German Enzyme Research Yields Joint Pain Breakthrough
by Lane Lenard, Ph.D.
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<<Anyone who has played ice hockey or even just watched a game knows how rough
it can be. Flying across the ice at breakneck speeds, players routinely
flatten each other against the boards. They may be pummeled by a swinging
hockey stick or stung by a rock-hard puck sailing through the air at speeds in
excess of 100 miles per hour, not to mention bloodied by their opponent's
ungloved fists.
If you come out of a hockey game without at least a few bruises, you probably
spent it sitting on the bench. Bruises, contusions, torn muscles, and ruptured
ligaments are pretty much the norm for serious hockey players. The swelling,
pain, and immobility that follow such traumatic injuries not only leave the
individual player feeling uncomfortable, they can diminish his performance or
keep him out of action altogether.
So it was in an attempt to shorten the recovery time from common injuries that
the German National Hockey Team began experimenting in the early 1990s with a
substance known as Wobenzym. In addition to their usual treatments, the
players took Wobenzym capsules either immediately after an injury or
prophylactically before games. Each of 100 injuries the athletes suffered was
well-documented, and the healing process carefully and systematically
monitored with regard to several criteria. The first use of Wobenzym in
athletics was by the German Olympic team competing in Los Angeles. The coaches
and athletes found that those who were hampered by painful bruises and
swelling seemed to get back into action faster if they were taking Wobenzym.
The apparent ability of Wobenzym to reduce bruising, swelling, and pain while
improving mobility and healing was also suggested by two studies on hockey
players and skiers. Those who used the product preventatively were able to
return to their sport significantly faster after an injury than those who used
conventional and potentially dangerous nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs
(NSAIDs) like aspirin or ibuprofen.
Both the physicians and the players of the German National Hockey Team were
pleased with their results. Bruises and hematomas shrank in size faster,
swelling was less severe and resolved faster, spontaneous pain, pain on
mobility, and pain on pressure were all lower than expected, and full mobility
returned quicker. Moreover, they found that taking Wobenzym prophylactically
worked better than taking it right after an injury.
Proteolytic Enzyme Combinations
It is actually not a single substance but rather a unique, synergistic
combination of various proteolytic (protein-destroying) enzymes, or proteases.
It was developed during the 1950s by Professor Max Wolf, a Vienna-born
scientist, and his American collaborator, Dr. Helen Benitez. (The name
"Wobenzym" is simply a combination of their names and the word enzyme.) The
precise formulation has evolved over the years, but its basic ingredients
remain the same. The ingredients include the enzymes, bromelain and papain,
which are derived from plant sources; pancreatin, trypsin, and chymotrypsin,
which are extracted from animal sources; and the flavonoid rutin, which also
comes from a plant.
Although systemic enzymatic combinations, such as those developed by Wolf and
Benitez are of fairly recent origin, their healing roots reach far back into
antiquity. The leaves and fruit of the papaya tree (the source of papain) and
the fruit of the pineapple (the source of bromelain), for example, were used
therapeutically by the ancient peoples of Central and South America. The use
of an enzyme (ficin, derived from the fig) to treat a form of cancer is
described in the Bible (Second Book of Kings, Chapter 20, Verse 7). In Europe
during the Middle Ages, early forms of enzyme therapy were used topically to
heal such conditions as decubitus ulcers and warts. Beginning in the 1900s,
proteolytic enzyme extracts of pancreas (pancreatin) were used systemically
with some success for treating certain cancers.
The Modern Age of Enzymes---------
The modern age of proteolytic enzyme therapy began with the work of Max Wolf,
who is also credited with writing the first textbook on the young science of
endocrinology. The work of Wolf and Benitez with various enzyme combinations,
from the 1930s until the 1970s, was largely empiric in nature and lacked the
rigorous controls common to modern-day research. Nevertheless, they observed
positive effects of enzyme therapy in people with vascular diseases,
lymphedema, certain viral infections, and in the healing of injuries and
inflammations. This convinced them that a deficiency of proteolytic enzymes
was a primary factor in premature aging.
In his 1970 book Enzymtherapie, Dr. Wolf proposed that a disturbance of
important physiologic regulatory and feedback mechanisms lay at the heart of
most geriatric diseases-including the loss of immune function-and that the
essential equilibrium within these systems depended on the actions of various
proteolytic enzymes. When certain specific protease enzymes, derived from both
vegetable and animal sources, are administered systemically by oral, rectal or
by intravenous injection, in the proper proportions, Wolf, Benitez, and their
colleagues found they could produce extraordinary healing related to:
Reduced swelling and inflammation
Enhanced immune function