How to Reduce Inflammation
Effectively With Natural Medicine
Chronic inflammation is one of
the top ten leading causes of mortality in the United state. Chronic Inflammation is the major factor in
developing degenerative diseases such as Heart disease, Stroke, Diabetes,
Alzheimer's, Kidney disease, Cancer, and etc. Chronic inflammation poses a great threat to our health without
being noticed because its nature is gradual, silent, and destructive.
Inflammation manifests itself
through Acute and Chronic process. Acute Inflammatory reaction is seen when the
body is engaged with conditions such as an injury and infection. This respond is rapid involving heat,
redness,swelling, and pain. Quick treatment and controlling an acute
inflammation will prevents further tissue damage and the spread of an
infection.
Chronic Inflammation occurs due
to cellular stress. One of the main and necessary to life organelles inside
each cell is called Mitochondria producing energy (ATP) for each cell. When the
mitochondrial function is disturbed, cell destruction will begin.
Mitochondrial dysfunction can be
caused by different elements such as; frequent exposure to the environmental
toxins, aging, and those free radicals or toxins released during energy
production.
Toxins damage the cellular
structure initiating the process of either cellular death, or cellular over growth.
Aging also affects the efficacy of the mitochondrial function by increasing the
free radicals production.
Accumulated toxins in the
mitochondria eventually leak out to the cell resulting in cellular respond to
the toxicity and finally a compound named inflammasome is formed. This complex is activating
the immune respond to destroy the cell.
Mitochondrial dysfunction or
rather intra-cellular toxins are not the only initiators of the cellular death.
High blood sugar including glucose and fructose, Uric Acid, LDL, and
Homocysteins are some examples of immune system and inflammation triggering
factors.
For instance, this is how excessive sugar
causes the cellular death: When extra and unused glucose or fructose bound with lipids or proteins,
a complex is created called Advanced Glycaction End Products (AGEs). These
compounds will attach to the surface of the cells signalling and turning on the
inflammatory genes inside the cell's nuclear. Also, the more these genes are activated, the more they may mutate and cause malignancies.
Risk factors contributing to chronic inflammation are including:
Sleep disorders and Sleep disruption leads to increased amount of inflammatory
markersin blood. Elevation of theses markers causes sleepiness and drowsiness
during the day.
Both physical and emotional stress can increase the inflammatory markers
in the blood. Stress along with sleep disturbances, high cortisol levels and
weight gain all together or independently cause chronic inflammation.
Cigarette smoke Contains several ingredients that increases the
inflammation markers, and at the same
time suppresses the anti inflammatory respond of the body as well.
Obesity and increased body fatty tissues contribute to hormonal
disturbances and metabolic changes. Fat tissues produce inflammatory markers
and in an obese person this production is as high as a serious inflammatory
condition. Especially the visceral and abdominal fat cells are able to produce
inflammatory markers up to three times higher than any other fatty tissues.
This is one of the main causes of systemic inflammation and insulin resistance
in an obese person.
Dietary Trans fat, sugar, synthetic Trans fats specially in obese and/or
diabetic individuals causes a significant increase in inflammatory markers.
Excessive amount of glucose not only causes the mitochondrial
disturbance, but also does convert to triglycerides and fat causing
cardiovascular disease and stiffness of the arteries.
Older adults constantly show
higher levels of the inflammatory markers in their blood even if they are
healthy. The reason of this may be due to mitochondrial damage or existence of
other risk factors such as when there are changes in the body mass including accumulation
of more fat, and loss of muscles mass,or when there is reduction in male and female hormone.
There are multiple diseases
associated with chronic inflammation. Cardiovascular disease caused mainly by
elevated LDL triggering inflammatory respond in the inner layer of arteries. Scientists
have established a direct link between chronic inflammation and Cancer. in fact
about 25 % of the cancers are related to a chronic inflammation resulting in
malignant cellular mutations. patients with Age Related Macular Degeneration
had higher amount of inflammatory markers in the blood. Several studies have
linked chronic inflammation to dementia and Alzheimer's. studies have found
those with the higher inflammatory markers in their blood are 30-40 % more prone to develop dementia. Other disease such as Arthritis, Colitis,
Crohn's disease, fibromyalgia, Diabetes, Irritable Bowel Disease , and Gout all
show high levels of inflammatory indicators.
