Enzymes: The Spark of Life (Chi) and Their Role in Health and Longevity

Monday, June 02, 2008 by: Richard Stossel
Tags: digestive enzymes, health news, Natural News

(NewsTarget) Lately there have been many articles written about the importance and necessity of enzymes. That's a good thing. Many of them have shared much important and vital information. In this article, I want to cover enzymes from a different point of view. A point of view that brings their importance to an even higher level than before.

What are enzymes? Enzymes are vital proteins within the body that are necessary for all of life's functions. Without enzymes we simply could not live. All metabolism and metabolic processes that occur within the body require enzymes for them to take place. Without them, we simply would cease to function and would die pretty quickly if not immediately.

Enzymes are present in foods in their natural state, but they're rapidly destroyed at temperatures above 116 degrees Fahrenheit. It's for this reason that a raw foods diet is so healthy and why increasing the amount of raw foods that you consume is especially important in this age of dead and denatured foods. When we chop up a salad, juice fruits and vegetables, and chew our foods well, we're releasing the enzymes contained within those foods which aid in their own digestion.

This saves a lot of our own limited supplies of Chi and enzymes from having to be used up to digest this food. As mentioned, all processes that occur within the body require enzymes to occur, but on a molecular and atomic level, all such chemical reactions require energy to take place... that's where something even more important comes into play. That something is the existence and understanding of Chi (our life force) and how it comes into play.

Why is Chi so important?

As I've mentioned in many previous articles, Chi is really that unifying concept and force of the body. Since it's necessary and absolutely vital for all processes to occur in nature which includes the human body of course, it's a subject that can't be overstated or ignored. Once you understand the nature of the universe and chi itself, you'll see why learning to use and cultivate that necessary energy and element is so important to your life and especially your physical and mental health too.

In my twenty four years of Chinese gung-fu training which includes training in chi-gung for the same period of time, I've come to see more and more clearly this fact that Chi is truly the underlying substance of the universe and is the main regulator of health, fitness, strength and longevity in the human body. Having studied physics since I was a child which includes astronomy and chemistry I was somewhat skeptical about certain claims made by Chi-gung Masters regarding chi. I knew enough even before starting my martial arts training to know that it was very likely true, but still had to prove many things about it to myself. But as I was always open to learning new things, I took the words of my instructors at face value and trained hard and long in breathing, meditation and other special training methods of focusing and concentrating the chi that are used in martial arts.

More and more I came to see why so many of the ancient manuals talked about chi. It didn't matter if it was a martial arts manual, meditation, or health and healing, chi was always the main focus. After so many years of training and tons of reading, researching, as well as my own experience and that of so many others, I now see clearly why as no matter what, chi that flows through the body is the true source of our life, health, spiritual and mental well being and so much more. My goal is to help as many as possible understand this as well.

Chi and Enzymes Together

Chi is the energy of the universe and it permeates every cell in our bodies and all matter. There is research out there that is largely ignored that shows that scientists have in fact discovered some hitherto unknown energy field that they can't explain and doesn't fit in with their current explanations of matter and the nature of the universe. Experiments with water and other matter have left more questions than answers. These experiments pointed to the existence of some other force that is somehow linking up all matter together. This is the only way that the odd behaviors seen during these experiments can be explained.

Military experiments have shown that there is a direct link between a persons thoughts and moods and their DNA and that the link between the body and cells is maintained even when the DNA is separated from the person themselves. Scientists took samples of a test subjects DNA into another room and subjected the host to various images and videos and observed the responses in both the persons DNA and their test DNA that was placed in the next room. Changes in the expansion, contraction and the genes themselves were both simultaneous and instantaneous.

The DNA was now moved to several miles away and the experiment repeated with the exact same results. This was repeated several more times with identical results each time. Somehow the DNA was still in contact with the host via some as yet unknown force or energy field that science can not detect powerfully linking a persons DNA with themselves. There was no known law of physics or science that could explain how this can be. The changes occurred Instantly, FAR faster than the speed of light as there was NO delay recorded at all whatsoever. All the more proof of the existence of chi or bio-energy.

