Proteolytic Enzymes (Protease)

by Mila McManus MD

Proteolytic Enzymes, or Protease, is a supplement which serves multiple purposes that support the immune system and all inflammatory processes. They are extremely useful as part of a holistic regimen in the treatment of cancers, chronic infections, digestive issues, cardiovascular disease, and auto immune diseases, just to name a few.

Proteolytic enzymes, or proteases, are produced in our stomach and pancreas and used in the digestive process to break proteins down into amino acids. Many people have heard of protease as a component of digestive enzymes taken as a supplement at meals to support healthy digestion; however, proteases have many systemic (i.e., full body) uses and are essential to good health. When taken between meals, protease is absorbed through the gut lining and into the blood stream where they begin to distribute throughout the body to serve many critical functions, including:

Improving blood flow. Under a microscope, healthy blood cells are dispersed and fluid, while unhealthy ones are clumped and crowded, or sticky. UNclumped cells have more surface area to accept nutrients, oxygenate, and rid themselves of debris.
Improving circulation of blood which helps to repair and heal. Blood and its components deliver nutrients to cells, removes waste from cells, delivers oxygen to the brain, muscles and tissues, and transports immune cells to sites of infection, inflammation and damage.
Stimulating the immune system by pairing up with white blood cells, working to make the immune system more precise and efficient. This results in fewer colds, allergies, and infections. Improved detoxification frees up the immune system to focus on real threats and also helps to manage the inflammatory response, thereby reducing allergies, inflammation and pain, and overreaction to minor triggers.
Improving detoxification through removal of metabolic waste, environmental toxins and helping to maintain a clean and healthy internal environment. Proteases help to break down and eliminate damaging, allergenic, or compromised proteins and thus reduce inflammatory responses. Proteases also break down defensive biofilms created by pathogens (e.g., bacteria). These pathogens create the biofilms in the body to hide themselves from the immune system. Once revealed again, the immune system can attack those pathogens and eliminate them. Breaking down biofilm also allows medications, such as antibiotics, to reach their targets.

I like to think of proteases as a great cleaning crew that goes all over the body to scavenge for waste, cleaning up debris and removing the sticky film on surfaces that make it hard to tell what is underneath. Dirty=irritated and inflamed. Clean=calm and peaceful.

Talk to your healthcare provider about proteolytic enzymes, or proteases. Whether you are well and want to be preventative or if you suffer from any kind of inflammation, pain, organ or system dysfunction, compromised immune function, metabolic or genetic disorders, cardiovascular or circulatory concerns, you should consider proteases. We carry Transformation Enzyme formulas and can recommend the best one for you.

And if you really want to ‘nerd out’, you can read a Scientific Brief.

reference:

https://www.transformationenzymes.com/

By Admin|2021-11-03T14:06:06-05:00July 22nd, 2016|Articles, General|

Women and Heart Disease

by Dyvette Warren, PA-C

Why is heart disease the leading cause of death in women? Why are women and men being diagnosed with coronary artery disease at younger ages than ever before? Why has heart disease become so prevalent in the last 100 years?

All women face the threat of heart disease. Becoming aware of the symptoms and risks unique to women, as well as eating a healthy diet, free of processed foods and toxins, and exercising regularly, can help protect you.

Coronary artery disease is caused by plaque forming in the lining of the arterial walls. This plaque is deposited along the arterial walls and can eventually rupture and block blood flow to a part of the heart resulting in tissue death. This is called a myocardial infarction (heart attack). Inflammation plays a key role in arterial plaque formation.

If I have plaque in the arteries of my heart, what symptoms do I look for?

The most common heart attack symptoms in women are pain, pressure or discomfort in the chest; however, it’s not always severe and is often dismissed. Women are more likely than men to have atypical symptoms that may seem unrelated to a heart issue, such as:

Neck, jaw, shoulder, upper back or abdominal discomfort
Shortness of breath with or without chest pain
Right arm pain, left arm pain
Upper or mid back pain
Diabetics often present with fatigue and elevated blood sugar without chest pain
Nausea or vomiting
Sweating
Lightheadedness or dizziness
Unusual fatigue
Women’s symptoms may occur more often at rest or while sleeping
Emotional stress may also trigger heart attack symptoms

A 42 year old neighbor knocked on my door 5 years ago and said, “Something is wrong”. After a normal cardiac stress test several weeks before, medications for cholesterol and hypertension were prescribed by the cardiologist. This 42 year old mother of 2 young children had a standard and thorough evaluation with her primary care provider and cardiologist. She was advised to follow up in 6 months or sooner if symptoms worsen.

