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Inflammation might be the root of preventable disease

harvardmagazine.com

101–110 of 240 posts

Re: Inflammation might be the root of preventable disease

#101
post #19

At the same time, anti-inflammatories slow wound healing. Here are a couple of random studies I found. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17319622 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22381097

Something I experienced about 20 years ago - I threw my back out (just was sitting, and turned my torso - and that was it), major sciatica pain. Went to the doctor. I was prescribed a certain stretching exercise, plus also 800mg ibuprofen, bed rest, etc. I was popping the ibuprofen "on schedule" - 3x a day. At first, it helped some, and so did the exercise. But then, the pain came back, and nothing was cutting it. No…

Ibuprofen interferes with absorption of one of the B vitamins. Long term use promotes a B vitamin deficiency.

Re: Inflammation might be the root of preventable disease

#102
> People already know what they should be doing—but for most, that knowledge doesn’t change behavior. Humans are hard-wired to conserve energy (see “Born to Rest,” September-October 2016, page 9), for example, and to prefer foods that are fatty, salty, and sugary.

This suggests that pharmaceutical interventions that block inflammation may be necessary to check the global epidemic of non-communicable disease.

Really? What about side effects? Why not work on becoming smart instead of telling people to eat pills?

Re: Inflammation might be the root of preventable disease

#103

My prediction: 1) reducing chronic inflammation by, for example, exercise or eating better food, is proven to have good health effects 2) pharmaceutical companies try to make that into a pill 3) dang, the benefits of the pill are not nearly as big as if you exercise and eat better food, and not nearly as big as our early trials of the drug indicated they would be 4) we must need a different kind of pill

This is the promise of stem cells

Re: Inflammation might be the root of preventable disease

#104
post #56

I found the last part about SPMs and anti-inflammatory molecules, very interesting and encouraging. Being a colitis patient, I have found out in my own experiments, that eating a diet rich in well sourced fish and chicken decreases my inflammatory symptoms and is very filling at the same time.

I found that gluten irritated my Crohns. I recently started Remicade - it reduces the immune system to try to stop the auto-immune problem that is Crohns. It was eye opening what other little aches and pains went away once the immune system was turned down a bit and the inflammation was lowered Certainly the extra inflammation was causing other problems where the inflammation is the main cause.

How has this affected other critical processes of the immune system such as fighting infection?

Re: Inflammation might be the root of preventable disease

#105

How can a symptom be the "cause" of a disease? Gingivitis is "inflammation of the gums", but it's "caused" by bacteria, plaque, tarter, etc... inflammation is the description of what is happening (ie, symptom) not the "cause".

So, what I think is happening is that excess acidity (and other chemical derangement) causes inflammation which promotes infection which causes more inflammation. It's a vicious cycle with a positive feedback loop.

Re: Inflammation might be the root of preventable disease

#106
post #102

> People already know what they should be doing—but for most, that knowledge doesn’t change behavior. Humans are hard-wired to conserve energy (see “Born to Rest,” September-October 2016, page 9), for example, and to prefer foods that are fatty, salty, and sugary. This suggests that pharmaceutical interventions that block inflammation may be necessary to check the global epidemic of non-communicable disease. Really?…

"Why not work on becoming smart than telling people to eat pills?"

Because that has worked about as well as the war on drugs for the past 30 years.

Re: Inflammation might be the root of preventable disease

#107
This is interesting! Bit of an anecdotal story, but I struggled with weight issues until about 8 years ago & I've often spoken to friends saying that it really felt like I ALSO suffered from some type of body inflammation. Even on "binge-y" days now, the morning after my sinuses go nuts! Super interesting read.

Re: Inflammation might be the root of preventable disease

#108
post #5

I found this area interesting: > “A fat cell is almost like a primitive immune cell,” says Hotamisligil. “It can request the assistance of immune cells when in trouble, but if the stress continues, and the immune cells remain, they start changing their character and behavior from helpful to harmful.” ... > When overloaded with stored lipid, fat cells begin to lose their functional and structural integrity and may sta…

> Critics might suggest that inflammation is just a symptom in these diseases, rather than a cause. But Hotamisligil says, unequivocally, “Chronic inflammation is uniformly damaging and is absolutely causal to the process, because if you interfere with it, you can reverse the pathology.” And this ability to control such diseases simply by reversing inflammation is a biological response, dating far back to the time of…

So what are the "right tools" to reverse diabetes in humans?

These are probably different for the different types. (When young, non-obese kids get it, I doubt it's because of energy surplus)

Re: Inflammation might be the root of preventable disease

#110

My prediction: 1) reducing chronic inflammation by, for example, exercise or eating better food, is proven to have good health effects 2) pharmaceutical companies try to make that into a pill 3) dang, the benefits of the pill are not nearly as big as if you exercise and eat better food, and not nearly as big as our early trials of the drug indicated they would be 4) we must need a different kind of pill

What is your reaction when social conservatives say that there's no need for contraception or STD vaccines, because you can just not have sex unless you're prepared to accept the responsibilities of pregnancy and raising a child?

I really don't see where this has anything at all to do with what you are replying to.
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