Since in fact the nature of the
chronic inflammation is without any symptom until it damages the tissue, paying
attention to the inflammatory markers and taking a preventative approach is very important.
Nutritional solutions to reduce chronic inflammatory markers and
prevent chronic inflammation:
Lower levels of vitamin D are associated with higher
inflammatory markers. Also it's been observed that those patients with inflammatory
diseases such as Systemic Lupus, Irritable Bowel Disease, and Rheumatoid
Arthritis are more deficient in vitamin D.
In studies, supplementing with Vitamin E especially when included both
forms of Alpha Tocopherol and Gama Tocopherol showed to be
effectively able to reduce the inflammatory markers.
Selenium and Zinc both
are antioxidants and able to reduce inflammatory markers and several
inflammatory enzymes. Selenium and Zinc deficiencies are common in chronic
inflammatory diseases.
Human trials are indicative of patients'
improvements in different inflammatory diseases such as Rheumatoid Arthritis,
IBD, and Psoriasis, when given bio-available Curcumin Supplement.
Polyphenol EGCG form tea in several studies has shown to be able to
reduce inflammation markers especially in patients with Coronary Heart Disease.
Standardized Boswellia Extract has provided effective results in
reducing joint inflammation and pain in patients with Osteoarthritis. The function of Boswellia extract is improved when
it was combined with Boswellia oil. Boswellia Extract is also seen to provide
positive effects in the cases of asthma.
Studies demonstrated that Boswelllia
has effectively and significantly reduced inflammation associated with symptoms
of cases with Ulcerative Colitis, Colitis, and Irritable Bowel Disease.
German researchers compared the
effectiveness of an anti inflammatory drug (Voltaren) to oral Bromelain supplementation in patients
with Osteoarthritis pain. The results concluded that Bromelain was as effective
as the drug in reducing pain, stiffness, and improving mobility. Another study
form England measured the improvement rate of the patients based on the dosage
of Bromelain, concluding that the higher dosage was more effective in both pain
and stiffness reduction of cases with acute joint pain.
Coenzyme Q10 and Pyrrloquinoline quinone (PQQ) are two great antioxidants with the ability to provide
mitochondrial protection against cellular stress. Both of these powerful
antioxidants protect and preserve the mitochondrial function against toxins and
free radicals produced during energy production. Healthy mitochondria in turn
can produce more energy and that positively improve the overall energy level in
the individuals. Also other studies have shown that in the inflammatory
conditions levels of CQ10 is significantly lower than it is healthy conditions.
Let's not forget about the
importance of the blood sugar levels and its inflammation producing effects. As
it was mentioned earlier, the end compounds form Glycation process will turn on
the inflammatory genes and induce cellular death or mutation which is
eventually causing tissue damage or malignancy. Tissue damages are often
observed in diabetic cases, as an example diabetic neuropathy. The bio-available form of Thiamin (Vitamin B1) called Benfothiamine, based on several studies
has shown great protecting effects against
tissue damaging in diabetics. Patients taking Benfothiamine in the proper recommended
dosage found reduction in neuropathic pain. Benfothimaine suppresses the Glycation;
also, it regulates inflammatory enzymes. Amino Acid Carnosine is found to be
able to control Glycation and reduce inflammation in diffident tissues such as
retina of the eyes. Carnosine Concentration in muscular tissue declines by more
than 50% by ageing.
Other nutrients that can help with
inflammation reduction in different tissues via different methods of action are
including; Magnesium, Trans Resveratrol, Amino Acid NAC (N-Acetyl Cysteine), Omega3 fatty acids, Fibre
and Carotenoids.
Concluding that inflammation
itself is not a disease; but when it is not controlled and become chronic, it causes
many different diseases. Life style changes, maintaining healthy balanced diet,
losing the extra fat and weight, getting blood sugar and lipids under control,
plus effective natural and nutritional medicines all together will reduce
inflammation through their different yet unique abilities to control
inflammatory markers.
Articles
and products featured by Health Palace are collected from a variety of sources
and are provided as a service by Health Palace. These newsletters, while of
potential interest to readers, do not necessarily represent the opinions nor
constitute the advice of Health Palace. Presented materials are only for
information purposes and do not intent to treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
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