by Julie Flaherty
The Body on Fire
How chronic inflammation, brought on by an immune system in overdrive, could lead to illnesses including cancer, heart disease and diabetes
soul food
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by soul food » Sat Jan 10, 2015 12:37 am
The Body on Fire
How chronic inflammation, brought on by an immune system in overdrive, could lead to illnesses including cancer, heart disease and diabetes
by BlueHeron » Wed Jan 14, 2015 4:53 pm
by soul food » Tue Feb 03, 2015 12:48 pm
Obesity, diabetes symptoms in mice improved by reversing brain inflammation
Date:
January 29, 2015
Source:
University of Otago
Summary:
Using an antioxidant to reverse inflammation in the brain caused by a high-fat diet greatly improves symptoms related to obesity and type 2 diabetes, a new study suggests. The research suggests that butein and other natural compounds that block inflammation in the brain should be vigorously investigated as novel anti-diabetic treatments, he says.
by soul food » Mon Feb 09, 2015 4:02 pm
by soul food » Wed Feb 18, 2015 12:34 am
Anti-inflammatory mechanism of dieting and fasting revealed
Date:
February 16, 2015
Source:
Yale University
Summary:
Researchers have found that a compound produced by the body when dieting or fasting can block a part of the immune system involved in several inflammatory disorders such as type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis, and Alzheimer's disease.
by dailycarbs » Wed Feb 18, 2015 8:08 am
by soul food » Mon Mar 02, 2015 11:08 am
GIFFORD: Well, that's a long, long way off. It's very hard to identify and isolate senescent cells in human bodies. But, you know, one place where senescent cells seem to congregate is in fat tissue. So you would think the less fat tissue you're carrying around, the less of these inflammatory cytokines your body is sort of suffering.
DAVIES: Well, that's consistent with what we know about a lot of good advice, right?
GIFFORD: Yeah, well it's actually quite interesting because, you know, you think, well, it's not good to be really overweight or obese, but it's actually worse than that. Some of the scientists I talk to feel that having that vast amount of fat tissue is really like almost like having a tumor because it's such a potent - it's like an endocrine organ - and it affects, you know, all the rest of your body. So it's almost like an accelerated aging kind of situation.
by soul food » Mon Mar 30, 2015 10:49 am
Researchers at UC have confirmed that fat surrounding the outside of arteries in humans -- particularly the left coronary artery -- may influence the onset of coronary artery disease, or atherosclerosis, which is the leading cause of death in the U.S
Coronary artery disease is a narrowing of the small blood vessels that supply blood and oxygen to the heart.
Tapan Chatterjee, PhD, and researchers in the division of cardiovascular diseases at UC found through global gene expression analysis (measurement of the activity of thousands of genes at once) that this outer fat tissue -- known as perivascular fat tissue -- is different from subcutaneous (beneath the skin) fat tissues in other parts of the body.
Research has previously shown that perivascular fat tissue in humans with coronary artery diseases is highly inflamed, leading to the belief that dysfunctional perivascular fat is the real culprit in the formation of coronary artery diseases.
Chatterjee's team was able to replicate this inflammation in animal models.
by soul food » Mon Apr 06, 2015 9:51 pm
by soul food » Wed Apr 08, 2015 10:42 am
by soul food » Thu May 07, 2015 1:39 pm
Pre-existing inflammation may promote the spread of cancer
Date:
April 30, 2015
Source:
Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology
Summary:
Allergic reactions -- or at least the pre-existing inflammation from these reactions -- may set the stage for cancer to spread from one area to another, researchers have learned.
A new research report appearing in the May 2015 issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology suggests that allergic reactions--or at least the pre-existing inflammation from these reactions--may set the stage for cancer to spread from one area to another. Specifically, the report uses mice to show that inflammation raises the level of a known biomarker of cancer, called "chitinase-3-like-1" or "CHI3L1," in the inflamed tissue, which leads to increased metastasis and faster cancer growth in that tissue.
Of the 22,000 genes they scrutinised - which is nearly all the genes humans possess - a quarter showed clear signs of seasonal variation.
That increase in inflammation could now be a risk factor for diseases of modern life
Prof John Todd, Study author
The gene changes that interested the researchers the most were ones involved with immunity and, specifically, inflammation.
by soul food » Tue May 12, 2015 2:30 pm
New York (April 23, 2015) — An international research team led by Weill Cornell Medical College investigators has discovered an answer to why the human immune system ignores roughly 100 trillion beneficial bacteria that populate the gastrointestinal tract. The findings, published April 23 in the journal Science, advance investigators' understanding of how humans maintain a healthy gastrointestinal tract, and may provoke new ways to treat inflammatory bowel disease — including Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis — whose origins have been mysterious and treatment difficult.
The investigators studied T cells — critical components of the adaptive immune system — which have the capacity to recognize, eliminate and remember foreign microbes that invade our bodies. T cells are named after the thymus, an organ where they develop and are taught not to attack normal human tissues and organs, leaving them free to target and eradicate disease-causing foreign invaders. One question that had puzzled scientists until now is how these cells learn to ignore beneficial bacteria in the intestine that are also foreign, but not harmful.
