Anti-Inflammatory Diet

All health care starts with diet. My recommendations for a healthy diet are here:
Anti-Inflammatory Diet and Lifestyle.
There are over 190 articles on diet, inflammation and disease on this blog
(find topics using search [upper left] or index [lower right]), and
more articles by Prof. Ayers on Suite101 .

Thursday, October 16, 2008

New Topics

Here are some topics that I am working on for articles in the near future:

Cyclodextrins: These interesting bracelets of sugar molecules show how sugars bind to flat aromatic rings structures, such as aromatic amino acids and alkaloids. This molecule illustrates why I am interested in the interplay of heparin, inflammation and disease.

Vitamin D: This vitamin is a prohormone that binds to a cytoplasmic protein and then acts like a transcription factor to control gene expression. It is also synthesized by a reaction that required ultraviolet light in the skin and it is stored in fat. Vitamin D deficiency is linked to cancer and many of the same chronic diseases associated with inflammation. Interestingly the ends of some collagen molecules have structures that are similar to the serum transport proteins for steroids.

COPD: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is an inflammatory disease that is unfortunately very common.

Asthma: This allergic condition causes major restructuring of airways in response to inflammation. Atomized heparin has been used as a treatment to minimize inflammation.

Suggestions: I am always looking for suggestions of topic that are of special interest to my readers, so if you would like a subject discussed, just leave a comment.

3 comments:

Richard said...

Hi,

Just discovered your blog a few days ago and am loving it. One new topic idea I would like to see more of has to do with arthritis. My father is suffering from fairly severe arthritis in his neck (Cervical Spinal Stenosis I believe). I saw one article in your blog but would like to see/learn more.

Thanks,

Richard

Dr. Art Ayers said...

Richard,
Arthritis is an obvious subject and it is a disease that got me started studying connective tissue, collagen and heparan sulfate proteoglycans. I shall look into it again.

In the meantime, try using some Vick's or castor oil on his neck for relief and shift to an anti-inflammatory diet. The vitD/sunlight and fish oil should give big benefits. Arthritis is not normal aging, it is mismanaged chronic inflammation and it is reversible.

Thanks for your comments.

Richard said...

Thanks for your response. A couple more specific things I'm interested in are:

More about HFCS and how it affects cartilage and arthritis

What about smoking? I've heard it dehydrates discs?

Have you heard of hyaluronic acid for arthritis therapy?

I hope my questions aren't too silly.

Regards,

Richard