Digestive Enzyme therapy is especially effective at fighting allergies

Helps stop the formation of fibrin
Helps cleanse the blood of debris and fibrin
Helps maintain a healthy immune system
Helps to promote healthy blood circulation

We are only as healthy as the nutrients we are able to break down, process and assimilate. If one suffers from allergies, our body has a hard time handling the nutrients we eat because it's working overtime trying to deal with allergic reactions. Our body's ability to break down, process and assimilate nutrients is impaired not only by allergies, but also by age and by how we live in these times, by things like stress, medication, breathing polluted air, depression, poor lifestyle choices like smoking and processed foods. The digestive enzymes our body needs to break down and assimilate nutrients are compromised by all those factors.

What are digestive enzymes? They're catalysts, spark plugs that initiate chemical reactions in our body. Enzymes are both metabolic (systemic) and digestive. Metabolic enzymes instigate various chemical reactions in cells including energy production and detoxification. They pass thru the stomach, are absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract and travel to their specific sites of action via the bloodstream. Metabolic enzymes include superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase, which need digestive enzymes to fuel their metabolic enzyme activity so we stay alive and functional.

It's those digestive enzymes needed to activate metabolic enzymes we'll talk about here -- digestive enzymes produced in the pancreas and released into the small intestines, which break down food and which are required for absorption of vitamins, minerals, fats, proteins and carbs. The pancreas gives us digestive juices with enzymes like amylase to digest starches, proteases for proteins, lipase for fats, lactase for dairy and cellulase for cellulose or fiber. Food that is not broken down spoils inside us. It can be reabsorbed and re-circulated in the body, hurting the liver and the immune system and leading to disease, especially autoimmune disorders such as arthritis, fibromyalgia, allergies etc.

If the body has to struggle to digest food, energy is diverted which might otherwise be used to stimulate our brain and help us repair tissues, organs and cells. "Is it any wonder that we are an entire society suffering from constipation, gas, indigestion, allergies and halitosis (bad breath)?" Dr. DicQie Fuller says in The Healing Power of Enzymes. With age, our own enzymes production decreases and our enzymes are not as active.

In 1930 Dr. Edward Howell wrote Enzyme Nutrition: the Food Enzyme Concept and stated that, "The length of life is inversely proportional to the rate of exhaustion of the enzyme potential of an organism." According to Dr. Howell, each of us has an "enzyme bank account." We take enzymes out of our bank account for normal digestion and also for emergencies caused by viruses, strenuous exercise, emotional crises, bad diets, breathing unclean air. Dr. Howell advocated making "deposits" through supplementation. He stated that the enzymes available to us in raw fruits and veggies are usually only enough to digest their own particles.

According to German researchers in the 1880's enzymes taken orally also help improve circulation, decrease the rate of inflammation from injuries and aid in rehabilitation. After oral ingestion, enzymes could be detected in the lip of a wound! Enzymes were demonstrated to dissolve blood clots as well as normalize blood flow equilibrium. 

According to Anthony Cichoke in The Complete Book of Enzyme Therapy, anyone with dull skin, acne, eczema, skin cancer, wrinkles, scars, stretch marks, brown spots, or fungal infections such as athlete's foot, would be wise to explore enzyme therapy. Lack of enzymes have been linked to a variety of health problems such as heart disease, depression, allergies, arthritis, fatigue, skin problems, malnutrition, leaky gut, bloating, gas. Regular use of digestive enzymes with meals is said to help one shed excess pounds. Why? Remember when you were young and lean? That's when your body produced quarts of digestive juice to help you handle everything you ate and normalize digestion and metabolism.

Enzymes can be taken before, during or between meals depending on the therapeutic goal. Interestingly, they have been found when taken with an herb, medication or drug, to improve absorption and utilization of that second substance -- i.e. garlic helps fight circulatory disorders. Taking enzymes with garlic supplements improve garlic's efficacy. 

As stated above, when you take enzymes dictates what they'll do for you. Taken prior to or with a meal, they break down foods, freeing nutrients for absorption and use by the body; taken between meals, enzymes are absorbed into the bloodstream and break down toxins in the system at the cellular level. Taken together with other medicinal substances, enzymes enhance their activity, absorption and bio-availability.