LDL cholesterol tends to be looked at as “the problem” regarding vascular disease risk.  In reality, it is only part of the risk.  What is more important than simply LDL levels is the size of the particles.  Two persons with the “same” LDL level can have very different vascular disease risks. The LDL listed on […]

Modern humans have always had the belief, conscious or subconscious, that they could lead a less-than-optimal lifestyle and yet health care could prevent the ill effects.  This is particularly true thinking about medical care.  Why eat an optimal diet when the unhealthy food is so good?  Exercise is more effort than I want to put […]

The most common drugs used for pain and inflammation are the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like ibuprofen.  It is estimated that some 30 billion doses of these drugs are consumed each year in the U.S.  A growing body of research is suggesting that these drugs may actually increase the bone loss associated with osteoporosis.  It […]

Again, It Depends on Who It Hangs Out With In a previous blog I had discussed some of the research of coffee consumption and a reduced risk of diabetes.  It seems there are several phenols or phytonutrients in brewed coffee that offer diabetes preventative benefit.  I also made the point that this might be negated […]

We previously discussed how DAMPs or damaged associated and PAMPs or pathogen associated molecular patterns can chronically activate inflammation.  The damage associated referring to tissue components released from degenerative tissue such as joints.  The pathogen associated referring to chronic infections such as in the gut. In this 3rd blog on what triggers chronic inflammation we […]

In the last blog we discussed how DAMPs activate inflammation.  DAMPs is an acronym for damage associated molecular patterns. (When tissue is injured, white blood cells infiltrate the area and trigger inflammation when the DAMPs which are pieces from the damaged tissue activate the receptors.)  The purpose of the inflammation is to clean up the […]

What is Triggering It? In the introduction to this series of blogs on inflammation I mentioned that understanding and reducing its impact comes down to 2 points: In response to what is triggering it, these factors can be helpful in response to infection and in resolving injury, or harmful in response to chronic lifestyle triggers […]

Inflammation is a basic part of protecting us against infection and inducing repair after injury.  It literally is an important process to allow us to survive in our environment.  Unfortunately, the inflammatory process can be activated by the wrong circumstances and persisting long after it should have been quieted.  When this occurs, inflammation literally switches […]

Food provides us with energy to run and materials needed to maintain the ongoing process of repair and regeneration.  How well those processes occur is highly related to food quality.  Quite simply, we have undergone a dramatic change in our food quality over the past 100 years and that change is a major factor in […]

Osteoarthritis, which is also often called degenerative, or wear and tear arthritis, is the most common joint disorder in individuals 35-40 years and up.  In the earlier stages of the disease, treatment is symptomatic aimed at reducing pain but not curing or slowing the progression of degeneration.  The most common treatment approach is non-steroidal anti-inflammatory […]