Inflammation and The Diseases of Aging

No one looks forward to getting older.  Getting older means high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, arthritis, cancer, a veritable shopping list of ailments that no one wants.

Is it possible that the answer to staying healthy as we age, and avoiding what are considered the inevitable diseases of associated with aging, be as simple as controlling the inflammation and inflammation response our bodies suffer for various reasons earlier in our lives?

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Inflammation

Inflammation is an immune response in which our body tissues respond to threats, injury, infection, and foreign substances by sending white blood cells and other chemicals into our blood stream.  But many times our bodies do this when there has been no injury or infection.  As a matter of fact there are a whole category of diseases known as auto-immune diseases in which the body goes into super defense mode.  The problem is that all these defense chemicals and responses result in changes in our body, and in prolonged exposure, detrimental to our tissues.

Inflammation is characterized by such things as swelling, redness, stiffness, pain, etc.  This is in response to the defense chemicals in our blood.  The problem is that these chemicals also cause irritation of the tissues, organs, and systems of our bodies.

Inflammation and Atherosclerosis

Atherosclerosis is the disease in which fatty deposits, cholesterol, build up on the walls of blood vessels thereby constricting the flow of blood.  The formations calcify over time and can break off, causing a blockage, for example a heart attack, or they can become a 100% blockage.  High blood pressure comes from the restricted flow of blood, your heart needing to work harder to push blood through narrowed blood vessels.  It is usually a slow progressive disease whose symptoms don’t become apparent until later in life.

For years the common medical wisdom has been to avoid fatty foods, lower your cholesterol, thin your blood.

But this common wisdom flies in the face of the fact that cholesterol, is used by your body for repairs.  Especially to repair your blood vessels.  Even further, HDL cholesterol scrubs your blood and helps to remove LDL, the bad cholesterol, from your system.

Did you know that heart disease and atherosclerosis was almost completely unknown among Eskimos? Eskimos had 93% less heat attacks, no multiple sclerosis, 95% less psoriasis, no hyperactive thyroid, 96% less asthma, 90% less diabetes.  They had lower cholesterol, and did not suffer from common degenerative diseases until they adopted a Western diet. Was it because they had a low fat diet?  On the contrary, they had a diet very high in fat.  Fat from fish oil. So what’s so special about fish oil?  It has a very high anti-inflammatory effect on the body.  Consuming fish oil works to calm the body’s immune response and decrease inflammation.

Similar immunity to disease is found in native Alaskans, and in fishing communities in Japan.

Here is new research about the role of inflammation in atherosclerosis.

Inflammation and Alzheimer’s

The current scourge of old age right now has to be Alzheimer’s.  The fear that surround the loss of ones mind, memories, and self, is felt by anyone approaching their senior years.  Technically Alzheimer’s appears to be caused by the buildup of amyloid plaques.  Inflammation appears to play a key role the formation of amyloid plaques and the negative effects they have on the functioning of the mind.  Professor Jeffrey Kelly of the Scripps Research Institute has recently pondered whether inflammation could be the start of a chain reaction that leads ultimately to Alzheimer’s disease.

And yet, in India, the disease is practically unknown.  Why?  What is different about the population of India when compared with the rest of the world?  New studies show that it could be a staple of their diet which protects them by breaking up and blocking the formation of these plaques.  The staple in question is turmeric (curcumin), the yellow spice used in many curries, eaten regularly, and also used as medicine for thousands of years. Turmeric, like fish oil, is also an anti-inflammatory.  A lifetime of eating curry would seem to confer protection from this dreaded disease.

The Journal of Biologic Medicine states – “The phenolic yellow curry pigment curcumin has potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities and can suppress oxidative damage, inflammation, cognitive deficits, and amyloid accumulation.”

Here is new research about the effects of turmeric (curcumin) on inflammation and Alzheimer’s.

Inflammation and Cancer

One cannot reach advanced age these days without either having cancer, or knowing someone who does.  A correlation between inflammation and cancer has been theorized for quite some time.  It is after all the body’s immune and repair response which acts directly and effects change upon cells and tissues of the body. 

It is a known fact that chronic infections are precursors to the development of cancer, such as human papilloma virus or Hepatitis B and C with cervical cancer.  Is it possible that the same defense chemicals that result in wound and tissue repair, actually aid cancer cells in being viable?  That it is the very chemicals your body uses to save your life, and the life of your cells, also allows mutant cancer cells to avoid their self-destruct sequences and actually grow into tumors?  It seems likely if ones blood is awash in these chemical for long periods of time.

When one looks at the foods associated with lower incidences of cancers such as tomatoes, blueberries, spinach, garlic, beans, etc.  One cannot help but note that all of these foods are also extremely potent anti-inflammatories.

Here is more information about the effects of inflammation and the incidence of cancer.

Anti-Oxidants and Inflammation

I think it is important to note that all the foods we have listed so far and others, all fall into the category of anti-oxidants.  Free radical scavengers that keep oxygen radicals from causing damage.  Read here damage = inflammation.  Anti-oxidants all have amazing anti-inflammatory effects.

Can we spare ourselves years of pain and heartache just from grabbing that tomato once a day?  Taking acidodopholus so our intestines are not in constant turmoil?  Drinking chamomile tea or taking St. John’s Wort so that our stress levels go down, and our immune system is taken off of red alert?

Food as Medicine

I don’t think it is any coincidence that Eskimos don’t get heart disease any more than people in India do not suffer the Alzheimer rates the rest of the world does.

People forget that before there were any synthetic medicines, all we had were foods.  Even aspirin, originally came from willow bark, which Native Americans chewed to relieve pain. 

I think a little more interest in what we consume earlier in life could lead to having a healthier and happier old age.  Treating flare ups of inflammation quickly and naturally so that our bodies are not awash in defense chemicals for long periods of time.

My answer to all the questions I’ve asked here, are a resounding yes.