Systemic Enzymes: The Unsung Hero in the Body

There is so much information on systemic enzymes that I'm not sure where to start. It's a very broad category... and I never realized how broad it was.

Let's start with the definition of what they are and what they are set to do in your body.

There are two types of enzymes: metabolic and digestive.  There are over 5000 metabolic enzymes within your body and 3 major types of digestive enzymes.

You start your life with the maximum amount of enzymes in your body. Remember that teenage body that was so healthy and thin and active? Not tired at all? Yeah, it's because of those enzymes. The problem is, as you age, the amount of enzymes produced starts to decrease starting in your late 20's.

Notice how a lot of "problems" with the body starts around late 20's to 30's? For example, there are many people who suddenly realize they are lactose intolerant at this point. According to Medline Plus, around 30 million adult Americans have some degree of lactose intolerance by the age of 20.

Why?

They are no longer producing enough lactase, which is the enzyme that helps you digest milk products.  Know that milk product specifically for the lactose intolerant people called Lactaid? They remove the lactose from their product that those who are intolerant cannot process because of their lack of the enzyme lactase.  It's not the milk! It's the lactose that people have problems with.  Keep this concept in mind with all intolerances: corn, milk, soy, wheat, eggs, casein, etc.

There are many other conditions that start to pop up around this time too... Celiac Disease is one of them. Celiac is not a disease. It is a genetic autoimmune condition where wheat gluten is a POISON to the body, causing incredible damage to your digestive system, malnutrition, and possible damage to organs due to lack of nutrition.

Ok, I'm going to start on a rant here, and just hear me out.

"They" say that Celiac Disease "develops" later on in life.

No. It does not.

You either have it or you don't, and you are born with it.  Your genes don't magically change in the middle of your lifetime and Celiac "suddenly" pops up. That doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

What DOES happen, is that you get older and you lose your enzyme creating abilities to be able to tolerate the gluten without physical reaction.  THIS EXPLAINS WHY IT'S SO HIDDEN and why Celiac is one of the most underdiagnosed issues, and why the Celiac Foundation has found that 1 in 133 people have this condition and more than likely, the majority of these people don't know it because they are asymptomatic!  These people are asymptomatic because their enzymes are working and being produced PROPERLY... for now.

I myself was relatively asymptomatic. No digestive issues... I just had lymphatic issues... they never figured out what caused my lymph infections. I was even hospitalized when I was young.  I also had Dermatitis Herpetiformis, which is the skin condition associated with Celiac since I was like 10.

But yet... no digestive problems... no issues with apparent malnutrition... not until I was in my 20's. My digestive issues popped up when I was 23 and I was diagnosed with IBS, without any scopes or anything having been done. Then... my skin issue flared up again when I was 27 or 28. I could NOT figure out what the hell it was... my digestive system was steadily declining in it's reliability. I suddenly gained 80lbs as my body tried to hold on to nutrients and then BLAM. Gluten was the problem... and then the subsequent Celiac diagnosis.

I lost my enzymatic capability to process gluten. Recently (this year), I lost my enzymatic capability to process milk, corn, citric acid fruits, bananas... I was in a tailspin wondering WHAT THE HELL happened and what changed. I started gaining weight again, even after being gluten free for over a year. I stopped ovulating, even though my blood work showed that I'm perfectly healthy.

I was in a constant WTF? state of mind, trying to figure out what was going on, so I went to work.

So let's go over what enzymes do.

Your body's enzymes work with nutrients to help your body properly absorb your vitamins and minerals. Enzymes by themselves do very little, as well as vitamin supplements without enzymes do very little. These three categories of nutrients work together to help your body process as well as it can. Enzymes put the vitamins and minerals to work, by spreading around the nutrition, causing the proper metabolic processes and digestive process to function properly.

What this means is, if your enzymes aren't there, your body will behave like it's broken.  This creates disease, like rheumatoid arthritis, Celiac, osteoarthritis, diabetes, infertility and many many other things.

How do we address this?

There are a number of enzyme therapy related products on the market. Most of them are digestive enzymes to address people's bloating, gas and other digestive issues.

Wobenzym offers systemic enzyme therapy. Wobenzym is a product that has been offered in Europe since the 1960's. There have been many German studies performed on the product and how it benefits the human body.

Garden of Life suggests taking Wobenzym in the suggested dosages along with Garden of Life's OmegaZyme for proper enzymatic support.

In my own review of OmegaZyme versus other digestive enzymes, this is a far superior product to others and I highly suggest it.

