Healing
Power of Enzymes Confirmed By Science
Arthur
M. Echano, MD, ND, MACNEM
For many decades, the healing properties
of papain, bromelain, trypsin, chymotrypsin and other proteolytic
(protein-splitting) enzymes have been repeatedly and consistently
observed by health care providers globally in the management of
cancer and other chronic diseases of modern men.
Anecdotal Evidence Does Not Count
However, the countless anecdotal
and empirical evidences favouring the therapeutic uses of these
proteolytic enzymes have been largely ignored and overlooked by
conventional medicine. How come? Well, modern medicine only accepts
therapeutic claims that are substantiated by properly performed
research and clinical studies. Without any randomised or double
blind placebo controlled studies, remedies no matter how promising,
are going to be categorized as folklore medicine. Not scientific-based
medicine. Therefore, unacceptable, invalid and useless.
Proteolytic Enzymes Have Met the Requirement
Believe it or not, as early as 1906,
the major role of proteolytic enzymes in cancer therapy has been
echoed by scientists and medical doctors. In fact, in 1911, Dr.
John Beard, Scottish embryologist and former head of the department
of embryology at the University of Edinburgh published his exciting
findings with the use of pancreatic enzymes in cancer treatment.
In his monograph The Enzyme Therapy
of Cancer, London: Chatto and Windus, 1911, Dr. Beard presented
his cancer treatment premise, supported by scientific evidence.
Actually, Dr. Beard's thesis was published in the prestigious Journal
of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and the British Medical
Journal (BMJ) in 1906 and 1907.
Beard's Enzyme Therapy Concept Almost
Got Buried with Him
Dr. Beard's death in 1923 was a
big blow to the enzyme therapy concept. It almost died with him.
Apart from few complementary medicine practitioners who used Dr.
Beard's enzyme therapy approach in cancer, the world has forgotten
this highly effective therapy for cancer. The flickering life of
this concept found a new life though in the 1960's. How?
Dr. William D. Kelley to the Rescue
Dr. William D. Kelley was a Texan
orthodontist who designed a nutritional program for cancer patients
based on Dr. Beard's enzyme treatment. Although his controversial
treatment approach was severely criticized by the media, the results
were truly remarkable. Dr. Kelley's unorthodox enzyme therapy extended
the lives of far advanced and terminally ill cancer patients (4-5
months to live) up to 5, 10, and 15 years. That is just amazing!
15 years of extra life is definitely much longer than 5 months.
Especially so, when the patient is someone you love or care for.
The consistently positive clinical
outcome did not attract the interest of the media or the medical
profession. Due to mounting pressures and probably disappointment
with the lack of support from the medical establishment, Dr. Kelley
gave up his practice in 1986. Long before his disappearance from
the limelight though, his work was already being analysed by a young
medical student at Cornell University Medical College, the future
Dr. Nicolas Gonzalez. What is his story?
Under the Tutelage of Dr. Robert Good
Dr. Nicolas Gonzalez, MD, PC, started
to work with Dr. Robert Good, MD, former president of Sloan Kettering
Institute and considered as the father of modern immunology, when
he was only in his second year of medical education (1981). Dr.
Good, a distinguished cancer researcher encouraged the young medical
student to evaluate Dr. Kelley's work on cancer.
After analysing 10,000 of Dr. Kelley's
former cancer patients and summarizing his findings in a monograph,
he tried to get it published in medical journals. However, just
like Dr. Kelley, it was not received enthusiastically. It was just
too hard for modern medicine to accept the fact that some form of
nutritional therapy could have a bearing in cancer treatment.
Government Agencies and Oncology Departments
Listen to Dr. Gonzalez
Dr. Gonzalez break came in 1993
when he presented to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), 25 selected
cases of advanced cancer sufferers who responded well with this
enzyme therapy. Impressed with the results, the Associate Director
of NCI suggested a pilot study. This pilot study was completed in
June 1999 and the rather encouraging results prompted the NCI and
the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to approve funding (USD
1.4 million) for a bigger trial, comparing Dr. Gonzalez cancer approach
against the anti-cancer drug gemcitabine in the treatment of terminally
ill pancreatic cancer patients.
This clinical trial has the blessings
of the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA). It is conducted
by the Department of Oncology and the Department of Surgical Oncology,
Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York. The therapy has
three major components, dietary, enzymes and detoxification. The
results of this study will be published in a year's time.
Enzyme Therapy Finally Gaining Acceptance
When the FDA, NIH, NCI and oncology
departments of a prestigious U.S. medical center endorse clinical
trials using natural remedies, in this case, nutritional therapy
(diet, enzymes, detoxification), it is safe to assume that proteolytic
enzymes may have a role in the management of chronic health problems.
Today, Dr. Gonzalez has a busy practice in New York catering mostly
to advanced cancer and other incurable diseases. And one of his
main weapons is enzyme therapy.
Dr. Gonzalez is Not Alone
Many medical doctors and scientists
have embraced and are convinced of the major part played by enzymes
in health and healing. Yes, Dr. Gonzalez is just one of the growing
number of practitioners who can no longer close their eyes to the
enzyme therapy concept started by Dr. Beard in 1906. In our final
article on this issue, we are going to consider other sources that
strongly support the idea of enzyme therapy in health and healing.
This article was written for general
information purposes only. Those with medical problems should see
their medical doctors for definitive diagnosis and treatment.
The mere fact that Columbia University
in the U.S., with $1.4 million funding from the U.S. National Cancer
Institute (NCI), is conducting a large scale controlled clinical
trial on the use of pancreatic enzymes in advanced cancer therapy
is a crystal-clear sign that enzyme therapy has sound scientific
basis.
