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Podcast 479: Enzymes are Catalysts of Life

Today, Martin is joined by Mike Kramarczyk the CEO of HCP Formulas to delve into the fascinating world of enzymes. These remarkable biological catalysts play a crucial role in accelerating chemical reactions within our bodies, all without being consumed in the process. By doing so, enzymes ensure that essential metabolic processes occur swiftly and efficiently, keeping us alive and thriving.

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MARTIN: Hi everyone. This is Martin Pytela for Life Enthusiast Podcast. And today with me is Mike Kramarczyk. He is with HCP Supplements, our favorite enzyme supplement company. Mike, would you take two minutes to tell your personal history? How did you get into enzymes?

MIKE It all started with hearing a decent sized handful of end users telling me about all these different experiences they had with systemic enzymes. That’s ground zero.

MARTIN: All right. And so that’s many years ago now, right?

MIKE: Oh, 22 years ago.

MARTIN: So you have taken classes, you have gone to,

MIKE: Oh, oh, yes.

MARTIN: You studied it. You now know enzymes backwards probably, right?

MIKE: I like to think so. I definitely don’t know everything. I don’t know. Pretend to, but it does take quite a bit to stump me when it comes to enzymes.

MARTIN: Well, so let’s just unpack it. Why do people need to take enzymes?

MIKE: That’s an awesome question and that actually goes all the way back to when we’re born. The reason why people need to take systemic enzymes, not digestive enzymes. Digestive enzymes, you take them with food, they release in the stomach and they get the whole digestive process a head start. Systemic enzymes are taken away from food and the intent is to keep them intact until they have a chance to get into your bloodstream and that’s when they start bringing with them an entirely different set of benefits.

As far as why people should take enzymes, systemic enzymes specifically, that reason totally goes back to our birth. When we are born, we are born with this massive supply of enzymes within us inherently. And throughout our entire childhood, our body is not shy about tapping into that supply and using them, and it uses them by the truckload. And that’s why when we’re five and 10 and 15 years old, we run around, we trip, we fall, we hurt ourselves, all we did was get right back up and keep doing whatever it was that hurt us in the first place. But you might notice when we’re 40 or 50 or 60 years old, it just isn’t quite the same way. And the entire difference is enzymes.

The reason why there’s such a huge gap between those two situations is because we go through a lot of different changes in our life. And one of the biggest periods of changes in our late 20s, like 28, 29, maybe 30 years old. A lot of big changes take place at that point. Our aging process kicks into high gear at that point. But also too, our bodies take inventory. And our body basically says, hey, if we keep using these enzymes at the rate that we did through our youth we’re not gonna have any left when we get to 40 or 50 or 60 years old. So instead of using them by the truckload, it starts using them by the spoonful. And that’s why when we get older, pain is more debilitating, recovery times are longer, scars and more visible. It’s all because of enzymes.

So when you supplement with systemic enzymes, you’re putting a huge supply back in play. And our bodies quickly adapt to that and say, hey, wow, now you look at all these enzymes that we’ve got right now, but there’s more where that came from. And so our body starts to feel more free to use them again in a similar manner to the way it did when we were younger. And that’s why they work so well for pain and inflammation and arthritis and scar tissue and so on.

MARTIN: Okay, so I hear you say, be regular, take it on a regular sustained basis because your body gets used to the idea that this supply will continue, right?

MIKE: Yes. In fact, that’s why for a long time, and this is years ago, enzymes kind of got a bad rap because you had to take a lot of them and you had to take them three times a day. And you had to do it on an empty stomach.

Three times a day on an empty stomach is pretty tough for a lot of people. And a lot of formulas, even decent blends that are out there are still that way, where you do have to take them three times a day, away from food. There’s been certain developments, a lot of technologies and certainly different enzyme companies that have come into the world since then, where you can get better blends, more complete formulas, and certainly more potent ingredients. And in the case of some companies, especially ours, some really remarkable delivery systems where you don’t have to take a handful at a time. And instead of doing it three times a day, now it’s twice a day.

MARTIN: Okay, so talk about that, the delivery systems. How can they differ?

MIKE: Oh, well, like the most common one that you see, sadly, there actually are companies out there that have systemic enzymes that don’t have any kind of protection of any kind. And those are not systemic enzymes. Those enzymes are not going to get where they need to go. Most companies use some type of an enteric coating to protect their product. And enteric coatings work, there’s no question. They do work, they do keep the product intact. They just keep the enzymes viable while they travel through the lower acid levels of an empty stomach, get into the small intestine and allow them to get into the bloodstream.

