The Case of the Disappearing Spider Veins

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Three years ago I was working with a fibromyalgia / lower back patient restoring her strength and ability. She had been debilitated by fibromyalgia for some 5 years prior and had strained her back while attempting to cope with life in a weakened state. For the 20 years prior, this 40 something woman had been an executive for a well-known cosmetics company. Along with the rehab and general strengthening exercises we were doing, I had her start taking Systemic Enzymes as a natural, no side effect way to relieve the inflammation causing her back pain and, to eat away at the fibrosis of her Fibromyalgia. (Fibrosis is the actual cause of the ischemic muscle pain of fibromyalgia).

Three months went by with this determined woman exercising hard, getting stronger, raising her energy levels and improving her ability to do the all-important Activities of Daily Living (ADL's). One day she bounced into the office and announced that not only is her back and Fibromyalgia pain mostly gone, but a great many of her spider veins had disappeared and her varicose veins no longer hurt! She insisted that it had to be something we were doing, either the exercise or the enzymes because nothing else was different in her life or daily routine!

After a bit of head scratching and research diving, we discovered it was mostly the enzymes that were doing the trick. Yes, large range of motion resistance exercise pushes the pooled blood out of the stretched blood vessels and can temporarily drain them. Yet, in all the decades of exercise research, no one has ever found a way of making spider veins go away. Nor have they found a way of reducing the flaccidity of veins that are already fully stretched out (varicosed) using exercise of any sort.

So what are enzymes? Enzymes are "bio-catalysts" they cause chemical reactions to happen. We have some 3000 enzymes and over 7000 enzymatic reactions in our bodies. Without enzymes we would be stone cold dead! Moreover enzymes are essential for vitamins and minerals to work. Everyone has experienced the fact that even thought a certain vitamin or mineral is supposed to do a particular thing, it does not work for everyone the same way all the time. Most of us take supplements and really can't tell whether they are working or not. One person might feel great and another not feel any good effect at all.

Vitamins and minerals are misnamed, they are really co-enzymes and co-factors. In other words, they are things that make enzymes work better; but what if you don't have much of the enzymes to begin with? Then the co-enzymes won't work! In our youth we made a slew of enzymes, that's what kept us young, strong, without pain, healing quickly and frankly looking good. After the age of 27 Physiology teaches that we enter "old age"! That's right 27! From 27 to 35 we have the fastest and steepest drop in our health, looks and ability we'll ever have in less than a decade. Why?

Enzymes or the lack of them are the trigger to aging. Dr. Max Wolf MD and Ph.D. x 7 is the man who discovered the enzyme / aging relationship while he was doing research at Columbia University in the 1930's and 40's. He found that the body makes a finite amount of enzymes in a lifetime. We use up a good many of them in our youth and so at about 27 the body slows down the release of it's protein cutting enzymes (the most important ones), and then begins to dole them out with an eyedropper instead of a tablespoon as it did before. Further, every year it produces less and less enzymes in order to stretch life out a little longer. What happens as this depletion progresses? The hydrolytic / proteolytic (protein cutting) enzymes are responsible for hundreds of things but their most important actions are:

• They are the bodies' first line of defense against inflammation. Think of when you were a kid, you walked off or shrugged off injuries that now would lay you up for a week. Enzymes.
• Enzymes control the rate and accuracy of healing. They speed healing without allowing the build up of scar tissue. Think of the wounds you healed as a kid, with their thin, strong, plyable, almost invisible scar. Now think of your wounds lately, thicker, knotty with scar tissue, not as strong and certainly not invisible!
• Though the development of fibrosis conditions such as Fibro Cystic Breast Disease, Uterine Fibroids and Endometriosis are all linked with being Estrogen Dominant, fibrosis conditions of all types cannot happen or are dramatically lessened if there are enough strong protein cutting enzymes present in the body. Here the enzymes eat away at the fibrosis the body does not need!
• They also clean the protein coating that connective tissue builds up (polymerization). Why is that important? Well if the connective tissue is under the skin and holding it up, when it develops a coating of protein, it won't hold water any more and collapses - bingo you've got a wrinkle. Restore the water holding ability of the connective tissue and the wrinkle is gone or eased considerably.
• Enzymes regulate immune function. If the system is too run down the enzymes will increase the cleaning / killing action of the white blood cells on bacteria and viruses and increase the bodies production of good things called Natural Killer cells. If the immune system is running to high and creating auto immune conditions such as MS, Lupus or Rheumatoid Arthritis, then the enzymes will down shift the immune system, control inflammation and eat the antibodies the immune system is creating to attack it's own tissue!
• Protein cutting enzymes clean the blood of all the debris the liver can't manage to clear out of the blood on "first pass" or the first time the debris goes thought the liver in the blood. This purifies the blood and makes it flow easier. Not only do they clean the blood, the enzymes also strengthen blood vessel walls and open micro circulation passages clogged with fibrin, improving circulation overall.

Even if they didn't make spider veins disappear, all those actions listed above are enough of a reason to go and supplement enzymes for the rest of your life.

The Systemic Enzymes effect on spider veins was discovered when patients in Europe, where doctors prescribe systemic enzymes, reported the clearing up of spider veins and easing of varicose vein discomfort. Studies done afterward on the effect of oral enzymes in circulatory diseases confirmed the casual findings.

On another closely related subject to spider veins - scar tissue. I had my wife Michele on a load of a leading systemic enzyme to prevent the formation of scar tissue after the emergency c-section birth of our son. To my astonishment almost a year afterward, her scar tissue development was extensive. It ran from the incision to just under her ribs, and wound into the abdomen threatening to choke off her intestines! (That danger usually requires surgery to free the bowels). Her "bubble" of spider web like scar tissue was palpable (touchable) from the outside and was even restricting her being able to lean back. I changed her to the new Vitalzym product and in 6 weeks the scar tissue was completely and totally gone - eaten away safely and painlessly! It was astounding. Since then we've heard from MD's, DC's and DO's all over the country reporting formally unheard of decreases in fibrosis and scar tissue in difficult to treat patients, all from the Vitalzym!

Recommended reading:

• Enzymes the Fountain of Life by: D. A. Lopez MD. R.M. Williams MD, and K Miehlke MD. Published by Neville Press 1994.
• The Complete Book of Enzyme Therapy by: Anthony Cichoke DC. Published by Avery 1999.
• 10 Natural Treatments You Haven't Heard of Until Now by: William Wong N.D., Ph.D. , Published by Timeless Voyager Press, 1999.
• The Best Natural Sports Medicine Book Ever by: William Wong N.D., Ph.D., Published by Timeless Voyager Press, to be released Dec. 2002.