I knew from my training and experience that when a patient experiences feelings of “impending doom”, a thorough investigation should follow. After careful questioning, she reported only slightly elevated cholesterol and blood pressure diagnosed by her primary care provider. The reason for the knock at my door and the visit to the cardiologist was the chest pain that occurred at rest, in the middle of the night, while sleeping, that would awaken her.

The next step would be to check her lungs and coronary arteries, so I ordered a coronary angiogram (a CT scan that looks inside and around the arteries of the heart). This test included a good view of the lungs as well. Shortly after the procedure was completed, a radiologist contacted me and advised immediate cardiac evaluation for severe plaque in two major coronary arteries. This information meant that a myocardial infarction (heart attack) or death could imminent. I contacted the patient’s cardiologist to explain the severity of the situation and advised that he meet this patient at the hospital right away. The patient received coronary artery bypass surgery the next morning! The patient has implemented life style changes that will decrease the risk of worsening cardiovascular disease and is living a full and productive life with her family.

What are the risk factors for the development of heart disease in women?

Diabetes, insulin resistance, and elevated blood glucose levels without a diagnosis of diabetes, significantly increases the risk of heart disease in women more than men.
Metabolic syndrome – a combination of fat around the abdomen, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and high triglycerides.
Emotional stress and depression affect women’s hearts more than men’s. Depression makes it difficult to maintain a healthy life style and follow recommendations. Depressive symptoms must be addressed.
Smoking is a greater risk factor for heart disease in women than in men.
Exposure to toxins, which trigger inflammation in the body.
Lack of physical activity is a major risk factor for heart disease, and as a group, women tend to be less active than men.
Low levels of estrogen after menopause pose a significant risk factor for developing cardiovascular disease in the smaller blood vessels.
Pregnancy complications such as high blood pressure or gestational diabetes can increase a woman’s long-term risk of developing heart disease in both the mother and in her children.

Where do the toxins come from that get into my blood stream?

Manmade chemicals from personal care products, toothpaste, shampoos, bubble baths, shower gels, makeup, perfumes, deodorants and lotions can be quite toxic. House hold cleaning supplies, detergents, prescription drugs and over the counter medications, smoking tobacco, industrial pollution, pesticides, contaminated water, processed foods, flavorings and additives, hydrogenated, partially-hydrogenated or trans fats all contribute to our toxic load.

Abnormalities in intestinal flora, nutritional deficiencies, and lack of sun exposure all contribute to toxic buildup as well. The body tries to fix and protect the vessels from toxins by using white blood cells to capture or trap the toxins. Atherosclerotic plaque begins to form in the lining of the vessels which narrows blood flow to vital organs. Coronary artery diseases cause 1/3 of all deaths in the western world annually.

Is cholesterol good or bad?

Cholesterol is vital to the healthy function of your body. Cholesterol is needed for the synthesis of many hormones such as testosterone, estrogen, DHEA, progesterone, and cortisol. Together with sun exposure, cholesterol is required to produce vitamin D, and deficiency in vitamin D increases risk of cancers and other ailments. Cholesterol is an essential element of all cell membranes, where it provides structural support and may even serve as a protective antioxidant. It is essential for conducting nervous impulses. If elevated cholesterol levels are the cause of coronary artery disease, why do so many people who have heart attacks have normal cholesterol and so many people with high cholesterol live into their 90s? Please read more about cholesterol and statin drugs here.

What can I do to decrease my risk of a heart attack?

Try to find natural, non-toxic alternatives to any products you use that are on the market.
Avoid processed/packaged foods.
Keep blood glucose (sugar) controlled.
Eat organic whole foods.
Start exercising.
Lose weight if you are overweight.
Never smoke or quit now if you do.
Limit alcohol intake.
Get screened for heart disease.
Manage stress.
Treat Depression.

What are the tests that I should have done that will let me know if I am at risk for heart disease?

