Question: This next question sir is very important. I've talked to you a little bit the last couple of days about this question. It is in regards to the supplementation of probiotics and digestive enzymes. They both have strong anecdotal and seemingly clinical positive results. Is it harmful to take a tablespoon of enzymes with a quart of alkalizing greens, and do enzymes have a beneficial effect for the body?
Dr. Young: Taking probiotics and enzymes can have perceived health benefits with many long-term harmful effects.
Probiotics and enzymes are acidifying to the body and therefore should not be ingested for long periods of time.
Probiotics are biological transformations of what use to be healthy organized matter into bacteria, yeast and/or mold. All bacteria is the evidence of matter fermenting and breaking down to adapt to a changing acidic environment. There is no such thing as healthy bacteria. All bacteria including the ones found in the body and especially in the small and large intestines are morbid evolutions of putrefying plant and/or animal food and/or body cells. My theory is to keep your alimentary canal clear, clean, free of cellular debris and all bacteria, yeast or mold. This would be the healthy alkaline state of the small and large bowel.
When one is constipated with undigested animal flesh in the small and/or large intestine, acidic probiotics and enzymes may help to breakdown this undigested protein. This may provide for temporary relief with better bowel elimination. This may be the only benefit from ingesting these potentially harmful acidic supplements.
The reason I suggest probiotics and enzymes are potentially harmful is they can also damage healthy cells and tissues, including the delicate intestinal villi. The intestinal villi, line the wall of approximately 27 feet of the small intestine, increasing the surface area to over 7,200 square feet. I call the intestinal villi of the small intestine the root system of the body. The intestinal villi are like plant roots and can be damaged by acidic food, drink, bacteria, yeast, mold, enzymes, probiotics, and antibiotics. Bottom-line, when you ingest enzymes and/or probiotics you may gain short-term benefits (the breakdown of undigested matter from meat and dairy) but you may also incur long-term damage to the root system of your body - the breakdown of the intestinal villi.
As I have mentioned, enzymes are acids. The word "enzyme" itself means "ferment". It is a Greek word. When you understand that enzymes are all acids, and that most of America is congested or constipated to a lesser or greater degree, any enzyme ingested may help break down some of the undigested food in the 9 yards of the intestine. This undigested food, (meat), which rarely completely breaks down on its own, comes from chicken, beef, turkey or fish. The real risk in taking enzymes or probiotics are the acidic damage to the root system of the body while trying to break down and eliminate undigested food. The best choice is to eliminate all animal protein from the diet to prevent the bowel congestion or constipation. Even the mucus created from the acids of dairy products (lactic acid) may be dissolved with enzymes and/or probiotics. But, long-term use of acidic enzymes or probiotics are not good for the health of the alimentary canal. Once again, the risk is a compromised alkaline environment in the small and large intestine and damage to the delicate intestinal villi of the small intestine.
My 30 years of research has indicated that the impact of enzymes and probiotics, including antibiotics will eventually compromise the alimentary canal and damage the delicate intestinal villi in the small intestine.
Once you understand that the alimentary canal is not a digestive system but an alkaline-buffering system, then you realize that from the mouth to the stomach, to the duodenum to the intestines, these organs are trying to raise the pH of the food, not digest the food.
Food, in and of itself, is broken down from the inside out from the mere fact that you break the membranes of that food with your teeth. Once you break the membranes of any organized matter, with your teeth, it will start its own disorganization or digestion. So, food digests from the inside out not from the outside in as suggested by current medical savants. The theory that food digests in the stomach is FALSE. Food is alkalized in the stomach not digested in the stomach. And, the major purpose of the stomach is to produce sodium bicarbonate to alkalize the food and the liquids you eat.
Out of the disorganizing food, acids or enzymes are released as a waste product of that disorganization or unfolding of the plant or animal cells. The enzymes or acids released from the food when broken with your teeth activates the alkaline-buffering system. The alkaline buffering system includes the mouth, the stomach, the pylorus glands, the duodenum, the pancreas, the gallbladder, and the alkalizing glands in the small intestine, that all release sodium bicarbonate to alkalize the food you eat and the liquids you drink. The major contributor of sodium bicarbonate for maintaining the alkaline design of the body is the stomach. The stomach therefore is an organ of contribution not an organ of digestion which is currently taught by traditional and holistic doctors. The stomach is an alkalizing organ.
