Dr. Barry Sears
President of Zone Labs |
|
| Please
visit the Zone
Living Web Site for books like The Anti-Inflammation Zone, The Omega-Rx Zone, Zone Perfect Meals in Minutes, and more! |
| |
|
OMEGA 3 BENEFITS
A Silent Killer in Our Midst
CBN.com –
Silent inflammation is the first sign that your body is
out of balance and you are no longer well. You can’t feel
it, but it is affecting your heart, your brain, and your immune
system.
There are three underlying hormonal changes that are linked to
silent inflammation. They involve the overproduction of three
distinct types of hormones:
• Eicosanoids
• Insulin
• Cortisol
Each of these three hormones contributes to silent inflammation.
Eicosanoids
Eicosanoids were the first hormones developed by living organisms.
Eicosanoids are produced by every cell in your body. Although
they might be considered primitive hormones, they control everything
from your immune system to your brain and heart.
There are two kinds of eicosanoids, those that promote inflammation
(pro-inflammatory) and tissue destruction and those that stop
inflammation (anti-inflammatory) and promote healing. You need
to have both kinds in the proper balance in order to be in a state
of wellness. Unfortunately, most of us produce too many pro-inflammatory
eicosanoids which leads to increasing levels of silent inflammation
and eventually to chronic health risks.
Eicosanoids form the command center of your immune system. Knock
them out completely, and the immune system gets knocked out as
well. This occurs in those who have immune-deficiency diseases,
such as AIDS. A more common occurrence, however, is when pro-inflammatory
eicosanoids stage a military coup of the immune system. Like rogue
soldiers, if the pro-inflammatory eicosanoids aren’t called
back to the barracks, inflammation runs amok and your immune system
starts attacking your body. In fact, an imbalance of eicosanoids
is at the foundation of chronic disorders that affect the Heart,
Brain and Immune Function. It is the imbalance of these
eicosanoids that causes silent inflammation.
You can tip the balance back toward anti-inflammatory eicosanoids
in a number of ways. First and foremost, you have to modify what
you eat. Anti-inflammatory eicosanoids—which I refer to
as the “good” ones—come from eating a diet rich
in long-chain omega-3-fatty acids (found in fish oil) and low
in omega-6 fatty acids (found in high concentrations of vegetable
oils like corn, soybean, sunflower, and safflower). This is because
long-chain omega-3 fatty acids reduce pro-inflammatory eicosanoids,
whereas omega-6 fatty acids increase the production of pro-inflammatory
eicosanoids.
Until about eighty years ago, our population ate a 2:1 ratio
of omega-6 and omega-3 fats. We ate a lot more fish back then,
and many of our grandparents took a daily dose of omega-3 rich
cod liver oil. (Yes, it was disgusting, but it was anti-inflammatory,
too.) Furthermore, refined vegetable oils were a very small part
of our diet. Now all of that has changed. We’re eating a
lot more omega-6 fats and far fewer long-chain omega-3 fats, with
the ratio of these two groups of fatty acids being closer to 20:1.
With that dramatic increase in omega-6 fatty acids in our diet,
the amount of silent inflammation in our society has correspondingly
increased. Chronic disorders that affect the Heart, Brain
and Immune System are all on the rise because they are initiated
by silent inflammation.
How can the type of fat you eat cause silent inflammation? As
a lipid (i.e. fat) researcher, I have been intrigued by this question
for more than twenty years. It turns out that certain pro-inflammatory
eicosanoids (primarily consisting of prostaglandins and leukotrienes)
are derived from arachidonic acid (AA), a long-chain omega-6 fatty
acid. The classic symptoms of inflammation are due in large part
to these eicosanoids. Prostaglandins cause the pain, and leukotrienes
cause the swelling and redness associated with inflammation.
Prostaglandins and leukotrienes are the usual suspects when you
have bad pain, and they are also the cause of silent inflammation.
This is why every anti-inflammatory drug works to stop the over-production
of these particular eicosanoids.
To call off the rogue soldiers in your inflammatory army that
are derived from arachidonic acid (AA), you need to increase the
good anti-inflammatory eicosanoids. These anti-inflammatory eicosanoids
are derived from long-chain omega-3 fatty acids. Ultimately the
balance of AA to EPA in your blood determines the levels of silent
inflammation in your body. That’s why I call this ratio
of these two fatty acids your Silent Inflammation Profile (SIP).
The higher the SIP, the less well you are and the more likely
it is that you are going to develop some type of chronic health
disorder. In other words, SIP gives you a glimpse into your future.
This is why I believe it is the single best test in medicine--because
it reveals your state of wellness (or lack of it) with laser-like
precision.
Insulin
Insulin is the storage hormone that drives nutrients into cells.
It is vital for your survival since it allows cells to either
store nutrients or immediately use them for energy. Without adequate
levels of insulin, your cells would literally starve to death.
And this is exactly what happens in type 1 (childhood-onset) diabetes,
in which the patient is producing no insulin. (In fact, only a
small percentage of diabetics have this type of diabetes.) Without
injections of insulin, death is the inevitable outcome. But most
of us are much more likely to have the opposite problem: we make
way too much insulin. This is bad news, since it is excess insulin
that makes you fat and keeps you fat.