Clinical indicators for testing include an inflammatory checklist to asses overall inflammation. . Further testing is warranted if you answer yes to any of the following:

Digestive disorders
Bone and joint pain
Skin conditions
Poor health of teeth and gums
Metabolic syndrome/diabetes
Endocrine/hormone issues
High blood pressure
Chronic pain
Sleep issues
Chronic Fatigue
Chronic infection(s)
Autoimmune disease

We are now able to test 5 elements related to heart disease. The Coronary Artery Disease Inflammation Profile focuses on five key elements of cardiovascular health: sympathetic drive, antioxidant defense, immune activity, endothelial function, (and cholesterol?-the controversy continues!). It not only assesses sympathetic function and oxidation, but also provides an extensive view of inflammation to allow for more targeted and personalized interventions.

1. Sympathetic drive: Low sympathetic drive is inversely related to control of inflammatory cytokine levels, and the underlying cause of sleep disorders and depression. Testing includes norepinephrine, serotonin, glycine, taurine, and glutamate levels.

a. Must have norepinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine controlled.

b. Serotonin has a vasodilator effect that increases blood flow and decreases blood pressure. Lower levels are associated with an increased risk of heart disease.

c. If norepinephrine is very low OR very high, this suggests severe endothelial inflammation.

2. Oxidation: Oxidative stress in humans can cause cancer, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, heart failure, chronic fatigue, infection, disorders related to the skin, and other health problems. This test is for risk and vulnerability, looking at levels of harmful oxidized cholesterol, ApoB and ApoA1 ratio, and DOPAC, the oxidized form of dopamine. These levels help to identify whether free radicals are affecting the nervous system and catecholamine function.

3. Inflammation: Testing Myeloperoxidase, C-reactive protein, and cytokines. These levels help to stratify risk of heart disease as well.

4. Endothelial function: Mechanical measurement and biomarker measurement to test endothelial dysfunction. The endothelium is the largest organ in the body, made up of cells that line every blood vessel.

5. Plaque rupture/Plaque accumulation: testing cytokines. This is the first cardiac assessment to show improvement in as little as 2 to 4 weeks; no more waiting 3 to 6 months to assess effectiveness of therapy.

I recommend that you make an appointment with one of our providers if you are experiencing symptoms or have risks that are discussed in this article, if you have a family history of coronary artery disease, blood clots, or stroke, if you have had heart surgery, bypass or stents placed in your heart or extremities. We will determine the testing needed to fit your profile that will help to determine your future risk of a heart attack.

Other tests that may be recommended to assess risk include heart scan with calcium scoring, EKG, stress tests, nutrient testing, heavy metal testing, sleep study, psychological assessments, and ultrasounds of the heart, carotid arteries, extremities, and/or aorta.

Coronary artery disease is a serious cause of morbidity and mortality in women and will continue to gain importance as a woman’s life expectancy increases. Important differences in presentation, risk factors, investigation, and treatment of women exist and should be recognized. There is plenty you can do to prevent and treat coronary artery disease. Start by committing to a healthy lifestyle.

Resources:

By Admin|2015-06-03T06:53:08-05:00June 3rd, 2015|Articles, General|

Three Nutrition Tips to Avoid a Broken Heart

By Nancy Mehlert, MS

If you have not already read our lead article about Women and Heart Disease, I strongly encourage you to do so because it will explain the reasons for our nutrition recommendations. In our nutrition article today, I am going to get right to the heart of the matter (if you will pardon the expression) regarding nutritional lifestyle changes you can make that your heart will love. Please don’t let this underestimate the value of other lifestyle changes including exercise, the quality of your sleep, how you cope with stress, and the health of your relationships, because all of these things are equally important matters of the heart! We can’t exercise our way out of a bad diet or sleep away our worries. Balance and integration is essential for whole-hearted living and optimal health.

The overall nutrition strategy for the heart is to reduce oxidation, reduce inflammation, and detoxify. It is exactly these strategies we recommend for a healthy diet for life! The human body is wired and designed for a diet rich in antioxidants, anti-inflammatory foods and plenty of fiber that helps to cleanse and detoxify us. So what are the priorities?

1) A diet rich in vegetables (raw, cooked, juiced or fermented) is mission critical to good health and avoiding heart disease. There is no better food to stamp out oxidation and stop inflammation in its tracks! See if you can get 3-4 cups or more a day. This is the food that should take up most of the space on our plates at every meal.

