My name is Tom Bohager and I am the president and founder of Enzymedica.
In light of what I have read here this evening I will begin making changes to the website and it should be live in about a week.
I wish to point out though, that some of the comments from the "sensible celiac" are just as misleading as he perceives our website to be. I do not wish to debate but I feel compelled to correct inaccuracies.
Thank you for admitting that your website is intentionally misleading.
Some things it might be helpful to know...
1) There is research on the enzyme we use.
There is research on laser toner cartridges too, this does not make laser toner cartridges a treatment for celiac disease. To simply state that there is research on something provides no useful information.
2) Thousands are benefiting from this product and we have people calling regularly to express their appreciation.
Thousands of people benefit daily from Bounty paper towels, this does not make Bounty paper towels a treatment for celiac disease. Still waiting for a statement relevant to celiac disease.
3) Our intent has never been to mislead but we may have misinterpreted some of the information we have. For example, we concluded that when a person has been tested for celiac with a blood test, biopsy or both and the results come back negative, it would not be stated that they have celiac disease even though they experience some of the symptoms. Based on the comments here I must assume that is inaccurate. Regardless, I must say that the vast majority of the thousands of people we talk to who exhibit some form of digestive distress (often the very same symptoms of celiac) few ever test positive for the disease and most are told by their doctors or healthcare providers it isn't celiac or at best it "might be celiac". It is with this understanding that we refer to individuals who are sensitive to gluten but are not diagnosed with celiac disease. If I need additional clarification on this please do not hesitate to call me directly at Enzymedica @ 888-9i8-1118 or post a comment.
Sorry, but when I see text that has been carefully worded to mislead people, I begin to think the author intended to be misleading. It is a medical fact that at this time the only treatment for celiac disease is a gluten free diet. If your customers have diagnosed or undiagnosed celiac disease they must adopt a gluten free diet. While your product may be harmless in and of itself, giving people who have a medical requirement to avoid gluten the false idea that a snake oil product will treat their illness is fraudulent at best. If people do have a medical requirement for a gluten free diet then a bunch of shuck and jive about magic woo woo pills is counter productive.
4) The Stanford study is relevant since we are using the same source that produces the enzyme they are studying.
Yesterday I shopped in the same supermarket as a hollywood star. Yet today I am not a Hollywood star.
Similarly, you can buy your enzymes anywhere you want to, that does not make them a treatment for celiac disease.
I was already aware that your company does not make anything, and that you simply slap undocumented and unproven claims onto the products of other companies. Not too many tours of your manufacturing plant lately, since you do not have one, just a bunch of guys taking pills out of the real manufacturers containers and putting them in your bottles with news of greatly expanded medical benefits. Does your company make it seem as though you make the products you sell? I know that you do not. Your business is rebranding and hocus pocus claims.
5) The disclaimer that "This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent disease" is required by law on every bottle of every supplement sold in the Unites States regardless of any claim. Look on a bottle of your favorite vitamin, if it is not there, they are in violation of an FDA requirement. The most popular vitamin in this country, Centrum has this statement on its packaging and on its website. The disclaimer does not imply deceit.
It is true that the FDA does require this label, and it is precisely because the products carrying this label have not been subjected to double blind testing that might establish, on a scientific basis, whether it is beneficial, harmful, or a placebo. Since your product HAS NOT BEEN TESTED as a treatment for celiac disease it is illegal, immoral, and unethical for you to market it as a treatment for celiac disease. In this case the FDA is protecting consumers by requiring these labels. Your product literally is not useful in treating celiac disease. The label is very well justified.
6) Not all proteases are alike. One individual was taking a prescribed drug (Viokase) containing protease and concluded there was no benefit. Not at all surprising since the source of the protease is an animal source (not a fungal source as Stanford is using), it contains only one protease (not a blend of proteases) and very little of it (30,000 USP per capsule). That drug was not designed nor should be recommended for celiac. It is useful for people with pancreatic enzyme deficiency.
Indeed, proteases are different. For example the potentially useful protease being studied at Stanford University is different than the one you relabel and sell as a miracle cure.
7) Enzymedica is the best selling and most reputable enzyme brand sold in health food stores (Whole Foods, Vitamin Shoppe etc). We are not a pharmaceutical company, nor do we aspire to be one. We are in this business to help people and that is what we do! Enzymedica is a research based company. We are currently financing three studies, two on diabetes and one on the antioxidant effects of enzymes. Even if these studies prove that a product we make can help people with a specific disease (and they will), we are not allowed by law to make the claim.
I believe your business is in business to make money. That is the goal of most businesses. Whether your intentions are honest or dishonest is really a secondary consideration to the facts that are relevant in this matter, there is one and only one effective medical treatment for celiac disease AT THIS TIME. I do believe that the drug AT-1001 being SCIENTIFICALLY TESTED by Alba Pharmaceuticals will reach the market as an effective treatment for celiac disease. This drug does not use enzymes. I think it will be more effective than the Stanford enzyme approach, I think it will be an expensive drug - since it will be the only drug available for celiac disease.
Tom your message was not antagonistic, but it was carefully worded. You only insinuated that your product is useful for celiac disease, but you did not actually make any prosecutable claims. That's good because it saves me a phone call.
I doubt that your product would directly harm a person with celiac disease. The danger is that they might BELIEVE your psuedo-claims and resume eating gluten in the false belief that your product will prevent the destructive auto-immune reaction. Just like a cancer patient who goes to Mexico for a fraudulent miracle cure is harmed by failing to get real medical care, so a person lured into using your product might harm themselves out of false trust in your product.
Science has made possible this website, the Internet, and the computers we use to go online. Science provides real, documented, repeatable methods of doing things. I trust Science.
Steve's Rule Number Three: Never take medical advice from someone that wants to sell you something.
ETA: For those who want to learn about enzyme science from a source not trying to sell you anything, just interested in real science, we recommend
Enzyme Stuff. On
this page they talk about celiac disease:
Celiac
People with celiac disease need to follow a strict gluten-free diet. There are scattered reports where someone with celiac was able to resume eating gluten by using amylase or papain (or perhaps both of these enzymes). However, at this time there are no known enzyme products that will consistently and reliably allow a person with celiac to resume eating gluten, although there continues to be research and development in this area.
Some people with celiac can tolerate oats, while others cannot. Recently oats have been declared 'okay' for the celiac gluten-free diet, if you can tolerate them and want to consume them. Oats do not have the same type of gluten as other small grains.
see Celiac and Enzymes
Reading further, on
this page, we learn that for people with celiac disease, taking certain enzyme supplements with gluten food caused a WORSE reaction than eating the same gluten food without the enzymes. This makes this particular enzyme treatment
worse than useless and potentially harmful for celiacs.
This correlates exactly to what we have seen with many families using enzymes. The proteases create more, smaller pieces but would not necessarily break down the carbohydrate bonds (if at all), thus making the situation for a celiac eating gluten with protease enzymes worse than if they ate gluten without protease enzymes.
