What do heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, stroke and cancer have in common? Scientists have linked each of these to a condition known as chronic inflammation, and they are studying how high-fat foods and excess body weight may increase the risk for fatal disorders.
More from Laura Landro.
I’ve heard that inflammation can make the difference between a healthy amount of cholesterol and a deadly amount.
I’ve heard arterial plaque described as an inflation (sort of puss-like) that breaks through the arterial wall and releases its contents to plug blood vessels leading to the heart. Years ago there were reports that gum disease caused problems with inflammation throughout the body, leading to heart disease. This theory is hard to prove given that people with poor health habits (that lead to heart disease) often have poor oral hygiene (that leads to gum disease).
Chronic inflammation could be an issue for a lot of if not most people. I don’t really know for sure, but I feel like processed foods could play a role, but if that’s true it shouldn’t be exaggerated.
Of the four items listed above, I think Alzheimers is the last one to be ‘cured’.
Interesting.
There is always the trend to look for one size fits all solutions. My subspecialty within allergy & immunology focuses on BALANCING pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines. Patients with milk or wheat allergy, for example, can get significant inflammation after eating those foods until properly treated with immunotherapy. Avoidance only makes the problem worse because many will become sensitive to other foods. Patients are extremely individualized, and we as physicians need to take the time to deal with inflammation aggressively. There is no one-size-fits-all diet.
Finding one underlying cause for several ailments of such serious nature might perhaps make it easy for the medical community to find a common cure, or at least an easy treatment for each of them.
A study needs to be conducted on how much Europeans (and anywhere else in the world for which there is data) suffer from chronic inflammation as compared to Americans.
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