|
Inflammation in the Body
Interview with Lorna Vanderhaeghe
Interviewed by Raena Morgan
November 12, 2009
Raena Morgan: Lorna, what are some of the causes of inflammation, and how serious is it?
Lorna Vanderhaeghe: Well the causes of inflammation, most of us are inflamed, and if we think-
RM: We are?
LV: We are, and if we think about inflammation, inflammation is the immune system’s first response to injury and invaders. So if you slip and fall on the ice and you sprain your ankle, it will get red, hot, painful, and swollen, and this is a mechanism that the immune system uses to force you to sit in a chair, put ice on it, elevate it, and allow it time to heal.
RM: Okay.
LV: The kind of inflammation we also see is in regards to infections. So if you get an infection, meaning a virus, your immune system mount a massive assault by creating lots of mucous to push the virus out, give you a fever to help you fight things off, and again it’s the same kind of process that we see.
RM: And it’s a normal, natural process?
LV: Yes. Inflammation protects us and keeps us alive on this earth. Unfortunately, the kind of inflammation that’s scary is what we call silent inflammation, and this is the inflammation you cannot see because it’s not on the skin surface, and silent inflammation in our arteries is what’s increasing our risk of things like heart disease and heart attack, and inflammation in the joints is what’s creating pain and dysfunction and degradation of the joint function in regards to arthritis. And then we see inflammation in regards to allergies, which is the immune systems over-response to a common everyday substance, so we also know inflammation is linked to Alzheimer’s disease. We now know that there’s a cell in the brain called the microglial cell, that when it has an assault with the immune system that it increases massive amounts of inflammation to causes breakdown of those memory cells in the brain.
RM: And why is this massive inflammation taking place, diet and lifestyle?
LV: Again, it’s the foods we choose. We know that certain foods like organ meats and red meats can make inflammation much worse, fried foods, blackened foods, foods that contain trans fatty acids, so that’s our potato chips,-
RM: Okay.
LV: -those types of cause massive amounts of inflammation in the body, and the fact that we don’t sleep. And guess what? Those fat cells are massive inflammation factories, so every ten pounds of extra fat you pack on, you increase inflammation in the body.
RM: Fat is a source of inflammation in the body?
LV: Those fat cells are very scary inflammation factories.
RM: What should we be doing about this?
LV: Well there are some wonderful natural remedies that are specific to different conditions. For example, if you have arthritis and you’ve got inflammation going on in the body, most people think about taking glucosamine sulfate,-
RM: All right.
LV: -because glucosamine has been proven to repair damaged cartilage, which is the slippery part on the ends of our bones. The problem if you’re not taking a natural anti-inflammatory at the same time is that you have inflammation going on in that joint, and then the glucosamine can only do so much, so you would want to take something like celadrin, which is a natural fatty acid that is a very powerful anti-inflammatory-
RM: Okay.
LV: -to calm the inflammation down in the joint.
RM: So celadrin is a natural fatty acid?
LV: Right. It’s an esterified acetylated fatty acid, another one of those great clinically researched nutrients, and celadrin has some good studies that have been researched at the University of Connecticut, published in the Journal of Rheumatology, the most respected arthritis journal. And it comes in a cream that you can use, a topical cream where a hundred percent of the participants in the studies had complete pain relief. And I’ve actually used it. I had hip surgery, and I can tell you that the celadrin cream got me through the surgery recovery without problems.
RM: Well that’s great news. I’m glad to hear that. Thank you, Lorna.
LV: Thank you.
|