Unfortunately, this does not make your pancreas create more enzymes. Losing your enzyme creating capability is a normal part of aging... so you would need to take this stuff for the rest of your life if you want to avoid degenerative diseases, aging related aches and pains, and anything else.

I know I'm going to.

I have been on both of these products for the last week and a half.  I am currently in the process of the massive detox this creates, while my body uses the enzymes and my vitamin supplements to clear me out and restart my system.

An interesting note... I can eat tomatoes again without the massive digestive discomfort after only a week and a half.

Gluten Free Hodgson Mill Pizza Crust

Amazing crust. This stuff actually uses yeast and rises and tastes JUST like the real thing. The texture is JUST LIKE gluten filled crust.

The possibilities are endless with this brand. Well done.

End result? A very yummy homemade pizza... and I'm totally buying this brand again.

Other brands make a "cake" type of "non" dough that's not easy to work with. This was.

End note: My dough was cooked on a stone. I didn't push the dough down in the middle of the pie like I should have, so it ended up a bit messy... but who cares?! It's all going to the same place right??

It's been a while...

With everything that happened earlier this year, there was just WAY too much going on and I didn't have the motivation, nor the need, to express how I felt here.

I spent so much time, in January and February, recovering from the miscarriage and from my Cymbalta withdrawal.

Truly, the worst, physically and mentally, was the Cymbalta. Emotionally, it was the miscarriage.

I truly HATED getting off that drug. It is one of the worst things I've been through. Going from high to low to wild to sleepy while my brain figured itself out... it was friggin' ridiculous.

As I may have mentioned in my prior post on the HSG, my cycle had to be forced using Provera, some 41 days post miscarriage.  The next cycle, the HSG cycle, ended up being a long cycle as well. I didn't ovulate until CD27, AF showed on CD41.

And now... here I am... CD37... and still no ovulation. This is late, even for me.

This is even with an HCG TRIGGER that I took on CD14.

Nope. Body said NO. Went all Grumpy Cat on me.

Since it's so late, I have decided to start a round of progesterone therapy.  I started my Natpro cream to give my body a dose of progesterone. I feel like I may have created a cyst or two from the trigger, and the fact that I'm not ovulating is concerning.

Cool part... my bloodwork is completely clean. No problems whatsoever.

Bad part... this means they don't know what the hell is wrong with me.

So... I have started something called Wobenzym. These are systemic enzymes that are there to help your body bring it back to healthy status. Talk about a massive detox. I will post something on Wobenzym later, defining what it does and explaining some benefits. I'm still in the process of doing the full research on it.

Another good news... I am not allergic to any foods! (other than wheat of course) So any intolerances will likely be addressed by the Wobenzym. I will link to my post on Wobenzym when I post it.

I will get back in the groove of sharing information that I find on this journey that I'm forced to travel.

HSG Diaries

So after my miscarriage in early January,  I basically said, "Fuck it" to trying to conceive naturally and called a Reproductive Endocrinologist.

I was in the next day, if you can believe that. How's that for a sign?

So she set up for a bunch of bloodwork and a hysterosalpingogram, aka HSG, concerned with the number of miscarriages I have had.

Bloodwork done... she found a pelvic infection which been treated the past few days by antibiotics...

And today was the HSG.  *cue scary music*

I had read many different stories about the HSG procedure but didn't really connect to it, thinking that I'll have my own experience. I thought my tubes would be good... pain would be normal and manageable...

Let me preface this with this information before I scare the hell out of someone: I have Celiac disease and my pelvic area HATES any invasive stuff. So I'm more likely to have pain due to that. I also got slightly glutened yesterday. That adds in (very slightly) as well.

So I sit here, in pain, 10 hours post HSG, therefore my view might be skewed.

Went in... excited to find out what's going on.

I was well prepared by my RE... she told me it might hurt.

She asked me to cough... and here we go.

The catheter entering my cervix did create a bit of an automatic "jerk" reaction and then calmed. Sure, slight irritation but nothing huge.

Then the dye.

Oh. My. God.

Shoot me now.

Having that dye shoved in there... the worst cramping I have ever felt. Now, if you read my miscarriage experience, I went thru some extreme pain on January 6, causing vomiting.

This was not quite the same, but it sure as hell was close. If my miscarriage was a 10 on the scale, this was a solid 8.5, maybe 9. The "catch your breath and you better not breathe" kind of pain.

And then it disappeared. The pain disappeared so fast, within 30 seconds of a push on the syringe.

