(HealthNewsDigest.com)...NEW YORK, January 27, 2005 - Vitamin E plays a
significant role in both reducing inflammation and cleansing the body of
damaging free radicals, according to a prominent cardiovascular surgeon speaking
today at a health and science writers' workshop on vitamin E and health, held at
the New York Academy of Sciences and sponsored by the Council for Responsible
Nutrition. However, Americans don't consume enough vitamins and minerals in
their diets because of modern methods of food production, so they should
consider using supplements to replace the missing nutrients.
Inflammation is the heart of the matter. It's becoming clear that
inflammation plays an important causative role in heart disease, Gerald M.
Lemole, M.D., told the group. He is W. Samuel Carpenter III Distinguished Chair
of Cardiovascular Surgery, Chief of Cardiac Surgery at Christiana Care Health
Services, and Professor
of Surgery at Thomas Jefferson University. The cardiac surgeon explained that
normal inflammation is the body's protective response to toxins, pathogens,
irritants,
trauma, free radicals, and unrecognized molecules. However, things can go
wrong, and groups of inflamed white blood cells may build up, rupture, and
trigger a heart attack. The body's response to this is an elevated C-reactive
protein (CRP) level, homocysteine level, and fibrinogen-all implicated in
worsening heart disease.
In fact, cardiologists now consider an elevated CRP level to be an
increasingly important marker for heart disease. He told the group that other
risk factors for inflammation are obesity, smoking, genetic predisposition, high
stress, and
diets rich in highly processed and carbohydrate-rich foods. Chronic
inflammation, he said, is linked to periodontal disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's
disease, and cancer as well as heart disease. Antioxidants such as vitamin E can
ameliorate that risk.
In discussing why nutritional supplementation may be necessary, Dr. Lemole
listed several reasons such as environmental stress, nutritional deficiencies in
our
food supply, inadequacy of the recommended requirements, constitutional
variations, and medically induced deficiencies. He said, We've industrialized
farm production, and that's led to serious problems in the micronutritional
composition of foods.
Growth hormones and antibiotics, which deplete vitamins A and B, are used in
over half of commercial livestock. Refinement of sugars, grains, flours, and
other food has deprived us of consuming many essential and nutritional
ingredients.
Dr. Lemole told the group that the situation is worsening. There are fewer
and fewer naturally occurring antioxidants in our food supply. He cautioned, We
know that an inflammatory process can trigger certain diseases. We're aware that
age-related immune deficiency is caused by free radicals and that it can be
reversed by antioxidants. And unfortunately, we're all too familiar now with the
realization that wall of the artery is a living, reactive tissue capable of
mounting an inflammatory
response. That inflammatory response is heart disease.
source: Provided by HealthNewsDigest.com