MARTIN: So this would have to be some sort of a specialized capsule, right?

MIKE: Yes. But with those coatings, yeah. So those coatings that a lot of companies do use, now you’re talking about phthalates and plasticizers and solvents and acrylics and GMO corn proteins and a lot of things that a lot of people don’t wanna take anymore. And we didn’t want those things in our products. So from day one, we went to work on developing our own capsule. We call it an acid defense capsule. And it is a non-GMO plant-based cellulose capsule just like any other veggie cap you might find in some other products. What makes ours different, though, we’re using the same forms, the same molds, the same machines to make those capsules. But we’re putting a whole lot more pressure behind the material going into those forms. So we’re packing more of that into the same small space, which gives our capsule more resilience, more strength to stay intact for a longer period of time.

MARTIN: Right. So it takes longer for the acid to actually break it down, so it doesn’t.

MIKE: Exactly. But what’s really cool about it is it actually gives us the ability to dictate when that capsule is going to release. And we did the research. The average person passes a capsule through an empty stomach in about 21 to 26 minutes. So we engineered our capsule to stay intact for that amount of time, plus a small cushion to make sure that the capsule does get through the stomach completely, but that it does release in those first 12 inches of the small intestine. That’s called your duodenum and that’s where you’re going to have the highest chance of absorption of almost anything you put in your body.

MARTIN: Right. I guess that’s because the pancreatic duct is in that area too, right? The body already has designs for that technology.

MIKE: Exactly. Correct.

MARTIN: Yeah. Okay. So that’s actually really important, right? Knowing that the supplier has thought it through and has the capsule that will hold it together long enough, but not too long.

MIKE: And then it is very important. It is, in fact, it’s critical. But also, too, it really benefits the end user, not just because they’re actually getting more of the enzymes that they’re taking. But also, when you start talking about these coatings and other delivery systems, especially with tablets, yes, it does stay intact as it gets to the small intestine. But it continues traveling through the small intestine, eventually the coating breaks down. Eventually the capsule or tablet breaks down. Eventually the enzymes release and whatever hasn’t died from exposure in that really harsh environment will get into the bloodstream. When you’re releasing a more concentrated blend, a more complete blend of enzymes into the spot of the body where you have the highest chance of absorption and the least amount of exposure, it’s a win-win for everybody. And that’s why our dosing is so much lower than the vast majority of our competitors.

You don’t have to take handfuls at a time of Fibrenza. I mean, real world dosing, and this isn’t just a good testimonial that we heard once, the vast majority of our practitioners, mild to moderate conditions are just two capsules, two times a day, empty stomach. More moderate, severe, more chronic conditions tend to be three capsules, two times a day, empty stomach.

MARTIN: Right on.

MIKE: So it makes it much easier to take.

MARTIN: Yeah, that’s great. Yeah, not only easier to take, but it’s also not so bad on the pocket.

MIKE: Right. Oh yeah. There’s a huge value statement as far as value goes. Huge value statement. Because many of our competitors have larger cap count bottles than we do at a higher price point than ours is. But because their dosing is so much higher, it tends to be still a 30 day supply or maybe a 40 day supply. With ours, yes, we only had our large size of the 240 count bottle, but because our dosing is so much lower than most everybody else, that’s a six to eight week supply with real dosing, six to eight weeks out of each bottle at a lower price point. So a huge value statement for the end user.

MARTIN: Let me have you talk a bit about what the enzymes actually do in the body.

MIKE: Basically, the short version is it comes down to proteins. When you’re looking at a digestive blend of enzymes, you’re going to see enzymes for fats and starches and carbs and sugars and proteins and so on. When you look at a systemic enzyme blend, the vast majority of those enzymes are what’s called proteolytic or protein-eating enzymes. And that’s really the whole entire key as to how they work and how they do what they do. Because in our bodies, every single protein-based cell in our bodies is tagged in one of two ways. They’re either an endogenous protein, meaning they belong, they’re supposed to be there, they’re necessary, or they’re an exogenous protein, meaning they don’t belong, they’re unnecessary, redundant, maybe even harmful.

