USDA: Cooling Inflammation for Healthier Arteries

[Jeannine]

USDA: Cooling Inflammation for Healthier Arteries


02-17-10

Agricultural Research Service (ARS)-funded scientists have reported new reasons for choosing "heart-healthy" oats at the grocery store.

Nutritionist Mohsen Meydani, director of the Vascular Biology Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston, Mass., led the research on the oat compounds, called avenanthramides. Meydani previously has shown that phenolic antioxidants in oats obstruct the ability of blood cells to stick to artery walls.

Chronic inflammation inside the arterial wall is part of the process that eventually leads to a disorder known as atherosclerosis. Meydani and colleagues have reported findings that suggest the avenanthramides of oats decrease the expression of inflammatory molecules. The study showed that forms of avenanthramides possess potential anti-inflammatory properties through inhibiting factors that are linked with activating proinflammatory cytokines.

Cytokines are small proteins released by cells while seeking to protect and repair tissue. Some trigger inflammation, for example, while responding to infection. Inhibiting inflammation through diet, drugs, or key nutrients is considered to be of great benefit in preventing atherosclerosis. Details of this study can be found in the scientific journal Free Radical Biology & Medicine.

The study provides additional indications of the potential health benefit of oat consumption in the prevention of coronary heart disease beyond its known effect through lowering blood cholesterol.

Read more about this research in the February 2010 issue of Agricultural Research magazine, available online at: http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/feb10/cell0210.htm.

ARS is the principal intramural scientific research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The research supports the USDA priority of improving nutrition and health.

[barbara]

I get really annoyed when I find out how much sugar is added to products. It isn't needed!


e-Journal of Age Management Medicine | February 2010

Derrick M. DeSilva, Jr., M.D. answers a question from another doctor:


What's the 'sweetest' thing I can do for my patients?

Though Valentine's Day was last week, the "sweetest" thing you can do for your patients is to get them off the sweets. Sugar is not only the most addictive substance on the planet?more addictive than heroin and cocaine, believe it or not?it is one of the biggest driving forces behind the increase in heart disease and other chronic diseases.

An article in the January issue of Internal Medicine News is headlined, "Fructose May Be Driving Increase in CV Disease". It quotes a presentation by Dr. Richard J. Johnson of the University of Colorado, Denver, at the sixth annual World Congress on the Insulin Resistance Syndrome last fall. Dr. Johnson's point is that modern diets full of fructose are behind the epidemic of cardiovascular disease. He notes that data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) suggest each year, Americans ingest an average of 150 pounds of sugar, and 25% of the U.S. population eats more than 200 pounds of sugar; that?s 50 times more than the average 4 pounds per year of sugar ingested by European-American societies in the 1700?s.

Dr. Johnson also noted that both human and animal studies have shown that high levels of fructose intake induce features of the metabolic syndrome, which in turn can lead to the development of diabetes and hypertension. But it's not just fructose. Sugar in any form has the same effect and is inflammatory; the increase in cardiovascular disease may result because sugar causes inflammation.
Another recent report, analyzing data collected on 60,524 Singapore Chinese adults as part of the Singapore Chinese Health Study and published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, links sugary soft drinks to pancreatic cancer. The study showed people who drank two or more sugar-sweetened soft drinks a week were at greater risk of developing pancreatic cancer compared with individuals who did not, even after adjusting for other dietary factors which have been linked with pancreatic cancer, such as consumption of red meat. Researchers suspect the culprit is sugar.

We know that sugar increases inflammation, contributes to aging, and is an oxidant which oxidizes the skin and organs. It's a key poison for the body. We've got to raise our patients'?and our own?level of awareness about sugar. People need to start becoming aware of the glycemic index. Even fruits are high in sugar: bananas are among the highest in sugar content. For fruit, stick to apples, pears, blueberries and raspberries, which are actually low in sugar. People need to start paying attention to labels, because everything is sweetened and everything is salted. It is just a given that they need to get rid of the sodas and diet sodas; they also need to be careful with juices, and even yogurt. A 7-ounce yogurt drink has more sugar than a can of soda! Most people don't know that.

We need to raise the level of awareness, because sugar is, without a doubt, one of the leading toxins and poisons?a legal drug that is poisoning the world.