Opinions on this article? "The Dangers of Some Common Digestive Supplements: Enzymes, Probiotics and HCL‏"

What are your opinions on this article?


You've probably run across recommendations for digestive enzymes and/or probiotics to improve the health of your digestive tract.

In fact, I used to recommend them myself. But through live and dried blood cell analysis my understanding has evolved, and now I want to emphasize the negative consequences of these supplements, and warn you to steer clear of them on your path to an alkaline lifestyle.

First let me quickly address HCL. It has never been one of my recommendations, but still this is advice that often pops up on the web, or in your health food store, or in health magazines or books. So let me just be clear: Never take supplements or drugs that contain HCL; it will compromise the alkaline pH of the digestive tract, leading to serious health challenges. Most all pharmaceutical drugs contain HCL and many nutritional supplements as well. HCL or Hydrochloric acid is a toxic acidic waste product of sodium bicarbonate production - right in the stomach. The sodium bicarbonate is used to alkalize the food or liquids you ingest and the HCL falls into the gastric pits of the small intestine to be taken up by the lymphatic system and then eliminated through perspiration or urination.

Enzymes and probiotics are a bit more complicated, because they may seemingly be beneficial in the short term. That's because they do help break down undigested matter from meat and dairy, and so can provide temporary relief from constipation. Think of it this way: Yes, they help to break down hard to digest animal protein and meat. But guess what. YOU are meat! It will break you down too!

But they have many harmful effects over the long run. They are acidifying to the body, for one thing, and can damage healthy cells and tissues, including the delicate intestinal villi. They will eventually disrupt the alkaline process of creating stem cells in the small intestine and then red blood cells. This leads to blood disorders and then tissue disorders. When it becomes impossible to make healthy blood in the crypts of the small intestine, it is impossible to make the healthy body cells that make up healthy body organs. This is one of the main reasons Type I diabetics are all underweight. They have done severe damage to their intestinal villi and can no longer create enough stem cells to make red blood cells and therefore body cells are broken down to make needed and life saving red blood cells. This process of transforming body cells into red blood cells increases the acids in the blood in the form of sugar or glucose and the reason why a Type I diabetic goes to bedwith normal blood sugar levels and then wakes up with high blood sugar levels. This phenomenon is referred to by medical savants as the "Dawn Phenomenon" and has everything to do with the unhealthy alkaline state of the small intestine. That is why I have said that the symptoms of diabetes begins in the small intestine, not the pancreas.

Probiotics are transformations of what used to be healthy cells. There is no such thing as "friendly" or "healthy" bacteria. The presence of bacteria is evidence of an acidic environment. Ideally, the small and large intestines will be clean and free of all microforms (Bacteria, Yeast, Mold). You don't want to be adding any in there!

The word "enzyme" means "ferment" when you trace it back to its Greek roots. So, it's broadcasting the fact that you should have nothing to do with adding more into your body. Enzymes are acids, the waste products of cellular breakdown. The enzymes in raw foods are released when you chew them -- you are breaking their cellular membranes with your teeth -- which is why alkalizing must start in the mouth. Luckily, the enzymes in the food you eat actually turns on the alkalizing system, triggering the release of sodium bicarbonate in the mouth, stomach and intestines. The real benefit to you of raw foods is their electrical energy, not their enzymes or acidic waste products.

Enzymes can help break down meat and dairy which rarely completely break down on their own, but a far better choice is to eliminate all animal protein from the diet. In cases of extreme bowel constipation, enzymes may be used, but only for a very short period of time. You'd be a lot better off, though, using mineral salts such as magnesium carbonate or magnesium oxide to break up undigested proteins in the small intestine. You could also drink whole leaf cold-pressed aloe vera juice to help break up undigested food in the bowel without any negative impact on healthy tissue without damaging the delicate intestinal villi. Best of all is to alkalize your body with electron-rich alkaline food and drink, avoiding the problem all together!

scottyc33 - My opinion is that it's false.

One's pH are alkalinity/acid balance is dependent on which system of the autonomic nervous system
is dominant (sympathetic or parasympathetic branch). Parasympathetic controls digestion, promotes
rest and keeps the the body alkaline during the active state. Yet the sympathetic branch can amp
us up, and drives adrenal hormones and promotes acidity during the active state.

What acidifies one person will alkalize another, it depends on their state. Dr. Nickolas Gonzalez of New
York treats all his pancreatic cancer patients with about 50 grams of Pancreatic enzymes. They are
literally starved of oxygen during this kind of cancer. Enzyme and stomach acid levels are near zero
in these patients.

Stomach acid levels decline as we age, accounting for absorption problems. As stomach acid declines,
the body makes less enzymes since its stomach acid levels are low.