2) For any matter of ill health or disease, including the heart, it is imperative that all processed and fast foods, especially refined carbohydrates (breads, cereals, wraps, pastries, cakes, cookies etc.), damaged oils/fats (margarine, canola, soybean, corn, cottonseed) and sugar be removed from the diet. When we eat food our body is not naturally wired to eat, we make it mad and confused! It really does not know what the heck it is supposed to do with soybean oil or canola oil-based salad dressing or an FD & C Color dye or nitrate or a load of sugar from any source, including an organic fruit smoothie or a couple of slices of multi grain bread. Foods that have been factory processed, highly milled, heated, treated, colored, preserved, texturized or defatted are no longer food but man-made products. The heart knows it! These products not only cannot be used as nutrition for your cells but they also interrupt processes, rob the body of essential minerals and vitamins, block and clog pathways, get stored as belly fat, increase harmful cholesterols, and elevate triglycerides. An important note about natural sources of sugar including fruit, honey, maple sugar, agave nectar, coconut date or palm tree sugars, turbinado and cane sugar, just to name a few. . sugar is sugar and sugar is an inflammatory, acidic, and destructive food no matter how organic or natural. When we talk about how our body is wired, early man consumed very little sugar in any form. Remember, fruit is seasonal and in some climates non-existent. Bee hives were rare and pretty impenetrable without some pain. Many fruits are very high in fructose which must be processed through the liver, generating a great deal of uric acid which leads to gout and heart disease.[i] Most berries are a safe choice in moderation.

3) Lose the fear of eating healthy, undamaged, natural fats including the incorrectly accused saturated fat! The human body requires the right fats to function optimally. Over the last 60 years, dietary fat intake recommendations have been grossly underestimated at 10% of total daily calories and damaged vegetables oils were recommended as the ideal choice. Simultaneously we were guided to remove all saturated and animal fats. These three errors have played a significant and contributing role to health problems today, including sugar addiction, carbohydrate cravings, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, depression, hormone imbalances and much more. For most people, a healthy range of fat intake is between 40-70% of total caloric intake IF the choices are healthy! Healthy fats are fuel for the heart, resources for production of most of our hormones, enzymes and many neurotransmitters, and an essential component of every cell in the human body. Cholesterol is the building block for hormone production in the body and more than half of the brain is made of cholesterol![ii] Healthy fats also contain potent and powerful antioxidants. Healthy fats must be chosen carefully and examples include:

Avocado
Butter – organic ideally and from pasture raised or grass fed cows, raw if possible
Eggs – from pasture raised chickens fed grass and insects
Coconut meats and expeller pressed, organic coconut oil (a saturated fat)
Unheated, organic nut oils such as macadamia nut or walnut oil
Organic, cold pressed olive oil and olives
Raw nuts especially pecans, macadamia nuts, walnuts, and almonds as well as seeds such as chia, hemp, sesame and pumpkin
Grass fed/pasture raised meats
Small wild caught oily fish such as sardines & anchovies
Wild, Pacific salmon

So when it comes to matters of the heart, grandma was right when she told us to eat our vegetables, mother nature has proven wiser than the food manufacturing industry when it comes to your health, and yes, go ahead and eat a little more (healthy) fat! Still confused? Schedule your nutrition consult today!

[i] http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/01/27/gout-uric-acid.aspx

[ii]http://info.spectracell.com/Portals/81015/docs/Dr%20Sinatra%20newsletter%200808HHN_final.pdf

By Admin|2015-06-03T06:24:48-05:00June 1st, 2015|Articles, General, NANCY’S NUTRITIONAL NUGGET|

Cholesterol and Statin Drugs

by Mila McManus MD

Statin drugs to reduce cholesterol levels are one of the most widely prescribed drugs. The myth that cholesterol is the cause of heart disease has sadly perpetuated over several decades despite much evidence to the contrary. Cholesterol actually plays vital roles in the body, such as:

Cholesterol is critical to the structure of key proteins involved with nerve transmission.
Cholesterol is needed for nerve cells to live longer.
Cholesterol supports serotonin utilization. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter involved in mood. Low serotonin symptoms include depression, anxiety, insomnia, carbohydrate cravings.
Cholesterol is the building block for many important hormones, including hormones that regulate mineral metabolism and blood sugar, hormones that help us deal with stress, and all the sex hormones, such as testosterone, progesterone, and estrogens.
Cholesterol helps fight infections and is important for immune function in general.
Cholesterol is needed for repairing wounds.
Cholesterol is needed for all cell membranes
Cholesterol is needed to make Vitamin D. People with optimal levels of vitamin D have the lowest incidence of flus/colds, cancers, and autoimmune diseases, and vitamin D is also important for heart health, metabolism, and thyroid function.

