The Enzyme Factor Review

I have been researching health as a hobby for some 40 years. I once desired to live to be the oldest person on earth but, after meeting my wife who is older than me, I changed my goal to "live a long time and die healthy" ("healthy" meaning without disease). I read a lot and have read hundreds of books on health, sports, and related topics. In fact, I lost almost 200 health-related books in Hurricane Katrina. Quite frankly, many health books leave me disappointed if I do not do a little research (e.g., by reading a review such as this). This lens is a way in which I can perhaps help others from slogging through a boring book or reading one containing incorrect information.

I like to think "out of the box" so Dr. Hiromi Shinya really appeals to me. He invented colonoscopic surgery - that technique is named for him - and he was one of several inventors of the colonoscopy procedure. Moreover, he is a wonderfully caring human being. I am not a doctor, although my grandfather in Ireland was, like Dr. Shinya, both a physician and surgeon - so maybe I do have some health-seeking gene. Another reason I continue to enjoy The Enzyme Factor is because Dr. Shinya was born in Japan, a country in which my family and I once lived. In fact, I once worked in Tokyo, where Dr. Shinya practices about 6 months a year (the other 6 months he practices in New York). In fact, he is Japan's most famous physician.

Dr. Shinya, the author (at right), is world famous. He has examined the stomach and intestines and taken the health history of 300,000 people (not a misprint!). Those people include Prime Ministers, Presidents, and celebrities, as well as hundreds of thousands of less well known people.

The front material and appendixes are wonderful, and the 4 chapters are power packed with material that is enjoyable, easy to read, and you feel like you are reading something your favorite uncle wrote, as opposed to a book written by a "superstar" medical doctor.

His basic idea is that enzymes are produced from "source enzymes" and death occurs when we run out of enzymes. In addition to a discussion of enzymes and how to get and conserve more of them, he discusses some of the most diverse and interesting subjects I have ever read in a medical-health type of book.

First published: 2006, in Japanese
Original book name: How to Live Long and Never Get Sick
Copies sold: Two million copies sold with original title
English book name: The Enzyme Factor (based on the original book)

Dr. Shina is a very humble man, despite the fact that he had been the first person in the world to perform certain medical procedures. However, his writing style is extremely readable - for all. Beyond that, his concern for mankind really comes across. His children had experienced some medical issues when young, and his wife died later on, making him really and truly reflect on the relationships between lifestyle, diet and health.

Since he practices medicine both in Japan and in the United States (about 6 months in each city, each year), he possesses an unusual wealth of wisdom but, more importantly, knows how to share it with the "average" reader. He is not into "PhD-speak." Rather, he writes in an easy-to-read manner that anyone can enjoy, breaking up each chapter into "bite size" pieces, usually a page or two each, and each piece has a sub-heading. Moreover, this author is so credible - he was in his early 70s when he wrote The Enzyme Factor and had not seen a doctor due to sickness since he was 19. He truly shares with the reader what he, himself, actually does to remain incredibly healthy.

At the beginning of The Enzyme Factor the reader can enjoy about 10 pages of text which includes a Publisher's Note, followed by Dr. Shinya's Preface and Introduction. These front sections are quite interesting and allow the reader to get to know Dr. Shinya, and see why he is world famous. For example, in his Preface, Dr. Shinya confesses that his own wife died (she had lupus) "before I knew enough to help her." In his Introduction, Dr. Shinya writes in bold capitals:

THAT KEY, THE KEY TO A LONG AND HEALTHY LIFE,
CAN BE SUMMED UP IN ONE WORD: ENZYMES

Click and drag your mouse down the gray area below for a "sneak peek" at a few interesting things from Dr. Shiny in The Enzyme Factor - but only if you really want to (I don't want to spoil the book for you, even though this list is a small fraction of the wisdom of Dr. Shinya in the book).

Note: Page numbers are from the First English Edition, Second Edition
1. Eating Yogurt daily damages the intestines (page 46) and Green Tea is not so good for your stomach (page 11)
2. The majority of diseases are caused by habit, rather than heredity (page 82)
3. It is best to eat the meat of animals with a body temperature lower than our own (page 145)
4. Antacids make your stomach worse (page 25) and your stomach cannot be too acidic (page 31)
5. Pets increasingly get diseases because pet foods today, based on modern nutrition study, ignore enzymes (page 73)
6. He suggests drinking:1-3 cups of water first thing in the morning, 2-3 cups 1 hour before lunch and 2-3 cups 1 hour before dinner (and tells the possible dangers of drinking water at various other times of day) (page 90)
7. Carnivores (meat eaters) in the wild eat only herbivores (plant eaters) (page 72)
8. Trans fatty acids (margarine contains the most) do not exist in nature - he tells patients with margarine to throw it out immediately (page 56)
9. Different types of cancer all have a connection to an animal diet (page 50) and anti-cancer drugs exhaust large numbers of Source Enzymes (page 36)
10. Research shows milk causes allergies and diabetes in children (page 44)

World renowned physician Dr. Hiromi Shinya practices what he preaches. Any reader can learn how to live healthier and longer from Dr. Shinya's wisdom in this book. I have been a "Health Nut" for 4 decades. I have learned more from him in The Enzyme Factor than from almost any other health-related book I have ever read. I love this book and I believe you will, too.