Enzyme Therapy for Diabetes

When dealing with diabetes, a chronic condition in which the blood sugar is abnormally elevated, one may choose to seek alternative or natural therapies over conventional medical therapies. One such alternative therapy is enzyme therapy. Enzyme therapy is basically the use of supplemental enzymes (proteins that act as catalysts to chemical reactions including the breaking down of foods) to treat a specific medical condition or general poor health.

Treating Diabetes: The Pancreas Connection

• Blood sugar measuring tool for diabetes

  At the heart of diabetes is an exhausted pancreas. No longer able to keep up with insulin demands, the pancreas just gives up, almost panting. And the key to recovering from diabetes is to allow the pancreas the time to recover, which can take years to achieve. Since the pancreas has a second role as the body's enzyme factory, other than being the insulin factory, allowing the pancreas the opportunity to rest and heal requires taking off the enzymatic load as well, not just the insulin load.

Enzymes Explained

• There are three kinds of enzymes

  Enzyme therapy can be broken down to the use of two of the three types of enzymes that exist to support the over-worked pancreas (as well as overall digestion). The one that cannot be "supplemented," metabolic enzymes, are used for numerous bodily processes including immune functions, healing, blood cleansing, etc. These are the most important and act as the foundation to healing from any medical condition including diabetes. But these cannot be "supplemented." They're the ones that your body will create on its own. Pancreatic enzymes, on the other hand, are intended for digesting food. Albeit less important than metabolic enzymes, proper digestion is vital to metabolic enzymes being used for the right purposes making it just as important. Then there's the enzymes found in raw, unfrozen foods, which digest food in combination with pancreatic enzymes. The more of these available, the fewer pancreatic enzymes your body will need to make. Taking the above into account, enzyme therapy would consist mainly of supplementing with pancreatic enzymes, although adding raw, unfrozen foods improves the effectiveness of all supplements significantly.

Supplements Vs. Food?

• Unheated honey for enzymes

  Finally, there's the choice of where to get your supplemental enzymes. Synthetic enzyme supplements as found at health food stores are the most commonly used. But these supplements lack both the other known and unknown factors that interact with enzymes found in foods, as well as a full-spectrum of enzymes all in one source. For full spectrum, "interactive" food-based enzymes, unheated honey is best (not just "raw"). Not only does unheated honey provide a surplus of each kind of digestive enzyme, but as a bonus it contains an insulin-like factor that has the ability to replace insulin within the body, benefiting the pancreas by relieving both enzymatic and insulin-related duties. Other food sources of enzymes include tropical fruits, especially in unripe form, and fresh vegetable juices, although no other food stacks up to the honey.