Pancreatic enzymes, digestive enzymes and cancer

1. Pancreatic Enzymes
A healthy pancreas produces about 4 litres of pancreatic juice into the duodenum each day. This juice contains pancreatic enzymes. Pancreatic enzymes are made in the pancreas and aid digestion in the gut. Thus pancreatic enzymes are digestive enzymes but, as we will see, not all digestive enzymes are produced in the pancreas.

The primary purpose of the enzymes is to aid absorption of food molecules and there are three types of pancreatic enzymes: 

    •Lipase – which breaks down fats in the gut in conjunction with bile from         the liver.

    •Amylase – which break down carbohydrates or starch.

    •Proteases - which break down protein. They can also attack and break         down parasites.

Shortages in pancreatic enzyme production can show up as diarrhoea, fatty stools like an oil slick in the loo, wind, bloating, a hard stomach, feeling full after only eating a little, gut infections and a failure to absorb vitamins, minerals and fats.

A fatty liver can lead to a fatty pancreas and cause both insulin production and digestive enzyme production blockages. Almost everybody with a cancer has a fatty liver. But you don’t have to have a cancer to develop a fatty liver. Alcohol causes fatty liver in about 20% of adults. Other causes are linked with being overweight and obesity. Drugs like aspirin, tamoxifen and steroids are also implicated.

A loss of commensal bacteria in the gut can cause a build-up of triglycerides in the blood and also lead to a fatty liver. Such a loss can be caused by drugs – particularly proton pump inhibitors and antibiotics.

Two UK Professors Mike Lean and Roy Taylor have succeeded in defatting the pancreas by defatting the liver. This restores a healthy pancreas and full insulin production reversing diabetes.

Finally, people with pancreatic cancer or pancreatic disease would likely have a shortage of pancreatic enzymes.

Perhaps the most well-known Doctor using pancreatic enzymes to treat cancer was the late Dr. Nicholas Gonzalez. He believed that pancreatic enzymes had anti-tumour effects and could correct cancer cells. The work developed from a Mancunian Dr. John Breard who, when working as an embryologist in Scotland, noted that the foetus was a rapidly dividing mass of stem cells for 52 days after which point, these rapidly dividing cells ‘normalised’ and took form. He also noted at that time, the foetus had pancreatic enzymes and thought this odd as all the ‘food’ the foetus took in was pre-digested by mother. Beard hypothesised that the pancreatic enzymes were therefore doing a different job – that of correcting, or normalising stem cells into a pattern of controlled cells division and differentiation into kidney cells, liver cells, gut cells etc.

This belief – that pancreatic enzymes could calm or normalize cancer cells, has a growing following in the USA.
Go to: Treating cancer with pancreatic enzymes, by Dr. Nicholas Gonzalez

But other ‘anti-cancer’ effects are less direct. 

Research has shown that people who have high triglyceride levels in the blood stream have more metastases and lowered survival.

Poor sugar control also starts in the gut, where a Clostridium strain is now known to bind to lignans and take excess sugar out of the gut. This bacterium is lacking in certain cancer patients – like those with colorectal cancer for example. Poor sugar control also extends to illnesses such as obesity and type-2 diabetes.

There are other sources of digestive enzymes apart from pancreatic enzymes. Basically anything that breaks down fats, carbohydrates or proteins into smaller, more easily absorbable molecules is a digestive enzyme. So, certain enzymes found in fruits and vegetables can also help – for example papain (papaya proteinase) and bromelain from papaya and pineapple.

It’s a complex process. For example, you need an acid gut for optimum breakdown of proteins – and this is normally provided in a healthy person by strains of Lactobacillus bacteria, known as Lactic Acid Bacteria or LABs. Stress, inflammation, binge drinking, smoking and poor diet containing little whole food and natural soluble fibre will hinder this.

Obviously then a Rainbow Diet, helpful probiotics, herbs which kill yeasts and parasites can all work with digestive enzymes to make your digestion work again.

You should always take pancreatic and digestive enzymes with food.