Dr. Nicolas Gonzalez, M.D., who
reignited this enzyme therapy approach after reading the works of
Dr. John Beard and Dr. William D. Kelly has definitely pushed it
to a higher level, the ruthless scrutiny of conventional medicine,
this large scale, randomised controlled clinical trial. With the
result of this highly intriguing clinical trial just around the
corner, let us just hope that once and for all, the issue of its
effectiveness and efficacy is settled, the scientific way.
The Big Guns: Proteolytic Enzymes
In a Clinician of the Month interview
with Dr. Jeffrey Bland's Functional Medicine Update (April 2000),
Dr. Gonzalez stated that proteolytic enzymes (e.g. chymotrypsin,
trypsin, etc.) are the major cancer silencers in pancreatic enzymes.
After almost 100 years of proven positive clinical results with
the use of pancreatic enzymes, there is no doubt that they are useful
in the management of cancer.
In the book Wellness Against All Odds by Dr. Sherry Rogers, M.D.,
she mentioned Dr. John Beard's work on cancer with pancreatic enzymes.
This prolific author of numerous medical publications is convinced
that pancreatic enzymes have a shutting down effect on cancer growth.
But what about other proteolytic enzymes like bromelain and papain,
do they have anti-tumor properties too?
Bromelain Shows Promise Too
In an article by Drs. K. Eckert
and E. Grabowski on Oncology Reports 6(6), Nov-Dec. 1999, the authors
reported on the anti-malignant effects of pineapple's proteolytic
enzyme bromelain. After ten days of daily bromelain intake, 16 breast
cancer patients showed an increase in monocytic activity. In common
parlance, a part of their immune system's anti-cancer agents were
activated. This clinical study is on pages 1191-9, Effects of oral
bromelain administration on the impaired immunocytotoxicity of mononuclear
cells from mammary tumour patients.
It is not surprising then that pineapple is the number one foodstuff
in the Dries Cancer Diet. This is primarily due to its very high
bio-energetic value. A high reading is directly related to resistance
to cancer development. The higher the bio-energetic reading, the
greater is the resistance to cancer. And vice-versa.
In his 1997 book, The Dries Cancer Diet: A Practical Guide to the
Use of Fresh Fruit & Raw Vegetables in the Treatment of Cancer,
Jan Dries rates pineapple as the most essential foodstuff in his
diet.It is at the top of the list and on the menu every day….
It is interesting to note that the author included another proteolytic-enzyme
rich fruit in his exclusive list of foodstuff with high bio-energetic
value- Papaya (Paw Paw).
Papaya Compound is a Super Cancer
Silencer
Thousands of years ago, Australian
aborigines have already been using Papaya (Carica papaya) extract
for their health concerns. In 1962, Stan Sheldon, a 70 year-old
Australian cancer patient, was given five months to live by his
medical specialist. With rapidly spreading cancer on both lungs,
the prospect of long-term survival was remote. But after only two
months of drinking pawpaw tea, the malignant tumours vanished! In
1978, Mr. Sheldon obtained pertinent medical documentation of his
amazing recovery from his medical specialists. It made his complete
healing a positive clinical outcome, not just a testimonial.
So when Dr. Jerry McLaughlin, Ph.D.,
professor at the Department of Pharmacology, Purdue University,
Indiana, USA, released a highly favourable finding on Papaya research
in 1992, Mr. Sheldon was not surprised at all. To him, it was already
an old story. The scientific team headed by Dr. McLaughlin isolated
a compound in Papaya that was a million times stronger than the
strongest anti-cancer drug. Papaya, which is rich in papase, a proteolytic
enzyme is indeed another bona fide member of the enzyme therapy
club.
Although the identity of this very
powerful anti-cancer substance is known only to Dr. McLaughlin and
his co-workers, there is no doubt at all that it is useful in cancer
management. Actually, Papaya's versatile medical applications have
been known to health care practitioners for quite a while. According
to Dr. A. Palade, F.D.V.M., an Australian-based veterinary surgeon,
Pawpaw extract injected into the lumbar region has been used successfully
by doctors to treat sciatica since 1963. It was officially endorsed
by the U.S. Food & Drugs Administration (FDA) in 1983.
Scientific Proof is Not the Problem
With the more than adequate number
of clinical and scientific studies done on the medicinal uses of
enzymes, the issue is no longer on proof but on acceptance by the
healing profession. There are many more confirmatory findings on
enzyme therapy that are not mentioned in this article. In the book,
Living Food for Longer Life, Australian health writer Harald Tietze
appropriately quoted Benjamin Franklin who once said, You will observe
with concern how long a useful truth may be known, and exist, before
it is generally received and practiced on.
You Need Not Miss Out on Enzyme Therapy
You don't have to follow Benjamin
Franklin's observation though. Why not start on any of these health-giving
enzymes? For example, Papaya Dried Leaves, Papaya Liquid Concentrate,
and Dried Papaya Fruit Granules are now available in many parts
of the world. Scientific proofs finally confirm worldwide anecdotal
and empirical evidences to support the enzyme therapy health concept.
For another consideration of what
enzymes can do, one fine book that I know is Dr. Lita Lee's The
Enzyme Cure-How Plant Enzymes Can Help You Relieve 36 Health Problems.
There is no scarcity of knowledge on enzyme therapy. But are we
going to act on what we've learned about it? Are we going to wait
for modern medicine to endorse it to their practitioners? Your response
to these two probing questions could make the difference between
premature aging and healthy aging. The choice is yours!
This article was written for general information purposes only.
Those with medical problems should see their medical doctors for
definitive diagnosis and treatment. For a local source of book on
the benefits of food enzymes, get a copy of Harald Tietze's 1998
book Living Food for Longer Life.
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