I attended a seminar about inflammation and the body. It is way to detailed to get into here but the bottom line for anyone trying to maintain a balanced inflammation response in the body it to do it daily through diet and supplementation. In cultures who do not experience diseases as much and have a longer life expectency (US is 24th in longevity), they eat high amounts of foods and spice herbs which promote a positive inflammation response in the body. They suggest eating and making teas using ginger each day. Adding tumeric to cooking and drinking green teas several times a day. They believe it is the synergy of these things that give the greatest benefits.
So my theory is, if modulating inflammatory responses are key in people who do not have CF, it must be even more important in those who do. What if the doctors and nutritionists began to see this as the single most important factor in helping a CF patient. What if instead of recommending adding calories loaded with pro-inflammatory proteins and fats (like high amounts of dairy, omega 6 fatty acids, and animal protein), modulating inflammation on various levels everyday became the goal. Would we see a difference in digestion of nutrients, weight gain, and lung health?
This is being seriously looked at in other diseases such as cancer, prostate issues, and other digestive diseases like Crohns. There is more evidence building for use of probiotics and other safe herbal supplements as COX-2 inhibitors (a major component to damage in the tissues/cells of the body - a problem in CF). These organic spice herbs have be shown to do incredible things in stopping COX-2.
I ran across a supplement called Zyflamend. It is recommened by Dr Weil for patients dealing with inflammatory diseases and has been extensively researched by universities and hospitals. This supplement contains spice herbs (like ginger, tumeric, holy basil, green tea, rosemary, hu zhang, chinese goldthreqad and barberry, oregano, and skullcap) which in the US we have a hard time incorporating into our diets on a daily basis. It comes in caps and a liquid form from New Chapter www.newchapter.info.
We have not yet tried it ourselves or for Ben as I would feel more comfortable doing so with a naturopath MD recommending doses, but this seems to show such potential in my eyes for helping us deal with inflammation daily. I just wanted to throw the web site at you all and see what you think about the research (plus they have some other really neat products like their Ginger Honey Tonic for digestion). I have contacted someone to see if we couldn't get them to study it's use in CF children and adults.
I just think we all need to be more aware of what we feed ourselves and our CFers in relation to inflammation. It really needs to be more of a focus and I plan to really start pushing this with my clinic.
Anyways, just wondered what you all thought.
Jody
So my theory is, if modulating inflammatory responses are key in people who do not have CF, it must be even more important in those who do. What if the doctors and nutritionists began to see this as the single most important factor in helping a CF patient. What if instead of recommending adding calories loaded with pro-inflammatory proteins and fats (like high amounts of dairy, omega 6 fatty acids, and animal protein), modulating inflammation on various levels everyday became the goal. Would we see a difference in digestion of nutrients, weight gain, and lung health?
This is being seriously looked at in other diseases such as cancer, prostate issues, and other digestive diseases like Crohns. There is more evidence building for use of probiotics and other safe herbal supplements as COX-2 inhibitors (a major component to damage in the tissues/cells of the body - a problem in CF). These organic spice herbs have be shown to do incredible things in stopping COX-2.
I ran across a supplement called Zyflamend. It is recommened by Dr Weil for patients dealing with inflammatory diseases and has been extensively researched by universities and hospitals. This supplement contains spice herbs (like ginger, tumeric, holy basil, green tea, rosemary, hu zhang, chinese goldthreqad and barberry, oregano, and skullcap) which in the US we have a hard time incorporating into our diets on a daily basis. It comes in caps and a liquid form from New Chapter www.newchapter.info.
We have not yet tried it ourselves or for Ben as I would feel more comfortable doing so with a naturopath MD recommending doses, but this seems to show such potential in my eyes for helping us deal with inflammation daily. I just wanted to throw the web site at you all and see what you think about the research (plus they have some other really neat products like their Ginger Honey Tonic for digestion). I have contacted someone to see if we couldn't get them to study it's use in CF children and adults.
I just think we all need to be more aware of what we feed ourselves and our CFers in relation to inflammation. It really needs to be more of a focus and I plan to really start pushing this with my clinic.
Anyways, just wondered what you all thought.
Jody