It is in this context that chi becomes linked with enzymes. Since both are vital and necessary for life. The more we waste and deplete our enzymes, most of which are created by the pancreas and liver, the more we sicken our bodies, weaken our immune system and eventually shorten our lives. Remember that all chemical reactions in nature and the body require energy to occur. This happens when an electron jumps from the orbit of one molecule to another, eventually causing new compounds to be created or destroyed. For electrons to flow, something has to push them and make them flow. This always requires some kind of energy source. In the body, Chi is that energy source and that's why its so vital to have enough chi or life force and to avoid those foods and activities that drain chi instead of preserving it and building it up.

When we live on a diet of mostly denatured and dead foods, we're causing our bodies to use up tons of enzymes in the form of stomach acids and other compounds for the act of digesting our foods. Dead foods pretty much consists of anything that is packaged and processed. If it comes in a box or package or is overly processed and cooked, it's going to be "dead" food. Why is it considered dead? Because processing and cooking, especially at high heat, destroys nearly all of the enzymes that are necessary for the food to give us more life. Instead, it drains our life and life force by using up most of our enzymes just to digest the food itself, a process which God and nature designed to occur mostly with the enzymes present in the foods themselves.

This is why juicing is such an important health regimen to get into since it extracts tons of enzymes, vitamins, minerals and more from the foods that we juice and gives us most of the beneficial elements in a concentrated natural form that most of us would not otherwise have access too. Unless you're eating tons of natural fruits and vegetables every day, juicing is an excellent option. I recommend picking up a book or two about what and how to go about juicing for optimal health. There are many good books on the market today that teach you how and where to begin. It's easy and fun... until it comes to cleaning the machine. The Chinese have known about this force and call it Chi and have spent millennia understanding it and developing techniques to make use of it too.

Toxic and Deadly Foods

I mentioned dead foods already and talked a little about what makes them dead foods. Now I want to talk about deadly or toxic foods and live foods. Briefly, deadly or toxic foods are also packaged and processed foods (candy, cookies, processed lunch meats, canned foods, frozen foods, etc), but these are foods that are made with ingredients that are known to be made with cancer/tumor/cell destroying substances in them. This, unfortunately, includes most foods in a standard grocery store today. Some ingredients on that list would include, but certainly not limited to hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils of all kinds, high fructose corn syrup (HFC), Monosodium glutamate (aka: spices, autolyzed or hydrolyzed anything, glutamic acid, yeast extract, etc.), Food colorings of all kinds (also known to cause ADHD, especially the Red food colorings like Red #40), refined sugars and salts and much more.

Live Foods

Now that we have covered dead and toxic/deadly foods, let's cover the type of foods that we all need to eat a lot more of in this day and age. These foods are live foods. What are live foods? Very simply, it's foods that are in their most natural state. Foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, sea foods and minerals such as seaweeds and the like. These foods are live because they have their living enzymes and chi present in the foods which have not been destroyed or altered by processing or by heat through cooking. These are the foods that we all need to eat on a daily basis. This is why juicing can be a great supplement to getting those live foods into our system if we don't have the time or inclination to eat them raw. Though raw is always the best, juicing can go a long way to closing that gap.

Enzyme Supplements

Taking enzyme supplements is a very important habit to get in to and something that I recommend everyone do. More than any vitamin, mineral or supplement, enzymes are the most important thing to take on a regular basis with every meal. Unless your diet is at least 50% raw foods, preferably 75%, you should always take natural plant based enzymes with every meal. These not only ensure that you're getting enough enzymes to properly digest the foods, especially if you're eating packaged and processed foods, but they also save the body from using up your chi and enzymes needed to digest your meal. This helps to ensure that your body will have enough enzymes for other processes and life functions to take place.

