I think it’s safe to say that just about everyone on this planet over the age of 5 or 6 has heard of vitamins and their proven ability to help keep us healthy. But how many of us are familiar with enzymes?  While I’m sure some of you can tell me all about them, my guess is most of us are not on familiar terms with things like papain or trypsin. What’s interesting is that enzymes can be just as important to our overall health as vitamins, so I believe learning about them is quite important.

Let me help this process along a bit by talking about something called “systemic enzyme therapy” or SET.  This is the phrase used to describe a group of proteolytic enzymes that act as “cell messenger enhancers.”  In other words, they literally improve the healing response by their effect on the way our cells communicate. When the cells are done “talking” to each other, one or more enzymes are brought into the play.  When they are orchestrated correctly, the music of your life is in tune.

Does this sound simple enough?  I suspect that right now, you are thinking “not so much.” I think that some of this knowledge gap might need some historical filling-in. Several decades ago there lived a little man named Max Wolf, M.D., otherwise known as The Enzyme Guru.

Dr. Wolf was the first professor of endocrinology at Fordham University and eventually became quite the celebrity when he treated several members of the New York Metropolitan Opera.

As a sidebar, he was also a bit of a surgeon and he learned to take out vocal cord polyps and tonsils on many actors. Julie Andrews would give him a standing ovation for his work, as would Greta Garbo and even Charlie Chaplin. He took care of a lot of actors for about 30 years. Because of his German roots, he was very interested in natural health remedies. He publicly gave vitamin shots, enzymes shots and many other natural therapies.

For the purposes of our story today, it is important to note that Dr. Wolf also loved enzymes. So much so, that he founded the New York Institute of Biological Research for this purpose. The problem was the he ran into a conflict with the American Medical Association and had to take his enzymes research to Europe.

Eventually, this European endeavor yielded high dividends. Dr. Wolf intuitively knew that systemic enzyme therapy work to improve health in a general way, and specifically, that it helped heal inflammation of many sorts. Dr. Wolf identified a growth factor called “TGF-beta” as a key player primarily modulated with systemic enzyme therapy.

As time went on, more and more information was gathered regarding enzymes, and this area of medical research is burgeoning today. Today, all you have to do is go online or in line at any nutritional store. Enzyme therapy is big and getting bigger and better all the time.

Sometimes systemic enzymes therapy is boosted by other known herbal anti-inflammatories such as turmeric and or willow bark. Many appreciate these extras especially when the weather turns cold in that turmeric is a great warming herb.

Here’s the deal – Dr. Max Wolf, M.D., might have done all of the legwork when it comes to understanding how systemic enzyme therapy works.  Let us all honor his legacy by incorporating these remarkable nutrients into our own diets on a regular basis.

For more information about Enzymes or to order BioEnzymes