The Miracle of Enzymes - What are Enzymes?

Enzymes are the spark of life - they run your entire body. You couldn't digest or absorb food, and thus would die without them. Enzymes are specific catalysis with coenzymes (vitamins and minerals) to allow use by your body.

Enzymes also regulate tens of thousands of other biochemical functions that take place in the body every day. Even thinking involves "enzymes' Without enzymes, seeds would not sprout, fruit would not ripen, leaves would not change color, and life would not exist.

Enzymes are protein molecules that carry a vital energy factor needed for every chemical action and reaction that occurs in our bodies. Approximately 2,700 different enzymes are found in human body.

These enzymes can combine with co-enzymes to form nearly one hundred thousand various chemicals that help us to see, hear, feel, move digest food, and think. Every organ, tissue and all the one hundred trillion cells in our body depend upon the reaction of enzymes and their energy factor. Nutrition cannot be explained without describing the vital role played by enzymes.

How do enzymes work in our bodies?
When we eat raw foods the enzymes in the food are activated by heat and moisture in the mouth. Once active, these enzymes digest a significant portion of our food and make it small enough to pass through the villi (small projections found in the small intestine) and from t here into the blood. Metabolic enzymes living in the blood take the digested forty-five known nutrients and build them into muscles, nerves, bones, blood, lungs, and various glands.

Every cell in the body depends on a specific group of enzymes. Each enzyme has a particular function which is referred to as enzyme specificity. A protein digestive enzyme will not digest fat; a fat enzyme will not digest starch. Enzymes act upon chemicals and change them into other chemicals, yet remain unchanged themselves. Simply stated; our chemicals are changed from their original identity by the associated enzyme into another chemical with a different identity. Without enzymes, nothing in our bodies would work.

Three main categories of enzymes:

1. Metabolic enzymes the enzymes within your immune system and the repairers of your human body are part of the metabolic enzymes.
2. Food enzymes the enzymes within live food that help break down that particular food.
3. Digestive enzymes help break down cooked and processed food and breaking down the raw or live food you eat thus, aiding the body to make sure your food is properly broken down and your body won’t have to work as hard to get the nourishment out of the food.

Source:
Digestive Enzymes Digest Food Internal (from our body)
Food Enzymes Digest Food External (from the raw food self)
Metabolic Enzymes Run our Body Internal (from our body)

Digestive enzymes and food enzymes basically serve the same function, that is to digest our food so it can be absorbed through the walls of the small intestine into the blood stream.

From this viewpoint the only real difference between food enzymes and digestive enzymes is where they came from , from inside our body or from the food we eat.

Important things to remember about enzymes:

• Every living thing produces enzymes.
• Enzymes cat as catalysts to speed the breakdown of foods.
• An enzyme controls chemical reactions.
• Enzymes are very specific in action. Each enzyme is designed to work on specific types of organic materials.
• Optimum temperature is 45 degrees to 140 degrees. Freezing will not harm enzymes; they will be fully active after thawing. Temperatures above 140 degrees will destroy enzymes.
• Optimum pH range is 6.0 to 11.0 .The optimum activity varies by enzyme.
• Some enzymes strengthen the immune system and fight viruses and others diseases.
• There are enzymes that regulate the functioning of the heart; others in the retina.
• Enzyme deficiencies are behind genetic diseases.
• Enzymes are energized protein molecules. They are the human body’s life force and are involved in every function of the body. Vitamins, minerals and hormones must have enzymes to work properly.
• Life can not exist without enzymes. Individuals who are enzyme deficient are subject to physical problems disease and degeneration.

Metabolic Enzyme
Enzymes are responsible in maintaining health and in healing they are our metabolism – the bodies labor force.
Our body makes enzymes called metabolic enzymes. They are responsible for every action that takes place in our body including digestion.

When we eat enzyme-deprived foods, our bodies "steal" metabolic enzymes from other parts of the body and put them to work digesting this food. Yet these enzymes are needed for the proper functioning of the bodies organs and systems. The more we use them to digest food. Rather than letting them do what nature intended them to do, the more we jeopardize our health and vitality.

The resulting metabolic dislocations may be the direct cause of cancer, coronary heart disease, diabetes, and many other chronic incurable diseases.

Metabolic enzymes found in the blood then take the digested 45 known nutrients and build them into muscles, nerves, bones, blood, lungs, and various glands. Every cell in the body depends on certain enzymes. Each enzyme has a specific function in the body which is referred to as enzyme specificity.

Metabolic enzymes catalyze, or spark, the reactions within the cells. The bodies organs, tissues, and cells are run by metabolic enzymes. Without them our bodies would not work. Among their chores are helping to turn phosphorus into bone, attaching iron to our red blood cells, healing wounds, thinking, and making a heart beat.

These Enzymes are instrumental in the growth of new cells and the maintenance of all tissue.They assist in fighting aging, weight loss, lowering cholesterol, cleaning the colon, breaking down fats, strengthening the immune system, improves mental capacity, detoxifying the body, building muscles from protein, eliminating carbon dioxide from the lungs etc.

The foregoing avalanche of relevant information supports the recently discovered law of the adaptive secretion of digestive enzymes which proclaims that the body values enzymes highly and produces no more of them than it is forced to. It more digestive food enzymes are eaten, the body will automatically make fewer digestive enzymes and can then produce more metabolic enzymes, should they be needed. The body will therefore be in a better position to prevent or deal with the problem of killer diseases.

There are between 200-3000 enzymes in a cell. Different cells can have different enzymes. This is why cells look different and perform different functions.