Your body will only disperse the enzymes to go after and break down those proteins that have been tagged as exogenous, the ones that don’t belong. And I say your body because the enzymes themselves when they get into your bloodstream they know nothing, they don’t have a clue of what to do, they’re literally dumb.

MARTIN: All right, so the enzyme is sort of like the bullet and the immune system has to tag the targets right.

MIKE: Exactly. That’s exactly right. And so your body tags all these proteins within it in one way or the other and disperses the enzymes to go after and break down those things that don’t belong. A great example is with scar tissue, for example.

MARTIN: Yeah, fibrosis or fibrin, right?

MIKE: Yeah, fibrosis certainly, but you cut your arm open immediately after that wound occurs, our healing mechanisms start kicking in. Little tracks of fibrous tissue are gonna track down and start the process of healing that wound. And those fibrous tracks of tissue are going to build and build and eventually form the scar that you see. You can take all the enzymes in the world and it’ll eat up any of the excess scar tissue that’s on the outside. It’ll certainly devour any adhesions or internal scar tissue that may have formed underneath, but it will never eat up so much scar tissue that it reopens that wound.

And that’s because your body has specifically tagged those cells as necessary to keep that wound healed. That’s the best way I know to explain it. Another good example is with fibroids for women. Uterine fibroids, those are protein-based matter. The uterus itself is protein-based matter. You can take all the enzymes in the world. Certainly the enzymes are not going to attack the uterus. They will go after the fibroid within it.

MARTIN: Yeah. I notice it, I have a scar on my hand from my childhood, and it used to be very noticeable. And now I’m really having to struggle to find it, because I’ve been using enzymes for some years now.

MIKE: Yeah, yeah, it’s been on it for a while.

MARTIN: It has really taken it away. I had one lady call me and tell me, listen, you should be selling this for stretch mark removal. She took it because of a fibroid. She did a three month run at a higher dose and came back saying, well, the fibroids gone and all my stretch marks are gone.

MIKE: Nice, we’ll take that.

MARTIN: Yeah, right? I think that’s possible.

MIKE: It’s exactly right.

MARTIN; Yeah. Okay, so these enzymes take away all the hardening, stiffening, binding tissues, right? So…

MIKE: Yeah, any fiber, any excess fibrous tissues, scar tissue, fibrosis, any of that. And that’s again, wherever it may be, whether it’s inside the lungs with pulmonary fibrosis or inside the uterus with endometriosis. I mean, even if it’s something as simple as adhesions from some surgery you had two or six or eight years ago or whatever, it can target that.  And I mean, it works really well for that. If it’s not in the top three success stories that we hear about here, I would say it’s easily within the top five.

MARTIN: Right on. And so when it comes to stiffening of tissues, like stiffening of muscles or binding of things, is that also helpful for that? Like flexibility for a gymnast kind of thing?

MIKE: There’s a few different things that can cause that. Lactic acid build-up in the muscle tissues can contribute to that. The enzymes in the spirit of full disclosure and honesty, I’m not going to do very much for lactic acid buildup, but anything as far as any tissue damage to the muscle tissues itself, that’s gonna be healed with some type of fibrous matter, whether usually scar tissue of some sort.

MARTIN: Yeah, I’m thinking of the overuse injuries, right?

MIKE: Yeah, okay. So yeah, tears and things like that, absolutely, yes. But there’s also additional benefit that comes to the table. So yes, you’re targeting those those harder tissues that are forming to keep to heal those areas, but you’re also talking about a huge inflammatory response and systemic enzymes are inherently anti-inflammatory. If you take, like you look at pain, for example, you’re not going to have pain without inflammation. It’s impossible. They go hand in hand. So, you reduce one, you’re going to reduce the other. And so if you boil inflammation, if you boil pain down to ground zero, you have inflammation and at the bottom of inflammation, the whole start of it starts with these, they call them circulatory immune complexes and I don’t want to lose anybody with,

MARTIN: Well, that’s quite all right. You know, this audience is quite capable of following a complex thought.

MIKE: But yeah, so it starts with circulatory immune complexes and these CICs, if you will, what ends up happening when a trauma occurs or when an injury occurs, whatever the case may be, those CICs, they replicate, they replicate and they replicate and they become more and more active and they cause inflammation to occur so that we get a pain signal that says we need to take care of this. The problem is when we get older and our enzyme supplies are lower, those CICs are free to continue that process over and over and over again, not quite indefinitely, but for a very long period of time. And so that inflammation lingers and lingers and the pain that comes with that lingers as well. So when you’re taking the enzymes, it slows that, or herbs I should say, that process. And so yes, you get that initial pain signal, but it’s not gonna be a three or 10 or 20 day thing.