In the mouth, the salivary glands start secreting sodium bicarbonate, to raise the alkalinity of the food and to neutralize or buffer the food enzymes or acids. The process of alkalizing the food continues in the stomach as the stomach lining releases sodium bicarbonate to alkalize the food. Yes, for every molecule of sodium bicarbonate produced to alkalize the food you ingest a molecule of hydrochloric acid is also produced. But, the hydrochloric acid never touches or should never come in contact with the food you eat. The sodium bicarbonate produced in the lining of the stomach rises to meet the food as the hydrochloric acid falls into the gastric pits of the stomach away from the food. Hydrochloric acid is the WASTE PRODUCT of sodium bicarbonate production and will destroy the life or electron potential of the food. That is why you find residues of hydrochloric acid in the stomach after the food has taken up all the alkaline sodium bicarbonate and left for the small intestine. The hydrochloric acid in the stomach is the evidence that the food has been alkalized and is on its way to the intestines for transformation into stem cells and then red blood cells. The primary site for stem cell and red blood cell production is in the crypts of the intestinal villi.
When the food leaves the stomach, hopefully in a liquefied alkaline state and enters the duodenum the pancreas secrets more sodium bicarbonate to raise the pH of the liquefied food up to an alkaline pH of 8.2 to 8.4. The food is now prepared to be received by the small intestine for transformation into stem cells and then red blood cells.
As the food enters the small intestine in a liquefied alkaline state it falls into the crypts of the intestinal villi to be transformed into the new stem cells that will become the new erythroblast, and the new erythrocyte or red blood cell. These new cells are then taken up into blood circulation via the portal vein and the inferior vena cava to the heart for oxygenation and general circulation.
What I have described to you is the normal healthy alkaline process of the food you ingest and how it is alkalized (not digested) and how it becomes your new blood and eventually your new body cells. The process of food becoming blood and then body cells takes place in an alkaline environment - not in an acidic environment.
When the small intestine is clear of bacteria, yeast, mold, enzymes, probiotics, antibiotics and undigested food, then the normal healthy process of food transformation can take place creating healthy strong stem cells that will then become healthy strong red blood cells and eventually healthy strong body cells.
Taking enzymes, probiotics and antibiotics disrupts this normal healthy alkaline process of creating stem cells and then red blood cells in the small intestine which then leads to ALL sickness and disease. This is also the cause of all anemic conditions of the blood. This is why I no longer use or recommend the use of supplemental probiotics and/or digestive enzymes. And, most important why I never recommend the ingestion of ANY antibiotics. They destroy the alkaline design of the body, beginning with the most important system of body - the alkaline buffering system.
One last thing to remember. When you eat raw foods you eat them for their electrical energy potential not for their enzyme potential. The enzymes in raw foods are released when you break their cellular membranes with your teeth. All enzymes are poisonous acidic waste products of cellular breakdown that are buffered in the mouth, stomach, duodenum and small intestine by sodium bicarbonate. The reason you should eat liberal amounts of organic raw electron-rich alkaline foods is for their electron-rich alkaline properties - not for their toxic acidic enzymes.
Finally, the answer to your question - Is it harmful to take a tablespoon of enzymes with a quart of alkalizing greens, and do enzymes have a beneficial effect for the body?
The answer to your question is absolutely yes - enzymes are harmful to the body. Enzymes should not be ingested with alkalizing greens. Enzymes destroy the alkalizing effect of the greens. And second, enzymes should only to be used with a client or patient with extreme bowel constipation and for a very short period of time. I prefer to have my clients use mineral salts such as magnesium carbonate and/or magnesium oxide to break-up the undigested proteins in the 9 yards of the small intestine. You can also drink whole leaf cold-pressed aloe vera juice, which can also be helpful in breaking up undigested food in the bowel. The best advise I can give you is to stay away from probiotics, antibiotics and enzymes and choose to alkalize your body with electron-rich alkaline foods and drinks. That is, if you want to live a life of health, energy and fitness, free from ALL sickness and disease?