Re: Regarding inflammation

[Guest guest]

This is a little off the CR or dietary track...

On Jun 9, 2010, at 9:16 AM, A Houle wrote:

> jwwright wrote:

>>

>>

>> That explains nothing to me.

>> What is " inflammation " ?

>> Pain?

>> Something we can measure?

>> Yes, I see little advice in dementia articles.

>>

> " Inflammation " is a word that I see kicking around too much these days.

>

Yup... inflammation is a natural response to sundry systemic stresses.

> By unhappy circumstance I got bloodwork the day after I whacked my

> quadraceps muscle (largest in the body)

I though Glutes win the contest for biggest single muscle on most of us? While

this can vary for individuals I guess.

> and got a contusion that still

> hurts two weeks later. I'm also allergic to just about everything my

> allergist prick tested me for, so I was having sneezing fits because of

> tree pollen and hadn't started taking Zyrtec to suppress the allergic

> response.

>

I heard a slightly off-color comedy routine about what tree pollen is (think

about it :-)

> My C-Reactive Protein measured off the bottom of the scale (they

> only gave me a " less than " reading) so I've got no idea of what it

> measures. It certainly didn't detect two kinds of inflammation that

> were making me thoroughly miserable.

>

> A friend of mine went to his doc the other day and was told that his

> doc wouldn't prescribe any medicine or do anything for his high CRP test

> because there wasn't any solid scientific case for treating it. Lately

> the makers of Crestor, a statin drug, have been pushing Crestor for

> people with elevated CRP based on a single study, but the health care

> economics (and risk of side effects) may not add up for this application:

>

> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/31/business/31statins.html

>

>

Indeed, sounds like a good doctor. The mass prescription of statins, is yet

another piece of popular medical wisdom, perhaps OK for many in the unhealthy

general population that we should avoid because of our more healthful normal. My

brother is on statins but he is overweight and doesn't exercise regularly,

Medication of inflammation (a symptom), without addressing the root cause, can

interfere with our body's natural response to sundry stresses and do more harm

than good. It is not uncommon to suppress inflammation to promote healing of

injuries, because Inflammation restricts blood flow around an injury to reduce

blood loss. This reduced blood flow is only useful transiently to reduce the

severity of the injury, but hinders healing if it persists too long after the

trauma.

Good luck with your quad...(injuries suck) i'm sure your MD is advising you, so

listen to him not me. In general alternating heat/cold can stimulate blood flow

in an area, to deliver more oxygen to promote healing, and help remove waste

products. Large muscles should have relatively good blood flow so heal more

quickly that other areas of our body with weaker circulation.

JR

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