Expert Discussion with Jerry Hickey, Ph.: Catalase Hx
Written By Jerry Hickey, Ph.
Jerry Hickey is a pharmacist and radio personality and fills the esteemed role of Scientific Director and President of Invite Health. He has spent his professional life analyzing nutritional information and medical studies with the aim of creating the highest quality and most natural nutraceuticals for user’s maximum health benefits. Here, Jerry speaks about the benefits of Catalase…
You’d know you need catalase if your hair is turning gray. Catalase is the super-charge, unbelievable antioxidant that you’re flooded with when you’re in your 20s. Nature floods you with catalase because if you didn’t have it you wouldn’t live long enough to raise children and propagate. Nature is very kind up to the age of propagation. After that, nature has no need for us. So, that’s why everything is building and working until the age of 25, but after the age of 25, certain things start to go down like, believe it or not, ubiquinol levels, catalase levels and glutathione levels start to decrease after the age of 25. That loss doesn’t really become significant until you’re in your 40s and 50s, though.†
Now, kids have got a flood of catalase in their bodies because catalase protects them from using energy, from eating food, from breathing in oxygen. It’s a catalytic enzyme that your body is flooded with when you’re in your teens, 20s and even in your early 30s. You know, using oxygen for energy is a gift and it’s a burden. It’s a gift that we can live a long life and that we have a lot of energy to do things for our brain, the intelligence of our brain and the quality of our vision requires a tremendous amount of energy; and for a long life span, it requires a tremendous amount of energy. The only way you can really get that energy is if you mix oxygen with calories and you burn it. The problem is that slowly but surely oxygen use is also quite toxic. It’s poisonous at a molecular level because the oxygen is used in these tiny little power plants called mitochondria. They're pretty well sealed, but they're not perfect. When you breathe in oxygen and you use it for energy, there is always a little bit of leakage out there. It's like a mini Chernobyl. It’s always like a mini love canal, and that oxygen release is in the form of hydrogen peroxide. When you were a kid or even an adult and you got a cut, you reach for that big brown bottle and you pour a clear liquid on your finger to clean up the finger, and then you wash it with soap and water. The hydrogen peroxide kills viruses and bacteria, and you see it bubbling up. That bubbling is also destroying your skin. Every time you use oxygen, there is a slight release, and that is hydrogen peroxide.†
"You’d know you need catalase if your hair is turning gray."
So, when you’re young, you’re flooded with catalase. Why? Catalase reduces hydrogen peroxide to water and oxygen. So, catalase will take something that’s potentially as toxic as anything. I mean you could dissolve skin with hydrogen peroxide if you put your finger in it. There is a little leakage of hydrogen peroxide in every single cell in your body, every brain cell, every eyeball cell, every heart cell. This catalase comes and deactivates it. It breaks down the molecular bonds releasing water and oxygen. You use the oxygen again for energy use and the water, of course, is a solvent that cleans out the dirt and the debris from the body, so it’s a very good thing.†
The wonderful thing about catalase is that it literally works about a million times. Each catalase molecule will take a million hydrogen peroxide molecules and convert them into oxygen and water. That might sound like a lot, but you have 50 trillion cells, and you have 200 power plants at a minimum in each cell. So, that’s 200 leakages of hydrogen peroxide per cell per minute, times 50 trillion. You need a lot of catalase.†
When catalase levels naturally decline in the body in the 40s and 50s, it can cause a mutation in your chromosomes and DNA. What’s scarier than that? Catalase defends the body from hydrogen peroxide. As catalase levels decrease in your 40s and 50s, there is more hydrogen peroxide. What’s happening? It’s bleaching your hair. Literally, your hair is growing gray because you lack catalase.†
We add a wonderful herb to InVite Health’s catalase supplement. It’s an herb that was originally in an ayurvedic medicine called Picrorhiza kurroa. There are a lot of names for it worldwide. In Asia, they call it Hu huan lian or kadukka. Studies have shown that this plant Picrorhiza kurroa helps support liver, lung, eye, and skin health. Picrorhiza has been shown to improve catalase levels throughout your body, which is why we have paired them together.†
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Assisting Jerry Hickey, R.Ph is a team of nutritional professionals - a group of hand chosen, dedicated experts, available at each and every InVite® Health retail location - there to provide you with a FREE, personalized, and professional nutritional consultation. Visit an InVite® Health retail location near you for assistance in selecting the correct nutrients to address your health concerns.
You can also e-mail an InVite® Nutritionist or call us directly with any of your nutritional questions. The InVite® Health team is always available to assist you.