And just as I was relaxing from the shock, another shot of dye came again, and yet another shock of pain.

So painful.

So my uterus is properly shaped, and my right fallopian tube flows wonderfully.

My left tube... not so much. I know my left ovary has issues with bloodflow and I tend to ovulate from my right. So the fact that my left tube is open (NOW... christ she forced it open), but flows at like 10% the rate of my right tube.

Turns out the pain is likely from trying to force my tube open. While I appreciate the gesture,  I am a bit sore down there now.

I left, more than spotting, but not in pain within a minute of the procedure being done.

And then my ibuprofen wore off.

Coughing hurts. Haha Going number 2 hurts. (Remember I got glutened)

I'll get over it. I'm just whining. I don't feel well, and haven't for the last day... catching a cold. Likely from the antibiotics I'm on. (Remember, your health is in your gut... antibiotics kill your gut, therefore kill your immune system... I'll post on that later)

Miscarriage experience

Just for those who are searching... because I certainly was.

Miscarriage sucks. It varies in the pain category,  depending on the pregnancy. Every pregnancy changes... and this is my story.

Found out about the miscarriage Thursday.

By Friday,  the bleeding was barely there... so I drank an angelica decoction to help bring it faster, so I can just be done with it.

Saturday, there was some heavier bleeding, but nothing notable. It appeared to stop by evening. I didn't want to do another decoction to avoid any bleeding issues.

I woke up Sunday morning to my husband lying in bed, listening to music.

I noticed that I was cramping pretty heavily and felt like I might be leaking so I got up to check. It felt a lot like IBS cramps, which is usually relieved by a bowel movement. No dice.

When I got back to my bed, the contractions were not pretty. I was noticing they were pretty heavy and noting that I was likely fully miscarrying this morning.

I'm typically a real trooper when it comes to my pain, so the fact that I agreed that the cramping hurt a bit was huge.

I laid down, with the intent of trying to go back to sleep.

No deal. Had to pee again.

Got up again... and when I made my way back to the bed, the pain was debilitating.  I was surprised at how much it hurt... it's just a miscarriage for pete's sake.

I laid down and tried to focus on other things... Facebook,  pinterest... nope. The contractions were starting to get nasty, now that I was awake.

Contractions weren't decreasing at all. They were lasting for 5-10 minutes and only giving me a break of a minute between.

I kept trying to change positions to ease the pain... and finally had to get up. I walked back and forth, trying to ease the discomfort that was steadily growing... threatening to reach an unmanageable level.

Nausea started rising from the pain, and my concern for safety grew. I'm all about letting the body do its thing, but not to the point where I can't walk without vomiting. 

I asked David to get me a bowl. I knew the vomiting was coming and my bowels were insisting on emptying themselves at the same time.

I sat on the toilet... the contractions consuming me. I tried reiki to calm my nerves and stomach... I absolutely could not focus enough, so I then focused on giving in to the pain, letting my body do what it needs.

The vomiting started... creating a pushing action down below. It wasn't painful... the contractions were painful, not the pushing. I started focusing on trying to stop the vomiting... nothing was coming out... only digestive juices. I could not get it to stop.

About 5 minutes into continuous vomiting, and during a gracious break, my water broke.

Oh My God.

The relief I felt at just having that release in pressure was heavenly.

Immediately, my nausea disappeared.

At 11 weeks, there is apparently a lot for the uterus to get rid of and it was struggling to get the unready unripe cervix open, causing the massive pain.

I believe I passed the baby when the water broke... my bleeding has since slowed considerably.

I post this horrendous experience for others who are going thru the same thing. We, as mothers, are scared shitless to go through a miscarriage in the first place... I can only hope my experience tells that this kind of pain in a miscarriage is normal.

The Hopelessness of Infertility

Life just sucks sometimes.

This pregnancy that I announced in November was fatefully doomed.

I received confirmation of the miscarriage via ultrasound and blood work two days ago, after I started bleeding (like period bleeding) and my midwife couldn't find the heartbeat with the Doppler. I was to be 11 weeks along yesterday, and the baby wasn't even measuring 8 weeks.  They said that the baby likely passed within just a couple days after the last sonogram, shown below, where the heart beat was happily at 174bpm and the baby was just starting to move.  This is the final picture of my child while living.

Down the tubes goes my hopes and dreams for this little one... to wait for the next little soul to grace us with its presence, hopefully more permanently.