The enzymes target that the source of the inflammation, breaking down those extra protein cells that are causing that inflammation, the inflammation gets reduced, the pain gets reduced with it, and once you get that inflammation out of those tissues, now they’re a whole lot more apt to heal themselves.

MARTIN: Right, and of course when you extrapolate what you just said, that really goes to just about every chronic inflammatory illness. Whether it’s in the circulatory system or in the skeletal, muscular, or muscular skeletal, or whether it’s in organs, like you can have inflamed liver and so on, right?

MIKE: Yep, exactly right.

MARTIN: Yeah, okay. So I guess what we should try and explain is, well, how specifically is Fibrenza put together that is making it so attractive? I mean, there are some features, like there’s a certain palette of enzymes and we have the concerns of efficacy and price. And how does it work together, right?

MIKE: Yeah, no, absolutely. I will absolutely with all the confidence in the world say that Fibrenza is by far the most complete blend of enzymes that exists, period. Absolutely. There’s two basic camps out there and both of them have some merit. There’s your plant-based enzyme camp and your animal-based enzyme camp. So you have enzymes out there in the plant-based world, like serrapeptase, for example. Serrapeptase is a tremendous enzyme. It’s very, very potent and it works really well for a whole lot of people. And then you have in the animal side camp, you have your enzymes like trypsin or chymotrypsin.

Again, very, very potent enzymes and they work really well for a lot of people too. But what so many practitioners that I’ve worked with over the years have found is they’ll recommend one type or the other to this person or that person. And some people respond amazingly well, but some people don’t respond at all. And the reason why that’s so hit or miss is because we’re all different. We all have different metabolisms, different blood types, different pH ranges, certainly.

which are going to have a huge impact on how well a person is going to assimilate and utilize an animal based enzyme over a plant one and vice versa. And that is really where Fibrenza shines. Because Fibrenza is the only systemic enzyme on the market that’s taken the most potent enzymes available from both sources and combined them. You will not find a single other product out there that has trypsin and chymotrypsin as well as serrapeptase, nattokinase.

Ours is the only one that includes superoxide dismutase, which is not just a really awesome enzyme, but a phenomenal antioxidant. And ours is also the only one that includes an enzyme called seaprose. We’re really, really proud of that one because seaprose is kind of the king of the hill when it comes to systemic enzymes. In fact, there’s even a study that was published that compares seaprose side by side with serrapeptase with the end result essentially being serrapeptase is good, but it’s almost as good as seaprose. So it brings with it additional potency than even serrapeptase, but the nice thing too is serrapeptase is a little bit fragile when it comes to the environment of the GI tract. And seaprose  actually is more durable in that environment. So it’s even slightly stronger than serrapeptase and more durable. So, we’re taking this more complete formula that has the best of both worlds to take that hit or miss benefit out of the equation because there’s something for every metabolism, every blood type, every pH range to respond to. Seaprose is kind of the top enzyme in our formula, as far as potency goes.

MARTIN: All right, cool. So some of the questions I get asked is, well, what if I want to be a vegan? I guess you have to take your religious decisions and base it on that, right?

MIKE: Absolutely. And I mean, like I said, there’s some merit to plant-based products. But even if you really want to get into the whole vegetarian vegan thing, like even serrapeptase, if you go back right around 35, 45 years ago, serrapeptase itself was actually harvested from the excretions, the silkworm excretion that they used to slice away the cocoon they’re trying to get out of.

So it was actually harvested from silkworms from ground zero. Yes. Now nobody’s harvesting silkworms anymore. In fact, serrapeptase, the vast majority if not every company that I’m aware of, is actually culturing it. So it is a cultured product, not, like I said, there’s nobody harvesting silkworms.

MARTIN: Okay. And when it comes to the animal ones, they are from animal parts or are they grown?

MIKE: Well, they’re pancreatic enzymes, their enzymes extracted from animals.

MARTIN: So that means butcher shop, pancreas collected and processed.

MIKE: Yeah, like ours are our ours are bovine coming from New Zealand. So it’s as good a source as we can possibly secure.

