Re: Re:one question for Irene

[Guest guest]

On Fri, July 4, 2008 2:54 pm, Bumpas wrote:

> Does antiinflammatory=antioxidant?

Hi ,

Happy 4th!!!

Anything anti-oxidant is also automatically anti-inflamamtory.

But your question is a good one and goes back to basic metabolism:

All animals on the planet essentially are based on an oxygen metabolism

(Some exceptions in deep sea use sulphur). So oxygen is involved in nearly

all the chemical reaqctions of the body, either in a positibve way or a

negative way.

The negative oxygen reactions (that are damaging to the system) are called

" oxidation " reactions. " Anti-oxidants " have the ability to prevent those

oxidation reactions.

Other things that are anti-inflammatory at cell wall level, do not

necessarily do so by preventing oxidation - they may actually undo the

damage or in other ways be beneficial to the " phospholipid cell wall

layer " .

It is this cell wall layer made of phospholipids (mainly special kinds of

fatty acid) that determines the individual health of every cell in the

body - as it determines what goes in (hopefully nutrients) and what comes

out (hopefully toxins) of that cell, and the cell wall needs to be very

supple and flexible and in good health with no stuff sticking to it, in

order to function effectively.

So there are lots of chemical reactions that can help the cell wall and

lots that can damage it. We call the helping ones anti-inflammatory and

the damaging ones inflammatory.

It's not only oxygen in oxidation reactions that can damage - so it's not

only anti-oxidants that we need to keep cells healthy:

Glucose reacts by " glycation " to damage cell walls for example - by making

sticky threads (glucose=sticky=glue, think glue-cose!) that make a

latticework of junk across cells, rendering the whole area affected

inflexible and thus non-functional or less functional. (Cell walls have to

flex to allow stuff in and out between the molecules.)

So we need anti-inflammatories that undo glucose and other damage issues

in addition to anti-oxidants that *prevent* oxidation damage.

For example Vit E and fish oil (due to DHA and EPA in fish oil) in

combination can undo damage. The fish oil opens up vessels wider (kidney

or blood vessels for example, lowering pressure) and the Vit E then can

get in there to remove scar tissue, to get a permanent fix.

Individually Vit E can also be anti-oxidant, as can fish oil - to

*prevent* damage.

> Or are there antioxidant foods that are

> not antiinflammatory

So - No. All anti-oxidant foods are automatically anti-inflammatory as

they prevent adverse oxidation reactions.

> and antiinflammatory foods that are not antioxidant?

Yes. The items that undo damage are also anti-inflammatory. Antioxidant

only means prevention of oxidation type damage, not other type damage and

not repair. ALL the beneficial items together are " anti-inflammatory "

including but not limited to anti-oxidants. Anti-oxidants prevent the

specific type of damage caused by " oxidation " (negative-for-us oxygen

reactions), but are not to be sneezed at as oxidation is a HUGE component

of ill health.

Some people (erroneously) use the two terms interchangeably - helps to

know as what you read may seem confusing when they do that.

> I've found it hard to find good lists (free) of antiinflammatory foods;

> it's easier it seems to find antioxidant foods.

I agree. Perricone's books are thorough but not free:-)

Some foods have both abilities - prevention and repair of damage.

Antioxidant foods are all good stuff, but some of them are great in

combination.

For example:

As mentioned Vit E and fish oil together are a great repair team.

(provided the fish oil active sites are not blocked by drugs like aspirin,

statins, beta blockers, cox-2 stuff, etc)

Alpha-lipoic acid, ascorbic acid and Vit E are a great trio. Each is an

anti-oxidant - but together they can be up to 200 times as effective as

the alpha-lipoic acid tends to recycle the ascorbic acid and Vit E up to

200 times. It has to do with the unique feature of alpha-lipoic acid that

it works in water and in oil - where ascorbic acid works only in water

(inside cells) and Vit E works only in oil (inside cell walls).

There are other things that are also anti-inflammatory, like omega-9

(oleic acid) in extra virgin olive oil (EVO), which directly repairs and

strengthens cell walls. EVO also contains a mind boggling number and

quality of anti-oxidants (at least 5mg per 10g of EVO), mostly polyphenols

(one of the categories of antioxidant), including one found only in EVO

that is the strongest known antioxidant. Of course I can not remember the

name of it right now! It's a jawbreaker. [None of this is in seed oils

which are actually inflamamtory]

You probably know - but if you leave out the " extra-virgin " and get plain

virgin or olive oil or worse still " light " , you are leaving out the

antioxidants.

So go ahead and use the antioxidant lists, they will be great.

And add other stuff to your personal list as you hear of it.

Namaste,

Irene

--

Irene de Villiers, B.Sc AASCA MCSSA D.I.Hom/D.Vet.Hom.

P.O. Box 4703 Spokane WA 99220.

www.angelfire.com/fl/furryboots/clickhere.html (Veterinary Homeopath.)

" Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt one doing it. "