Re: Kirkman's Enzymaid ('s comments to Judy DeHart)

March 29, 2002

I haven't posted before, so I probably should introduce myself. My son just

turned 6 and I've been giving him enzymes for almost two years now (first

recommended by a nutritionist and then by our DAN! doctor). He had no

receptive or expressive language at age 3, but now he is no longer

" diagnosable " (not as autistic or as anything else according to our psych.,

as of about 6 months ago), although I think he exhibits a fair amount of

autistic residua and I don't consider him " recovered " (yet!). We have him

enrolled in several classes at our local community center, and last week they

had a substitute teacher who had never met him before. After the class, I

asked her how he was doing, commenting that I always worry that his autism

will show up in circumstances like that (i.e. new teacher). She said, " What

do you mean, autism? He can't be autistic--he's just like all the other

kids! " Currently, he is GFCF/Feingold, has taken (and still takes) a lot of

supplements in addition to the enzymes, and we've been chelating him since

09/01/01.

I was confused by 's comments about Kirkman's Enzymaid being tested for

DPP-IV content and finding that it contained none. As far as I can tell,

Kirkman's never claimed that Enzymaid contained DPP-IV--only their new

product, Enzymaid Complete, includes DPP-IV. The Enzymaid contains

galactose, which is supposed to increase *natural* DPP-IV production. I

copied the following from a product insert that I saved (this was from right

when the product first came out):

" The inclusion of galactose is by far the most potentially dynamic ingredient

in the Enzymaid. The rationale for inclusion of this natural substance

galactose came from the research of Mark Brudnak, Ph.D., who is credited

with coining the term 'genomeceuticals.' He recognized that the natural

substance galactose 'appears to be able to increase the expression of

Dipeptidylpeptidase IV (DPP-IV) gene. This means that adding galactose can

increase the amount of DPP-IV that is present.' "

In other words, Enzymaid contains a substance which would, theoretically,

increase the natural DPP-IV which should have already been present in the

intestine.

FYI, we used Enzymaid for a long time, then switched to Peptizyde for about 3

months, and have recently switched to Enzymaid Complete, just to see if there

was any improvement/regression as a result of the different combo of enzymes.

So far (1 week into the Complete) we've seen no changes.

- Becky B.

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