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Q40-Can taking enzymes help prevent heart disease?
Enzymes might be effective in helping certain kinds of heart or cardiovascular disease such as atherosclerosis, hypertension, and other blood vessel diseases. There are several causes attributed to causing cardiovascular disease. One popular cause of heart disease theorized by researchers is an impairment in fatty metabolism by the body's cells. First, this faulty fat metabolism begins with incomplete digestion and absorption of fat by the intestinal cells. Second, fat metabolism is also hindered at the cellular level. Poor enzyme activity, especially poor lipase activity, is clearly a factor in this faulty metabolism. Lipase can come from three different sources. First, lipase can be present in the food being eaten. For example there is an abundance of lipase in raw butter and raw animal fat. Although Eskimos eat both of these foods, cardiovascular disease is virtually non-existent in their society. Second, supplemental plant enzyme lipase works in the fundus (upper) part of the stomach which helps break fat down in the predigestion stage. It is here that lipase breaks the fat down into the substrate form that eventually will make it easier for the lipase produced by the pancreas to break it down even further. The third source of lipase can be found in the duodenum (upper part of small intestine). This lipase is called pancreatic lipase. Some researchers theorize that when lipase from an outside source works on fat in the pre-digestion stage in the stomach, it induces certain changes that enable pancreatic lipase to create a better finished product than when it must do the entire job alone. Thus, the pancreatic lipase can break the fat down to its most desirable and absorbable form if raw foods or supplemental enzymes are taken with the meal. |