No more thinking about the anatomy scan that was going to be coming up soon... no more starting to think about a baby shower since this is my first.  No more daydreaming about summer birthdays since this one was due in the middle of summer.  No more dreaming about a baby girl wearing the pink tutu dress with the big bright cheeky smile inherited from her daddy.  No more dreaming about an artistic baby boy who likes to draw and play baseball.  No more thinking about this upcoming Halloween and what we would dress the baby up as.

I cry... but more on the inside than out.  The tears fall within, borne from pain of 2 years of infertility, health issues, hard research, and death.

My soul cries, knowing that this was all planned for me to experience in this life time... and yet with all the advances in medical science, we are unable to tell why women miscarry and what the exact reason was.

So now... I sit back and wait, while my body expels the tissue naturally... knowing that I created this, and I also killed it.  This is where infertility hurts the most.

Infertility strikes any woman to the core; making us feel less womanly.

The power within the woman is amazing... we have the power to create from within... and the power to kill from within.

I seek to find peace from within... and balance.  I am sad, while I sit here, bleeding both from my body and from my soul, but it won't last. I will return to the strength I once was... and to know that something so small can tear down my rock solid emotional defenses...

... is heart warming and I can't wait to try again.

The Importance of Micro-Nutrient Testing in Unexplained Infertility

Unexplained infertility is when the standard infertility testing in western (allopathic) medicine has failed to find the cause for the infertility.  By this point, the male partner has gone through sperm analysis with a clean bill of health, as well as the female partner having been checked for ovulation patterns, ovarian issues, endometriosis, hormonal issues, pelvic scarring, sometimes chromosomal DNA compatibility and sometimes a laparoscopy is done to make sure everything is clear and not blocked by scarring.

This means that the couple trying to conceive get the news from their doctor that their infertility is "unexplained" which means that with those means they have utilized up to that point, they haven't found anything.

A lot of couples I'm aware of are then consequently told they will never conceive unless they go through in-vitro or intra-uterine insemination.

This is ridiculous and absolutely not true.

Let's go back to the understanding of how the human body works.

The human body is a machine. If something major is out of balance, it can throw the rest of the body out of whack as well.  Compare this to your car: if it doesn't have gas, it's not going to move forward, is it?

Well, neither is your body.  Your body knows innately when it has enough nutrients to handle a pregnancy.  If it doesn't have enough of what it needs to create life, it won't let you... and western medicine won't be able to tell you why.

But micro-nutrient testing CAN.  Testing to see where someone is at nutritionally should be one of the first things that should be done, not only in the case of infertility, but also in the case of disease.  See this study which showed that vitamin B6 helped create pregnancies, and how vitamin C supplementation helped those with a luteal phase insufficiency.

Let's take a look at some of the micro nutrients that are tested in one major test that is done in the US.

In Spectra Cell Laboratory's Comprehensive Nutrient Panel, they test for the history (not just a static number of what it was at that moment) of where each vitamin is at.

See SpectraCell Lab's Site

Yeah, that's a lot of vitamins and fatty acids to be checking for.

With today's average American diet, the majority of us have some sort of vitamin deficiency.  One of the largest deficiencies today in the population is vitamin D.  While a vitamin D deficiency does not create infertility, a vitamin D deficiency can be a signal that there are other problems as well.

Therefore, this micro-nutrient panel should be run.  A lot of insurance companies will cover at least part of it. The way I look at it, it's WAY cheaper than paying for in-vitro or intra-uterine insemination... and you don't have to go through the hormonal crap those ladies have to go through for those procedures, where you don't even get a 100% guarantee that you will get a baby out of it.

If you get tested and you start supplementing properly (properly is key... you should see a nutritionist if you have a number of deficiencies so that you don't throw your body out of whack even more) you could get pregnant on your own, without all those procedures.

I have a friend who has been trying for a baby for 6 years now.  She writes in her own blog about her frustrations with TTC and just life in general. She has some pretty heavy duty stories.

Serenitysomedayttc.com

I met Mandy on the Babycenter Message board Actively Trying: The Next Level, which she moderates.

Ever since I got my nutrients tested, I have been trying to convince her and her hubby to get tested.  They have a serious case of unexplained infertility... everything comes out clean for them.

Yet she's not pregnant.

So I threw the information for the SpectraCell labs at her the other day, hoping to plant a seed, and hoping that they might try it before moving into IVF or IUI and spending tens of thousands for a possibility of a baby that she could still miscarry because of her lack of good nutritional status.

If she ever does and she ends up pregnant, I promise to come back because if she can get pregnant from this, ANYBODY can.