MARTIN:  Sorry, I didn’t hear you clearly, it comes from?

MIKE: You said ours are bovine from New Zealand.

MARTIN: So that’s bovine New Zealand. So not pork, it’s a cow.

MIKE: Bovine, yeah.

MARTIN: Yeah. Great. Okay, what else could we think of saying? What did I not ask you?

MIKE: Well, the one thing I will touch on, and it’s a big deal to us, because I’m not aware of any other company that does it. I just touched on the reliability of the enzymes and why it’s a more complete formula and it takes that hit or miss benefit out of the equation. It’s important, I think it’s important to relay and convey the message that, because of the reliability, because of the potency, because of how complete the formula is, and certainly because of the delivery system,  it is also the only guaranteed systemic enzyme in the market that I’m aware of. Don’t get me wrong, everybody guarantees freshness and everybody guarantees potency, and that’s great, and we do too, but we guarantee benefit. And I think that’s a bold statement, not just because, like I said, I think we’re the only ones that do.

But I think it’s a bold statement because when you think about a lot of the benefits of systemic enzymes, pain, inflammation, arthritis, scar tissue, fibromyalgia, uterine fibroids, fibrocystic breasts, endometriosis, tons of cardiovascular benefits, a lot of those benefits are purely subjective benefits. It’s entirely up to the end user. Do I feel better or don’t I?

We guarantee that you will feel better. You know what I’m saying? I mean, there’s some things that you can quantify. Like if you, a great example, if you’ve never taken systemic enzymes before, and you look at your blood under a dark field microscope, you’re going to see two things in well north of 80% of people. You’re gonna see a spiderweb, like a white spiderweb going through the blood, and that’s excess fibrin. And you’ll see a lot of the blood cells kind of all clumped up and stuck together. And that’s from a protein film that forms around it.

And that is present in well north of 80% of people. And I’m not exaggerating at all. You take two or three capsules of Fibrenza and within 45 to 60 minutes of that first dose, assuming it’s an empty stomach, within 45 to 60 minutes of that, 90 plus percent of that excess fibrin will be gone and 90 plus percent of those blood cells will be floating freely from each other. So as far as photographic picture-proof evidence that it’s doing something. Yes, we do have that. I have numerous pictures of it. So yes, there is plenty of evidence that’s benefiting the body, but most people just care about, do I feel better or don’t I? And we’ve got that too.

MARTIN: That’s fantastic. Mike, I’d like to ask you about this other product that you have, Abzorb. I think that’s focusing more on the digestive tract than on the systemic. Is that right?

MIKE: Yes, but it’s not a, it’s a blend of digestive enzymes. That’s not a digestive enzyme product, if that makes sense.

MARTIN: To me. Yes.

MIKE: It is a front to back, top to bottom. You still take it away from food, but it is a top to bottom front to back GI wellness product. It cleanses the gut. It hydrates the gut.

It even, the vast majority of people are far more acidic than they should be. It actually contributes a tiny bit to helping kind of alkalize the gut. It doesn’t make it alkaline, but it just calms down the acidity, if you will. And then after that, it’s followed up with a bunch of probiotics, plus a prebiotic, to help with that good bacteria in play. It’s an awesome, awesome product. The whole design of it is absolutely fantastic and it’s easy to take. It’s two capsules once a day, empty stomach. Each bottle is a 150 day supply. I think that’s right, two and a half months. Or no, sorry. It’s a two and a half month supply. It’s 150 count bottle, two and a half month supply. Sorry about that. But it works really, really well. And I absolutely emphatically believe that it is step number one for anybody that makes that decision, I want to invest in my health. I want to eat the right foods. I want to take the right supplements. Where do I start? Abzorb is absolutely that starting point. It helps undo a lot of the things that you’ve done to your body. It helps prepare your body to accept everything you’re about to spend your money investing in your time, investing your, your, again, financial investment in supplements and diets, choosing the right foods and things like that. You’re going to make that investment in yourself and it’s going to prepare your body to accept it.

MARTIN: Alright.

MIKE: In fact there’s a lady that it’s like a little tiny story, in nowhere ville Missouri. I always tell this story because it’s awesome. She has a little sign on her window right in her front door says everything beyond this point will do more for you if you take Abzorb, and then there’s a picture of a bottle of Abzorb. And that’s totally true because everything else in that store is going to bring more to the table for the person taking it if they start there.

