Interesting Stuff

[Guest guest]

http://medschool.ucsd.edu/SIRA/healthwise/june00/p4.html

Editor:

Can you share some of the discoveries you've made?

Dr. Witztum:

One of the major contributions, for which our center is famous, is our

development of what is called the oxidation

hypothesis of atherosclerosis. Dr Steinberg, myself and our colleagues developed

the hypothesis to explain why the

cholesterol-carrying particles, the LDL, actually cause atherosclerosis. The

first step in that process is the

development of foam cells, which are special cells in the artery wall that take

up a lot of the cholesterol and keep it

there.

Editor:

Are these cells a natural part of our body?

Dr. Witztum:

They are not normally there; but if you have high plasma levels of cholesterol,

then you start developing these cells.

They are called " foam cells " because under the microscope they are full of lipid

(fat and cholesterol) and they look

like a cell full of little foamy deposits. The pathologists originally described

these as foam cells. The mechanisms by

which cells can take up the LDL and become foam cells was not known. What was

discovered in our laboratories was that

the LDL had to be modified. The native LDL particle doesn't generate foam cells

when it is incubated with these special

cells called monocytes or macrophages.

The LDL has to be modified, and our laboratories discovered that the lipids in

the LDL had to be oxidized.

[ ******* Note the above statement ********* and then start to understand that

not all the fatty acids (lipids) in the

LDL carrier have the same sensitivity to oxidation. Polyunsaturated fatty acids

are greater than Monounsaturated fatty

acids are greater than Saturated fatty acids.]

This process is called oxidation of LDL, which converts LDL into a form that is

very rapidly taken up by the macrophage,

and can very quickly convert a normal cell into a foam cell. That is probably

the first step in the atherogenic process.

========================

Good Health & Long Life,

Greg , http://optimalhealth.cia.com.au gowatson@...

USDA database (food breakdown) http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/

PubMed (research papers) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi

DWIDP (nutrient analysis) http://www.walford.com/dwdemo/dw2b63demo.exe

Patch file for above http://www.walford.com/download/dwidp67u.exe

KIM (omega analysis) http://ods.od.nih.gov/eicosanoids/KIM_Install.exe

[Guest guest]

Do you have any information about usimg Plaquenil and

Cytotec for CFS?

Marie

--- <usenethod@...> wrote:

>

> I'd heard it stated informally somewhere that RA

> patients could get a

> buzz, basically, from anti-TNF, starting even before

> the joint pain

> improvement starts. So I've looked over 30 or so

> google hits to see if

> anti-TNF has ever been tried in CFS. After all, I

> think anti-TNF is

> generally more effective than mtheotrexate,

> azathioprine, steroids,

> etc in things like RA.

>

> Well, here's a bit of substantiation. A news

> article:

>

> " A new phase III trial has found that the tumor

> necrosis factor-alpha

> (TNF- & #945;) inhibitor etanercept not only improves

> the clinical

> manifestations of psoriasis but also relieves the

> fatigue and

> depression associated with the disease.1 The

> findings point to the

> role higher concentrations of proinflammatory

> cytokines such as TNF- & #945;

> have in major depressive symptoms. "

>

> I didn't read the paper, but the article does

> mention " statistical

> significance. " It seems that at the time of this Dec

> 2005 article, the

> research clinician was not aware of any anti-TNF

> trials in depression

> or CFS:

>

> " " A lot of clinicians have made the observation

> that when they give

> etanercept to some people with inflammatory disease,

> they lighten up

> and feel better, " Dr. Krishnan says. " Both fatigue

> and depression are

> common in psoriasis, and TNF- & #945; inhibitor

> therapy seems to help both

> symptoms in addition to psoriasis symptoms. Our

> study is more a

> validation of what clinicians already know. "

>

> " Going forward, studies that look at the effect of

> anti-TNF therapy on

> fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and primary

> depression would

> be of interest, Dr. Krishnan says. "

>

>

>