As you age, your cells become less responsive to insulin, and
your pancreas needs to continually churn out more and more insulin
to get the message through to the cells in the liver and the muscles
that incoming dietary nutrients (primarily sugar and amino acids)
need to be taken up by the cells. This is called insulin resistance.
In general, the more excess body fat you have, the more insulin
resistance you have, and the more insulin your body needs to produce
in order to overcome this resistance.
It is also excess insulin that increases silent inflammation.
An over-abundance of insulin increases the production of arachidonic
acid (AA), the building block for all pro-inflammatory eicosanoids.
This is the smoking gun that links excess body fat to a wide range
of chronic health risks.
As noted, excess insulin’s link to silent inflammation
stems from the fact that it increases the production of arachidonic
acid (AA), the building block for all pro-inflammatory eicosanoids.
And if that isn’t bad enough, recent research shows that
insulin induces inflammation by increasing the production of interleukin-6
(IL-6), a pro-inflammatory cytokine that causes the formation
of C-reactive protein, another marker for silent inflammation.
The bottom line: controlling insulin is essential if you want
to reverse silent inflammation and move toward a state of wellness.
Simply consuming a lot more fish oil and a lot less vegetable
oil will begin to reverse silent inflammation. Changing your dietary
habits by following the Zone Diet can also have an immediate impact
because that will reduce the levels of the hormone insulin, which
indirectly affects silent inflammation.
The Zone Diet was developed specifically to reduce excess insulin
production, and as a result the Zone Diet also reduces silent
inflammation. You’ll get all the added benefits that go
along with this--including a loss of excess body fat, a reduced
risk of heart disease, diabetes and other insulin-related illnesses,
and an increased lifespan. Not a bad deal.
The power of the Zone Diet is that you can see a difference in
your blood test results within seven days. In fact, it has been
shown by studies at Harvard Medical School that even one meal
can begin to reduce insulin levels and then begin to drive you
back to a state of wellness. You’ll notice it right away
in terms of your energy level and overall well being. Of course
the opposite is also true: One meal that increases insulin levels
can begin to drive you out of the Anti-Inflammation Zone.
The hormonal systems of both eicosanoids and insulin are intricately
linked. They both trigger silent inflammation if they’re
out of balance. They both reduce inflammation and silent inflammation
when they’re brought back into balance. Neither operates
in a vacuum, since they are inter-related. The bad news is most
of us have both systems out of balance at the same time, and it
only gets worse as we age. The good news is the Zone Diet can
normalize both systems, which is why it’s the ultimate antidote
to silent inflammation.
Cortisol
When your body is in a constant state of silent inflammation,
it reacts to it by having your adrenal glands pump out high amounts
of cortisol, the primary anti-inflammatory hormone used to decrease
excess inflammation. We tend to think of cortisol as a stress
hormone, but in reality it is an anti-stress hormone. At the cellular
levels all stress creates an inflammatory state caused by an over-production
of pro-inflammatory eicosanoids. Cortisol is sent out to lower
the levels of these eicosanoids, which is fine over the short
run when stress is temporary. But having a high level of constant
silent inflammation means you are going to have high levels of
cortisol on a permanent basis, causing a number of nasty consequences
such as increasing insulin resistance (which makes you fatter),
killing nerve cells (which makes you dumber), and depressing your
entire immune system (which makes you sicker). This is the collateral
damage that comes from increased silent inflammation.
The diet and lifestyle prescriptions of The Anti-Inflammation
Zone allow you to decrease silent inflammation and prevent the
need for your body to increase cortisol levels. In fact, the more
successful you are, the more control you’ll have over cortisol.
Is Silent Inflammation in Your Genes?
Why do we have this growing epidemic of silent inflammation?
Blame it on your genes. Evolution tends to favor those biological
characteristics in a particular species that make them better
equipped to pass their genes on to the next generation. In Part
II, I’ll discuss how our modern lifestyle plays havoc with
our genes.
Excerpted from The Anti-Inflammation Zone - Reversing The
Silent Epidemic That's Destroying Our Health. Copyright 2005
by Barry Sears, Ph.D. Used by permission.
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and
Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose,
treat, cure, or prevent any disease. As with any natural product,
individual results will vary.
For more information about Dr. Barry Sears, his incredible fish
oil supplements, or the popular Zone Diet, please visit www.zoneliving.com.
If you purchase any Zone Labs, Inc. products, part of the
proceeds support CBN ministries.
Dr. Barry Sears is a leader in the field of
dietary control of hormonal response. A former research scientist
at the Boston University School of Medicine and the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Dr. Sears has dedicated his efforts over
the past 25 years to the study of lipids and their inflammatory
role in the development of chronic disease. He holds 13 U.S. patents
in the areas of intravenous drug delivery systems and hormonal
regulation for the treatment of cardiovascular disease.
CBN IS HERE FOR YOU!
Are you seeking answers in life? Are you hurting?
Are you facing a difficult situation?
A caring friend will be there to pray with you in your time of need.
|