MARTIN: Alright. So this is not just for the sick person. This is for the person who just realizes, well, the health begins in the gut. And I’m going to fine tune or prep up my gut for the best absorption.

MIKE: Yeah, that’s exactly right.

MARTIN: So, you named it well then, Abzorb.

MIKE: Yep, we spelled it with Z. So it’s a little different. But yes, it is definitely named well. Appropriately. And basically what it comes down to is so you have your diet and your lifestyle and all that stuff and that’s great. And whatever you enjoy, you do you.

But if you’re not making really well thought out decisions and you don’t have to be a saint and you don’t need to run marathons every day and you don’t need to be vegan, but not so good decisions have not so good consequences. And so years of a less than desirable lifestyle are gonna leave your GI tract, your intestines are lined with these little fingers called villi.

And those villi, they’re supposed to stand up on end and they’re supposed to grab these nutrients and they’re supposed to pull them up into the bloodstream. And that’s absorption right there. That’s how that takes place. And what happens is a less than desirable lifestyle and diet are gonna start laying down, weighing down those villi and they’re gonna start laying down flat. They’re gonna be pulling less nutrients out of the food that we’re eating, certainly less out of the supplementation that we’re putting into play and they’re going to get kind of caked over by all this sludge and gunk and bile. Abzorb is going to come in with these enzymes and break down that sludge and gunk and bile and get them standing back on end like they’re supposed to. And that gives you capability to absorb a whole lot more just by itself. But then you bring other things to the table like addressing the more than likely an overly acidic environment, bring a little hydration into play and certainly probiotics with a prebiotic, it’s a real complete gut health product. And the testimonials that we get on that product, there’s no rhyme or reason to them. They’re all over the map. Oh, my vision’s improving. Oh, I have better, more deep and restful sleep. I have better cognitive function. I had one lady tell me that her hair has never felt better in her life. Maybe Abzorb was the mechanism, but Abzorb does nothing for hair, I promise.

MARTIN: Well, in your case, right? We have not found the missing link, right? The point with the Abzorb is that it makes absorption improved. So,

MIKE: But that was my point is there’s no rhyme or reason to the testimonials that we get. And a lot of people get attributed to Abzorb. But the reality is Abzorb was the mechanism and that’s it. These people were doing all these different things all along. It’s just they’re just now realizing them because they’re actually getting more of what they’ve been putting into their bodies this whole time. So they were taking vitamin K, they were taking their fish oil, they were taking their zinc, they were doing their B complex, they were doing all these different things but their body wasn’t, was realizing only a fraction of everything they were putting in. And now that their bodies are realizing all these different things they’ve been doing, now they’re seeing all these different benefits that they started to try and realize years ago.

MARTIN: Yep. That is very good. So it really is an investment that has a lot of leverage. It’s a multiplying effect, right?

MIKE: Certainly.

MARTIN: Because when you take this, you’ll get much more out of everything else you do.

MIKE: That’s exactly right. And there’s different ways to do it. Like, and I have actually both of them in my own family. My mother, she loves Abzorb and she swears by, she’s been on it for years and she never goes a day without it. My father on the other hand, he is substantially less interested in taking pills. He’s not a fan. But he sees some merit to certain things. And so with Abzorb, they’ll take a whole bottle and go through two, two and a half months with it. But then he won’t touch it again for four, six, seven months. Then he’ll get another bottle and go through the bottle and then he won’t touch it for four, six, seven months. And so people do it differently. Like I said, my mom just loves how she feels on it. So she sticks to it every single day. But even doing it as my father does, there is some merit to them. I mean, you live your life and you try and do the right things right. And you make a few good decisions here and there. And the benefits can be lasting, not indefinitely, but last you a while where you get back on it again. You know what I mean?

MARTIN: Yeah, well, I want quality of life. We started with talking about youth and enzyme levels are associated.

MIKE: Totally.

MARTIN: So the reverse is also true. Enzyme levels will help me function at a more youthful manner. So I do want to up my enzyme level in my latter years because I want to live longer with the good level of enzymes. So that will mean that however, however many days I have left, I want to leave them mobile, flexible and able to wipe my own whatever rather than stuck in a wheelchair drilling.

MIKE: Oh, certainly.

MARTIN: To end. Right.