In the study, the research team discovered that once they leave the thymus, T cells are again educated in the gastrointestinal tract, or gut, to leave beneficial bacteria alone. This dual education strategy is vital to supporting healthy immune function, the investigators say. Disruption in the pathway that facilitates this education, they add, causes the immune system to attack beneficial bacteria in the intestine, which is often linked to the development and progression of diseases like inflammatory bowel disease, HIV, viral hepatitis, cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes and cancer. Therapeutic strategies to promote and boost the activity of this education pathway may be beneficial in treating patients with these chronic inflammatory disorders, the investigators say.
"In many chronic human diseases, the immune system attacks bacteria in the intestine that are normally beneficial.
by soul food » Fri May 22, 2015 12:30 pm
The mammalian sleep-wake cycle is known to play a role in metabolism. Rodent studies have shown that such circadian rhythm can be altered by high-fat diets. In humans, perturbed sleep patterns can lead to increased appetite and an increased risk of obesity and diabetes.
Bacteria that inhabit the intestines secrete waste products that can cause inflammation.
by soul food » Tue Jun 02, 2015 9:29 pm
What we are finding is that as people gain weight, they are increasingly likely to be colonised by staph bacteria - to have large numbers of these bacteria living on the surface of their skin," Schlievert said.
"People who are colonised by staph bacteria are being chronically exposed to the superantigens the bacteria are producing," Schlievert said.
The researchers found that toxins produced by all strains of staph bacteria interact with fat cells and the immune system to cause chronic systemic inflammation, and this inflammation leads to insulin resistance and other symptoms characteristic of Type-2 diabetes."
Read more at:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/art ... aign=cppst
Obesity is known to induce a chronic low-grade inflammation that has long been associated with diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The new study finds that in young reproductive-age female mice fed a high-fat diet while they became obese, the body produces only a mild inflammatory white blood cell response. In male mice, however, diet-induced obesity made more active inflammatory white blood cells and enhanced their progenitors. This in turn made the male mice more prone to higher blood glucose and insulin levels, measures of diabetes.
Combining dieting with biologics makes the drug more effective.
Links Between Psoriatic Arthritis and Obesity
Psoriatic arthritis is an autoimmune disease. That means your body’s defense system mistakenly attacks your own tissues the way it normally would go after foreign invaders. The attack causes irritation and swelling called inflammation. “Over the last several years, evidence is mounting that obesity is linked to the inflammation of psoriatic arthritis as well as rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis,” says Matthew Husa, MD, a rheumatologist and assistant professor in the division of rheumatology and immunology at the Ohio State Medical Center in Columbus.
“We don’t know the whole story yet, but it seems like fat cells are metabolically active and irritate the immune system in some way,” Dr. Husa explains. According to the National Psoriasis Foundation, people who are obese are more likely to have severe psoriasis and more likely to develop psoriatic arthritis. One theory is that fat cells may secrete TNF-alpha, making treatment with blocking drugs less effective when you're carrying excess fat./quote]
by soul food » Tue Jun 09, 2015 9:41 pm
n a new study, researchers from the German Cancer Research Center examined how the physiological effects of obesity cause diseases, and how to potentially curb them. The authors of the study explain that obesity and its pathogenic changes (including type 2 diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome) can be traced back to chronic inflammation in fatty tissue. The fatty tissue — also referred to as adipose tissue — in obese people has much higher quantities of immune and inflammatory cells compared to people with normal weight.
Being overweight, especially around the abdomen or waistline, increases the chances of developing type 2 diabetes. The question many scientists are trying to answer is: why does obesity contribute to insulin resistance? In their previous work, the Winers demonstrate that immune cells inside abdominal fat cause the release of ‘pro-inflammatory’ chemicals, which make the body less sensitive to insulin, the hormone that regulates blood sugar levels. This is known as insulin resistance - a major trigger for type 2 diabetes.
In this research, the focus shifted from the fat to the gut, where the Winers found that mice fed a high-fat, high-calorie diet had larger amounts of pro-inflammatory immune cells and less of the regulating cells which help end an immune response, than in normal mice. The researchers found this same result in 14 humans, seven of whom were obese. The high-fat diet induces inflammatory changes in the immune cells in the bowel, upsetting the immune balance, which in turn sets off a chemical cascade, damaging the bowel wall, allowing bacterial products to leak into the blood stream. This leakage is what contributes to insulin resistance, when the cells can no longer respond to and use insulin effectively to stabilize blood sugar.
DiSalvo: In your past work and your latest book you say that there is a direct link between a series of dire health conditions, two of which are already epidemics—obesity and diabetes–and a third that is an epidemic in the making: Alzheimer’s. What’s the line connecting the three?
Sears: The linkage between all three chronic conditions is increased inflammation in the adipose tissue, pancreas or the brain. What you see is the movement of cellular inflammation initially from the adipose tissue to the pancreas and then to the brain, respectively. This is similar to the metastatic spread of a cancer. Virtually all chronic disease involves increased inflammation.
here are two types of inflammation. The first type is classical inflammation, the kind that hurts. That’s typically why you go to a doctor. The other type is below the perception of pain. This is cellular inflammation. Initially it causes disruption of hormonal signaling in the cells. However, since there is no indication of its presence, it will continue causing increased cellular damage until there is enough accumulated damage that you can call it chronic disease. It could be obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, or Alzheimer’s, but they are all ultimately caused by cellular inflammation.
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