The draining of our enzymes and overtaxing of our organs, especially the pancreas is one of the main reasons and causes of type II diabetes, which is essentially pancreatic failure. Since the pancreas creates most of the enzymes used in the body, by creating such a demand for enzymes due to wrong foods and over eating, we place a tremendous burden on this organ, which often times can't handle the load. Modern diets consisting of dead and toxic foods, loaded with sugar in particular and refined sugar at that, place a huge load on the digestive system and the pancreas in particular. By consuming as much live foods as possible as well as periodic fasting as one is able, we can help take a great load off of our organs which in turn give us more energy, greatly increased immunity and help us feel great all the time.

Enzymes are also a vital part of the immune system. When they're not busy digesting food, they travel around the body on housecleaning duty, clearing away dead cells, destroying cancer and tumor cells, bacteria, viruses, regenerating bones, skin, blood, muscles, cells and much more. Since the very act of digestion takes most of our enzymes (upwards of eighty percent and more), you can see how important it is to not only take plant based enzyme supplements, but to eat natural, live, living foods that are fresh and raw and have enough of their own enzymes to basically digest themselves.

It is for that reason that the Chinese and especially the Taoists practice something called "The Laws of Trophology", aka –- The science of food combining. As author and martial artist Daniel Reid writes in his great book "The Tao of Health, Sex and Longevity", page 100:

"Correctly combining foods makes all the difference in the world to proper digestion and metabolism. Without complete digestion, the nutrients in even the most wholesome food cannot be fully extracted and assimilated by the body.

"Moreover, incomplete digestion and inefficient metabolism are the prime causes of fat and cholesterol accumulation in the body. A low-calorie diet of overcooked, processed and improperly combined foods will still make you fat and leave sticky deposits in your arteries, just as the wrong mix of fuels will leave carbon deposits on the spark plugs of an engine, clog the pistons, and create foul gaseous exhaust.

"On the other hand, if foods are properly combined for consumption, then regardless of how many calories or how much cholesterol they contain they will not make you fat or clog up your veins and organs, especially if at least half your daily food intake is taken raw.

"If one follows the rules of Trophology, there is no need to be a fanatic about controlling one's diet, no need to count calories, and no need to worry about cholesterol.

"Note also that there is no such thing as a food that is 100 percent protein or 100 percent carbohydrate. What counts is whether protein or carbohydrate is the major nutritional element in any particular food.

"Ideally, one should consume only one variety of food at a single sitting. A glance at nature proves this point."

Carnivorous animals never consume starchy items with their meat, but they do supplement digestion and occasionally purge their bowels by chewing on wild weeds that have medicinal properties. It has also been observed by bird watchers for centuries that birds eat bugs and worms at one time of day, seeds and berries, at another, but never both together. What makes modern man think that his digestive tract is so different from all other species in nature?

Even though traditional Chinese diet relies heavily on rice, a closer look at Chinese eating habits shows that, up until the mid-twentieth century, the rice was consumed according to the rules of Trophology.

By eating the right foods at the right time, we can greatly help ensure that our food is properly digested. Not causing conflicts in digestion and allowing foods to help digest each other and themselves will go a long way to saving our own vital stores of enzymes and our life force or chi. This will boost our immune system and increase our life span as well. It's not just about adding years to our life, but adding life to our years.

So make sure to eat enough raw and fresh foods and juices daily consisting of at least 50% of your diet and take plant based food enzymes, not pancreatic enzymes which are not the same. Plant based enzymes work to break down foods in the stomach where as pancreatic enzymes derived from animal sources work best in the small intestine. By the time the food reaches the small intestine, most of the digestive work has been done in the stomach, so this is why we want to take the plant based enzyme supplements that work in the acid medium of the stomach.

