Indeed, health crusader Dr. Paul Bragg, who inspired the creation of Braggzyme, is the real reason we are all here eating good foods and taking supplements. He was a shining example of how you can go from illness and debilitation to full, vibrant health. Dr. Bragg was the first to introduce organic foods to America, not to mention juicing and the first health food stores. But what made his philosophy so different and special from all the other experts?

His secret was live, raw foods. And the secret to live and raw foods is enzymes.

This all leads us to Braggzyme. In a nutshell, Braggzyme is a systemic enzyme that helps maintain healthy low levels of cardiac and vascular inflammation and C-reactive protein (a marker for inflammation); protect against dangerous blood clotting; and cleanse the blood of cellular debris, thereby opening up circulation, naturally, without side effects.

THE NEED TO SUPPLEMENT WITH ENZYMES

Most of us can’t just walk into our gardens and pick fresh fruit and vegetables. As soon as you pick a veggie or fruit, the enzymes within begin to die off. The moment you pluck an orange from a tree, 100 percent of its enzymes are present, but 30 minutes later, 50 percent have been lost. Imagine the enzyme depletion that occurs in foods eaten out of season or that have been in storage for a month or more and treated with ethylene gas. Foods that are cooked or heavily processed also lose their enzymes.

With our modern lifestyles, we have gotten to the point where we have to supplement with enzymes. Enzymes are biocatalysts. They are usually made from proteins and make other processes in the body function rapidly. Without enzymes, it would take about a minute to bat your eyelids and about half an hour to bend your elbow. The four to six proteolytic enzymes that we eat, supplement with or make in our pancreas create somewhere between 3,000 and 7,000 separate enzymes in our bodies. And those 3,000 to 7,000 separate enzymes cause 25,000 to 30,000 different enzymatic reactions in the human body.

FIGHTING INFLAMMATION

What do systemic enzymes do? Systemic enzymes act as anti-inflammatories but not via the same mechanisms of action as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) or corticosteroids. They are a nondrug approach to maintaining healthy low inflammation levels.

We are always fighting inflammation. Inflammation is one of the major killers of human beings. Inflammation is the root cause of cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes and other major maladies. Think of all of the major diseases that end in “–itis.” They are all inflammatory diseases.

NSAIDs work by keeping us from making circulating immune complexes, also known as cytokines or prostaglandins. However, there are good prostaglandins and bad prostaglandins. The good ones assist with kidney and liver function and help maintain your intestinal lining. The bad ones promote inflammation. The downside of medications like aspirin, ibuprofen, Vioxx or Celebrex is that they cannot choose between the good cytokines and the bad ones—they shut down production of all of them. While you may feel better temporarily, your kidneys begin to lag in function, and your liver begins to lag in its detoxification, and the lining in your intestines begins to thin.

Systemic enzymes, on the other hand, control inflammation attacking only cytokines that are proinflammatory. They are far more selective—and this is their key advantage.

FIGHTING FIBROSIS

The next major action of a systemic enzyme is that it fights fibrosis, or scar tissue. All of the diseases that end in the suffix “-osis” have fibrosis as part of the condition. We’re talking about arterial plaque; postoperative scar tissue; keloids that develop after surgery or after trauma; and pulmonary fibrosis. We’re talking about fibrosis that happens in the internal organs and in our brains as we age.

In anatomy, doctors learn that fibrosis is actually what kills us, because as we age, especially past age 35, fibrosis due to the inflammation in our internal organs begins to grow through the organ, shrinking its size and diminishing its function. But enzymes actually have been shown to slow or stop the body’s tendency toward fibrosis, largely by focusing on a molecule called transforming growth factor beta and disarming its ability to damage tissue, as well as by addressing inflammation so expertly.

CLEANING BLOOD

The next action of systemic enzymes is that they clean the blood. The blood is not only the river of life but a river of garbage. The blood brings nutrients, oxygen and other good stuff to our tissues, but it also carries away all the metabolic waste and necrotic debris that we make to deposit it into the liver, which is supposed to dump it into the bowel. If we don’t have the enzymes that cause that chronic debris to be dumped into the bowel, our blood can get as thick as yogurt or ketchup.

Now the problem with all this gunk is that it can create clots. Fibrin is part of the body’s repair mechanism, but there is only supposed to be a certain amount of it—all the excess is tagged as an exogenous protein. The problem is, you’re not making enough enzymes to get rid of the excessive exogenously tagged fibrin in your bloodstream, so that fibrin just floats around, like little bits of fiberglass, and then it meets up with something called an adhesion molecule.

Adhesion molecules are what help to bind things together when you cut yourself or when you’re making a blood clot. But if you haven’t cut yourself, the adhesion molecule has nothing to do, so it globs itself onto the fibrin. And then come the little guys called platelets, which just get glued onto this fibrin and adhesion molecule as they pass by. And bingo! You’ve got a clot, and that clot can cause a heart attack or stroke. The proteolytic enzymes that we consume or supplement with can eat the necrotic debris in your blood, reduce the excessive fibrin and fibrinogen, and break down the extra adhesion molecules you don’t need, rendering your blood nice and slick so it can reach every tissue in your body with oxygen and nutrients—and not cause strokes and heart attacks.

THE BEAUTY OF THE BRAGGZYME FORMULA

Proteolytic enzymes are arguably more important for you to take than vitamins and minerals. Vitamins and minerals are coenzymes—they both need to latch onto proteolytic enzymes in order to be activated and actually be able do something within the body. The lesson here is simple: take your enzymes!

Braggzyme features an all-vegetarian combination of proteolytic enzymes for a broad range of physiological effects. It includes bromelain from pineapple, which is an anti-inflammatory, and papain from papaya, another anti-inflammatory that also fights fibrosis. Braggzyme combines these powerful enzymes with serrapeptase and nattokinase, which, like the fruit enzymes, have an anti-inflammatory effect but are also among the strongest fibrosis-eating enzymes on the planet. Lipase, also in the formula, eats away fat.

When you combine serrapeptase with nattokinase and other enzymes, as in Braggzyme, it actually works faster. So here you have a combination that helps maintain healthy inflammation levels throughout the day, keep your arteries open, support the body’s ability to clear away plaque, and keep your circulation robust. Cardiovascular health is further supported by Braggzyme with the addition of coenzyme Q10. It's also important to note that Braggzyme provides a powerful 4,500 Fibrinolytic Units (FU) in each capsule. For all of these reasons, Braggzyme received the Best of Healthy Living 2012 Editor’s Choice award for Best Enzyme Formula.

Systemic enzymes are the most miraculous things that have happened in natural medicine in 50 years. It has taken a while for systemic enzymes to get to the United States, but now that they’re here, we have the best brand of systemic enzymes brought to you by the company that brought you live, enzyme-rich food, an enzyme-rich philosophy, and an enzyme-filled life to create high-level wellness.

Braggzyme is the crown jewel of Dr. Bragg’s work. Braggzyme is as high quality a food as the Bragg Organic Raw Apple Cider Vinegar, Bragg Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Bragg Liquid Aminos and Bragg’s natural olive-oil-based salad dressings and condiments. The Bragg quality and the Bragg name is your assurance of purity.

For super health, Braggzyme is here for you.

Resources

Braggzyme is available at health food stores and natural pharmacies. Visit www.bragg.com and www.braggzyme.com for more information.

Copyright 2012. All rights reserved.