Fibrosis: the Enemy of Life.
By: Dr. William Wong, ND, PhD.

Heavy title!   

What is fibrosis?  Fibrosis can be found in many forms.  In women it can manifest as the estrogen driven diseases of Fibrocystic Breast Disease, Uterine Fibroids, Endometriosis and Ovarian Cysts.  It can also be found post operatively in the Lymphedema had after mastectomy as the fibrin clogs the lymphatic drainage channels and thickens the lymphatic fluid.   In both sexes fibrosis forms the post operative scar tissue that binds the intestines, or restricts the range of motion of a limb and joint or forms thickened scars and keloids marring cosmetic surgery. Fibrosis can develop in the arteries and forms the framework around which arterial sclerotic plaque builds.    In COPD, Emphysema, Asthmatic and Chronic Bronchitis patients fibrosis creates scar tissue as a spider web inside the lungs restricting their expansion and clogging alveolar sacs to prevent O2 transfer to the blood.  In men fibrosis grows inside the micro blood supply and spongy tissues of the penis restricting blood flow and full expansion during erection.  This is the main reason why erection size diminishes with age.

In another estrogen driven disease, Fibromyalgia, fibrosis grows on and in-between muscle bundles choking off their blood supply just as putting rubber bands around your wrist cuts off the blood supply to the hand.  Along with this the microcirculation gets clogged with fibrin plugs, which further decreases blood supply.  After a while without an adequate oxygen or blood sugar supply the effected tissue develop the intractable pain of ischemia.  Pain meds, even opiates cannot take away ischemic pain.  We know that holds true with heart attack patients and it also holds true for FMS patients.   

In all of us as we age (i.e. after 27). Fibrosis grows inside of all of our internal organs diminishing their size and with that shrinkage comes a diminution of function.  Med school anatomy teaches that this lowering of function is what ultimately leads to us dieing as the organs fail due to weakness.

All of this leads to a question: Why does all this seem to start after 27?  Good thing to ask.  At or around 27 our own production of proteolytic enzymes drops.  We make a finite amount of enzymes in a lifetime and use about half of that by 25.  (That's the reason why young folks, though they make cancer cells from the first day of life don't usually develop that or most any of the other conditions mentioned, they have an adequate supply of proteolytic enzymes to fight off fibrosis and the fibrin that coats cancer cells to protect them).  It is after our supply of proteolytic enzymes drops to be spread through the rest of our lifetime that we begin to develop the fibrosis conditions. (For you docs out there it's my contention that we can measure a pre morbid state from taking measures of proteolytic enzymes just as we can predict death within 3 days by measuring the levels of Dopamine.  Useful diagnostic tool maybe.  Nifty research tool certainly).

So if we can deal with the laying down of fibrosis as efficiently as we did as youngsters, then we would avoid or reduce much of what is trying to shorten our lives or at least make us sick or less able. (Remember how well wounds healed then with thin, strong, pliable "un bumpy" scars when you were a kid)?

Those who have read my article "The Essentials of Life and Wellness" on my totalityofbeing.com website know where I'm going to from here: The most important thing to put back into an aging body are not vitamins and minerals, not herbs, not the growth hormones but enzymes, the proteolytic enzymes.  Vitamins and minerals are more properly named co enzymes and co factors in other words they are things that help enzymes to work.  If the enzymes aren't there to begin with, then the vitamins and minerals have little to work on and little action.  That's the reason why vitamin / mineral supplementation works so well for some and does not do squat for others, they have little of the enzymes they need to work on.

If we put in some of the primary protein eating enzymes then the body will cause the "enzyme cascade" creating thousands of new enzymes from the original 4 or 5.  Everything else we do in regards to nutrition and exercise works better once we put the enzymes back into our bodies in significant amounts.

Now as regards fibrin, all proteolytic enzymes eat away at fibrin (fibrinolysis) to some degree but some are considerably stronger at that than others.  If the proteolytic enzymes you put back are also very highly fibrinolytic then the scar tissue your body has been creating WILL be taken away.  (This is a secret that plastic surgeons, internists and pulmonologists i.e. lung doctors, are learning about systemic enzymes). The fibrin that is supposed to be there is marked by the body as an endogenous protein, in other words something that is supposed to be part of your structure, but excesses in fibrin, though deposited by the body, are marked as exogenous proteins - or as something not belonging in the body. Remember excesses in fibrin equal: weak structure, (by not leaving enough space for epithelial tissue to grow through the fibrin matrix), restriction of range of motion (as regards joints and muscles) and diminution of size and function (as regards to internal organs).

That is the secret behind the enzymes ability to go after that which is extra and leave behind what is needed for structure, just as it did in wound healing when you were a kid!

A major step towards a better quality of life, higher levels of health and the attainment of wellness is the removal of excesses of fibrin from our bodies.   Let's get back to the enzyme levels we had at 18!  We'll live longer, happier, healthier and more functional lives for it!