MIKE: Certainly. There’s a sentence I heard, I wish I could remember who said it to me, but she said, if you don’t take care of your body for the first half of your life, how do you expect it to take care of you for the second half of your life? And I think that’s well said.

MARTIN: Yeah, well said. And the enzymes are one of those things that you need to do.

MIKE: I think they’re absolutely critical. Absolutely.

MARTIN: Besides hydration and exercise and not filling your body with toxins.

MIKE: Oh, certainly.

MARTIN: It will be right there in the top five.

MIKE: Yeah.

MARTIN: Okay. Mike, there’s one other product that you guys make. It’s called LipiCept and it’s totally different from the others, right? The purpose is different. What would you like to talk about it for a bit anyway?

MIKE: Certainly. It is an absolute monster for people with cholesterol issues. It is an absolute monster. It’s incredibly reliable. It works every single time. And the entire design of the product was to not have side effects. Zero side effects. No interactions, no contraindications with anything. Even if you’re currently on a statin, you can take this right alongside it and it’s not going to interact in any way.

MARTIN: Well, let me let me butt in with this. With statins, you’re actually blocking creation of cholesterol. Which is actually detrimental. I mean, I know that people on statin get joint pain and they become stupid. They become,

MIKE: Diabetic. I’ve heard liver failure. I’ve heard diabetes. I have heard it’s a litany of different things that they can go south.

MARTIN: So how is this not going to cause over reduction of cholesterol?

MIKE: All right, so this is the best part about it. So one of them, well, first of all, it’s important to recognize cholesterol starts and ends in the liver, period. And the whole premise behind the statin is to suppress the liver’s production of cholesterol as you just touched on. Suppress one of the most efficient processes your body has, of course there’s going to be side effects.

LipiCept does not work that way. Instead, LipiCept totally trusts the fact that generally speaking the liver knows what it’s doing. And instead focuses solely on how the liver accepts the cholesterol that we put in through our diets, the way that the liver processes and synthesizes that cholesterol. And then most importantly, the way it redistributes that cholesterol back into the body, making sure it’s the good cholesterol that goes in and the bad cholesterol that goes out with our waste. And that is the entire start to finish of how the product works. And that’s why there’s no side effects because it’s not trying to hinder something the liver’s fully capable of doing. And like I said, the biggest thing too is blocking the pathways that bad cholesterol gets absorbed back into our bodies. It blocks those pathways so that with nowhere else to go, the bad cholesterol can’t be absorbed and it ends up going out with the waste. Period. That’s the entire functionality of it.

MARTIN: So I guess the final effect will be that the HDL will remain and the LDL will get lower?

MIKE: LDL lowers, HDL actually does tend to go up, not as pronounced as the LDL drops. We don’t sell direct to end users here. But with this product, we have gotten more testimonials than any of our other products combined. And it’s always people sending us their before and after blood work. And I mean, the worst results that we’ve had sent to us was a 19% drop in LDL in 90 days. That’s the worst that we’ve seen.

MARTIN: And typical would be what?

MIKE: Well, the best that we’ve seen is 40%. So if we’re taking averages, then you’re looking at a 30% drop. But I don’t know that I would call that.

MARTIN: I feel like that’s a median, not an average.

MIKE: Yeah, I don’t know that I would call that a reliable average.

MARTIN: All right.

MIKE: But yeah, 19 to 40% is what we’ve seen from everything that’s been sent into us. The product is incredibly reliable. I mentioned that we guarantee our products earlier. This product is no different. And with this product, I mean, like with Fibrenza, we push our guarantee very hard and our return rate is less than half of 1% for 12 years running. We’ll take that all day long. With Lipicept, I think we’ve had three returns in seven years and I think 14 or so thousand bottles out there. I think we’ve had three bottles returned. And one of those in the spirit of full disclosure, one of those bottles actually wasn’t even open.

MARTIN: Well,

MIKE: But we still counted any. We still counted it.

MARTIN: All right. Awesome. Well, I think that pretty much does it for us for today. Thank you very much, Michael. It’s been much appreciated. I really like getting educated and I really love sharing it with our audience.

MIKE: I love being here and I can do this anytime you like.

MARTIN: That’s great. This has been Mike Kramarczyk from HCP Supplements and I’m Martin Pytela at Life-Enthusiast.com. Thank you for being with us today.

MIKE: Thank you.