********* 9 Stars!
Price: US$ 16.07, Available worldwide on Amazon.com
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ISBN: 0895298171

Description

Reviewer: David T. Bennett from Atlanta, GA United States

Dr. Cichoke does a great job of giving the basics of enzyme therapy, that is the therapeutic value of increasing the enzyme content of your diet. The book covers enzymes in natural foods, such as amylases (starch digesters) in beet juice, as well as powerful enteric-coated enzyme pills, such as Wobe Mugos. The book is divided into multiple sections. The first 88 pages are an introductory course in enzyme types (such as amylase, lipase, pancreatin, papain, etc), the function of enzymes, as well as an encyclopedia of "enzyme helpers" such as vitamins, etc, and their individual benefits. In fact, the information is extremely useful even for those not interested in enzyme therapy, particularly the tables listing various phytochemicals and their uses.

The rest of the book is grouped by disorder, such as cancer or MS, with enzyme prescriptions for each disease. The guide also documents research on herbs, vitamins, and even more mainstream medicines. The end of the book has popular enzyme formulas, addresses of public information groups, and various enzyme therapies. If you have read "Prescription for Nutritional Healing" you will find the format of this book to be almost identical to that. The disease section is comprehensive, although often I feel as if Cichoke is stretching it a bit on some diseases, since research on enzymes and their relation to most diseases is just not available yet.

Overall this book is fascinating and in some ways it should be used as the guide for those discovering enzymes and their value in medicine and nutrition. The only complaint I have is that at times the book does not get technical enough. It just did not answer many of my questions, which I would assume are common (such as, "how much Pancreatin survives the stomach environment?" Or, "will cellulase enzymes increase the calorie content of cellulose rich meals?"). Of course, enzyme therapy is, despite starting at the turn of the century, in its infancy, and many of these answers might not even exist yet. Enzymes and their uses fascinate me, and if you are intrigued as well, this book will prove more than satisfactory.