. Heckard finds the exact digestive enzyme needed by the patient to bring their health back into a state of homeostasis.
