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Inflammation
by author Jack Challem

Physicians have long recognized inflammation as the culprit in asthma, arthritis, and many other painful "-itis" diseases. Almost overnight, medicine has redefined inflammation as the root of most chronic diseases.

The latest findings point to chronic low-grade inflammation as the underlying cause of coronary heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and some cancers. Obesity and diabetes have powerful undercurrents of inflammation.

This changing view of inflammation has grown largely out of a new respect for C-reactive protein (CRP), a blood protein that both promotes and reflects inflammation levels in the body. Using a new and particularly sensitive blood test, known as high-sensitivity CRP, Paul Ridker, MD, of the Harvard Medical School, found elevated levels of inflammation increase the risk of a heart attack by four and one-half times. This strong association makes CRP a far more accurate predictor of heart-attack risk than total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, or homocysteine.

A Normal Process Gone Awry

Inflammation is a normal part of the body’s immune response to infection or injury. Activated white blood cells secrete a variety of inflammation-promoting compounds interleukin-6 (IL-6), CRP, free radicals, and prostaglandins to fight germs and to dispose of damaged cells. After the body recovers, the immune system and its white blood cells should settle down. If they don’t, low-grade inflammation may simmer for years, eventually turning serious or repeated injuries to knee cartilage into osteoarthritis. Inflammation may also quietly damage the heart or brain cells.

CRP and IL-6 are highly specialized molecules called cytokines, which function as chemical messengers between cells. Somewhat like a cellular Paul Revere, they help activate armies of white blood cells that, in chronic inflammation, can turn against normal tissues. The big question is: what stimulates this pro-inflammatory activity in the first place? Part of the answer lies in the foods people eat.

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Jack Challem is the author of The Inflammation Syndrome (Wiley & Sons, 2003) Additional information at inflammationsyndrome.com.

Source: alive #262, August 2004

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