If you consider the above benefits of cholesterol, then you can look at the following list of side effects linked to statin drugs as they correlate with the above:

Polyneuropathy (tingling and/or pain in hands and feet and difficulty walking)
Alzheimers and Parkinsons disease have been linked to statin drugs
Depression
Mental slowing and memory impairment
Poor immune function
Some studies suggest statins increase risk of cancers. In every study with rodents, statins have caused cancer. Most human trials aren’t carried out long enough to detect any increase in cancer rates, but in one trial, breast cancer rates of those taking a statin were 1500 % higher than those of control subjects.
If you don’t have the building block to make your hormones, then imagine all the symptoms of low testosterone, low estrogen, low progesterone, and deficiency of adrenal (stress) hormones. Click here to test yourself and see symptoms that relate to deficiencies of these hormones.
Muscle weakness, muscle cramps, muscle atrophy, and muscle pain
Joint pain
Liver damage
Studies have shown that statins increase your risk of type 2 diabetes.
Heart failure (ironic, isn’t it? The enzyme blocked by statin drugs is also the enzyme that makes CoQ10 in the body. CoQ10 is a critical antioxidant, and also is required for energy production in your cells, including heart muscle. When you deplete CoQ10 due to being on a statin drug, your heart muscle weakens along with all your other muscles.)

Here are a few more interesting factoids:

On Pfizer’s own newspaper ad for Lipitor, it boasts that Lipitor reduces heart attacks by 36 percent. But there is an asterisk. And when you follow the asterisk, you find the following in much smaller type: “That means in a large clinical study, 3% of patients taking a sugar pill or placebo had a heart attack compared to 2% of patients taking Lipitor.”
In 2006, a study reported: While Zetia (a non-statin cholesterol lowering drug) does lower cholesterol by 15 percent to 20 percent, trials did not show that it reduces heart attacks or strokes, or that it reduces plaques in arteries that can lead to heart problems.

-Moreover, the trial by the drugs’ makers, which studied whether Zetia could reduce the growth of plaques, found that plaques grew nearly twice as fast in patients taking Zetia along with Zocor (Vytorin) than in those taking Zocor alone.

Young and middle-aged men with cholesterol levels over 300 are slightly more at risk for heart attacks. Those who have cholesterol levels just below 300 are at no greater risk than those whose cholesterol is very low. For elderly men and for women of all ages, high cholesterol is associated with a longer lifespan.
There is no evidence that saturated fat and cholesterol-rich foods contribute to heart disease.
Sugar and other refined carbohydrates (e.g. breads, pasta) increase insulin levels which are well known to cause plaque in the arteries. This is why diabetics develop cardiovascular disease at a rapid rate (ie high levels of sugar and insulin circulating in the blood). Statin drugs will not protect you from this.

Now that you are armed with all of the above information, you may be asking how to protect yourself from heart disease. Here are a few tips:

Manage your stress. Deep breathing exercises can be done anywhere at any time and don’t cost a thing.
Get moving. Even 5 minutes a day of cardio is better than nothing.
Reduce inflammation, which is at the heart of causing heart disease:

-Take Omega-3s such as krill or fish oil

-Avoid sugar which is inflammatory

-Eat real food and avoid manufactured foods, such as what’s found in boxes and wrappers

-Avoid eating fried foods and other foods cooked at high temperatures. Try to eat a lot of foods in their raw form.

Quit smoking.
Get adequate sleep.
Make sure you are getting adequate intake of fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K, as well as B vitamins and antioxidants. Vitamins are a good way to ensure this.

*Information obtained from mercola.com and Weston A. Price Foundation.

*Necessary Disclaimer: The above information is for educational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice.

By Admin|2014-11-03T20:02:11-05:00November 2nd, 2014|Articles, General|