"When not busy digesting enzyme-less food in the stomach, the body's enzymes roam throughout the bloodstream and protect the entire system from all sorts of disease and toxic damage. This is one of the great benefits of fasting; the body's entire enzyme capacity devotes itself to cleaning house, digesting and eliminating dead and damaged tissues and putrefied proteins, and healing in the construction of new cells... It is a well know fact that cancerous tumors almost always develop in the tissues that are severely toxic, such as smokers' lungs, drinkers' liver and gluttons' colons. Enzymes should be consumed at the beginning of the meal so that they dissolve in the stomach by the time food arrives." - P. 73 of "The Tao of Health, Sex and Longevity" by Daniel Reid.

In this polluted and toxic world which is only getting more so by the day, we need to employ all the measures available to us to keep healthy and strong and to have the strongest possible body, mind and immune system we can. Taking 1-3 plant based enzymes with every meal and between meals is one of the single greatest ways to accomplish this goal. When you add proper whole food nutritional supplements, vegetable and fruit juicing, fasting, deep breathing, proper nutritional supplementation, meditation, physical strength training, avoiding toxins, chemical refined salts and sugars in the diet and such, you will have a solid foundation for health and longevity and will be able to withstand most if not all of the illnesses that are plaguing so many today.

It's unfortunate that we have to take such measures to protect ourselves in such a toxic world, but the rewards both now and in the future are well worth the time invested in our health. To be able to defend against the enemies that constantly seek to rob us of our health, pollute our minds and bodies and take away our God given rights to be healthy and free from disease in a world so full of darkness today, we have to invest just as much time and effort in the truth and in our health, as those people are investing in the lies that seek to deceive and enslave us and cause so much pain and suffering now and premature death tomorrow, simply so they can make an extra buck from us all.

Practice deep breathing exercises such as the eight pieces of brocade, tai chi and other hard and soft chi-gung exercises daily to ensure a sufficient and constant supply of energy in the body. Since chi is used to create enzymes and so much more, having a sufficient amount is vital to all metabolic processes and can increase the rate of cell regeneration as well. Deep breathing and other breathing exercises also helps clean out toxins and pollutants from the cell and helps to keep the blood clean which is vital to health and longevity. The more Chi and enzymes we have, the greater our cells' regeneration will be including all other processes that occur in the body. Without sufficient enzymes and sufficient chi to help power those enzymes, we simply have no life!

To see for yourself how vital enzymes are, try taking a good plant based enzyme with each meal for a week, then stop taking them and see and feel a difference in your overall digestion and energy levels. Most people will go right back to taking the enzymes once they see how much easier and better digestion is with the enzymes as opposed to without. The more we save our own stores of vital and limited enzyme production, the more we preserve our organs by taking a lot of unnecessary stress off of them which makes them stronger and healthier. This increases our overall energy and vitality, immune system and lifespan and is a simple and great way to help prevent and even overcome many illnesses should they occur. In natural healthcare, large doses of enzymes are even given to cancer patients and many other chronically ill patients since they help to dissolve and destroy cancerous and precancerous cells, tumors, viruses, bacteria and can significantly help with rebuilding the health and strength of the entire system.

About the author

Richard is a network engineer and longtime practitioner of Chinese martial arts, medicine and chi-gung for over twenty six years. Having learned many Chinese health and healing arts from old world gung-fu and healing masters and practitioners, he has helped many people to overcome their health issues and achieve their fitness goals. Through diligent study and experience he has taken this knowledge even further over the years including reading scores of books on Chinese medicine, health, chi theory, science, physics, nutrition, supplements, meditation, martial arts, and many other subjects. Utilizing the web, health and fitness videos, newsletters, articles, teachings and lectures, Rich is passionate about spreading the true knowledge of health, healing, fitness and spiritual truths. I'm proud to be writing articles for NaturalNews.com You can read many articles, hear audio interviews, and learn more about the highly praised Chinese Health and Fitness video by visiting Chinese Health and Fitness.com