A reader asked:
“Do know anything about the vitamin InflamaZyme by Biogeneis , my doctor told me to take it for thick blood, I have high fibrinogen. Thank you so much.”

Requestor Beware

• If you are trying to sell a product, I am likely the last person you want to be reviewing — I will try to find cheaper equivalents as well as challenge implications not backed up by science.

Ingredients

In the ingredient list are many of the known anticoagulant ones.

• Pancreatin 4X Amylase (100,000 USP units/g), Lipase (8,000 USP units/g), Protease (100,000 USP units/g) 400 mg
• Acid Protease (1,000 SAP/g) 300 mg
• Bromelain (2,400 GDU/g) 250 mg
• Bacterial Protease (100,000 PC/g) 240 mg
• Papain (2,000,000 FCC PU/g) 120 mg
• Superoxide Dismutase (SOD) (8,000 MFU/g) 100 mg
• Cellulase (1,000 FCC CU/g) 100 mg
• Nattokinase (20,000 FU/g) (soy) 50 mg
• Trypsin (75,000 USP units/g) 40 mg
• Chymotrypsin (25,000 USP units/g) 20 mg
• Serrapeptase (2,000,000 SPU/g) 2 mg

My initial concern is that this may be the equivalent of a multivitamin formulation — that is maintenance dosages for healthy people but insufficient to be therapeutic for people with conditions. A few spot checks:

A few spotchecks

• Bromelain: (2,400 GDU/g @ 250 mg –> 600 GDU, or 40% of single capsule [$0.09/day for same dosage via Amazon]

• Nattokinease: (20,000 FU/g @ 50 mg –> 1000 FU, 50% of a single capsule [$0.05/day for same dosage via Amazon]

• Serrapeptase (2,000,000 SPU/g @ 2 mg (2/1000 g) –> 4000 SPU. We see 10 times as much in individual capsules. [$0.11/day for same dosage via Amazon]

• Pancreatin 4X Amylase: [Same dosage: $0.33/day]

I can go on, but the expected cost per day buying individually will likely be a bit over $1/day. They are selling at $2/day – so now the question becomes, is $1.0/day worth just taking 3 capsules from one bottle versus capsules from a dozen bottles.

The flip side is — do you know the precise nature of your coagulation and thus only need certain ones? Are those in this mixture? For example there is no Lumbrokinease (About $0.50/day) or Piracetam — items that I tend to use for my own coagulation issues.

Bottom Line

It’s a reasonable mixture if you have possible coagulation issues and do not know the specific nature of those issues.

In this case the reader states “high fibrinogen” which makes it easy to evaluate each of the ingredients by searching on PubMed. Some examples:

• Pancreatin – nothing.
• Bromelain – “unexpectedly Bromelain showed dual action on blood coagulation: at low concentration showed procoagulant effect and at high concentration anticoagulant effect.” [2016] – risk
• Papain – nothing
• Superoxide Dismutase ” show a complex covariation with many of the conventional cardiovascular risk factors.” [1997]
• Cellulase – nothing
• Nattokinase – valid for this.
• Serrapeptase – nothing
• Chymotrypsin – valid for this

My own take is simple: do the research, find the best ones and use them — change the MD to produce studies or evidence for their ‘cookbook guidance’ – often their cookbooks are out of date.