Vitagenes, Antioxidants, and Nutrients that Fight Inflammation

In Sacramento, all the rage at UC Davis focuses on sciences that study vitagenes. Recently the UC Davis team won a $3.3 million grant to conduct a juvenile diabetes study. How do projects like these win the participation of researchers looking at vitagenes in relation to how certain antioxidants suppress inflammation? See, Diabetes Headlines.com - Search their news archive.

The latest Sept. 2010 issue of Life Extension Magazine devotes a lengthy article to the relatively new field of studying vitagenes in an article covering dietary supplements that suppress inflammation. The idea is that those with chronic inflammation can reverse their elevated C-reactive protein levels, and symptoms of inflammation. But what works better, restoring youthful hormones such as testosterone to men, or taking pomegranate to restore coronary blood flow?

Actually, you might ask what's one symptom got to do with the other? The tie that binds these types of scientific studies together is the new science of looking at vitagenes. And the study of vitagenes isn't really that new at all. It goes back to using foods and food extracts to heal, which has been done for ages in folkloric medicine. What's new now, is the infusions and extracts are much more concentrated. But the food also works to some degree.

If you're worried about chronic inflammation leading to heart disease, strokes, arthritis, virus outbreaks such as facial herpes, and certain types of autoimmune diseases, instead of reaching for the fast-pill solution, you might be interested in knowing that there are dietary supplements studied by scientists that do suppress inflammation.

What are vitagenes? Dietary antioxidants, such as curcumin, L-carnitine/acetyl-L-carnitine and carnosine have recently been demonstrated in vitro to be neuroprotective through the activation of hormetic pathways, including vitagenes. How important are vitagenes in the cellular stress response?

While scientists analyze, from a pharmacological point of view, the potential use of dietary antioxidants in the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders in humans, there's a global battle raging between the use of vitagenes or the use of drugs to get a specific result--health. See, The Nature of Gerontogenes and Vitagenes: Antiaging Effects of Repeated Heat Shock on Human Fibroblasts.

Human survival and the physical quality of life depends upon an efficient functioning of various maintenance and repair processes. This complex network of the so-called longevity assurance processes is composed of several genes, termed vitagenes. In plain language, you can define a vitagene as a dynamic repair process. Think of the entire property of living systems as a function of a vitagene network. It's about a process of all your cells working together to maintain you. See, Vitagenes + Learn About Vitagenes.com : Encomer Web Information. Also check out the article, Vitagenes, dietary antioxidants and neuroprotection in neurodegenerative diseases.

When you try to explain the idea of vitagenes, you first have to understand that it's about the ability of each cell to counteract stressful conditions. The scientific term is called cellular stress response. The cells are activated by stress to go into pro-survival mode via pathways. And what results is the cell's production of molecules with anti-oxidant activities.

The cells also respond with "anti-apoptic" or "pro-apoptic" activities. The word 'apoptic' means "to fall off." In biology, apoptic refers to the disintegration of cells into membrane-bound particles that are then eliminated by phagocytosis (engulfing solid particles) or by shedding.

Dietary antioxidants such as curcumin, L-carnitine/acetyl-L-caritine, and carnosine have recently been demonstrated in vitro to be 'neuroprotective' by activating certain pathways (called hormetic pathways) including vitagenes. If you're studying cellular stress, it's important to understand how vitagenes work during the cellular stress response. The end result of studies in this field is to find out the potentialuse of dietary antioxidants to treat neurodegenerative disorders in humans. So the battle rages on between statins and dietary antioxidants.

Statin drugs, for example, help to suppress inflammation, according to an article in the Sept. 2010 issue of Life Extension Magazine's As We See It section, "Dietary Supplements That Suppress Inflammation." But so do certain foods, especially extracts from foods. The dietary supplements as well as the foods work to suppress the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and C-reactive protein.

What the Life Extension article lists are some, but certainly not all nutrients that come from foods or plants that in medical journals have demonstrated effects in suppressing chronic inflammatory reactions. Some of these nutrients include the following information. What's excellent is that for each nutrient, there's a medical study published in reliable, mainstream medical and scientific journals that backs up the claim of each nutrient. The article also notes how pomegranate restores coronary artery blood flow.

Pomegranate was studied to find its effects on angina and the rate of blood flow through the coronary arteries. First a baseline test induced angina and an advanced diagnostic technique was used to measure coronary blood flow. In the pomegranate group, after three months, the blood flow improved by 18%.

The placebo group worsened by 17% after three months. Basically, the study showed that daily consumption of pomegranate can improve blood flow to the heart in coronary artery disease patients in a short period of time. Interestingly, the test used to measure coronary blood flow was shown to be the best predictor of future heart attack risk. The study was "Effects of pomegranate juice consumption on myocardial perfusion in patients with coronary heart disease," American Journal of Cardiology, 2005, Sept.15;96(6):810-4

There's another study comparing statins to pomegranate. But both groups were on statins and did not stop the statins. One group added pomegranate while taking statins. In the statin-only group, hardening of the arteries increased by 9% in a year. In the gorup receive the statins plus pomegranate, showed a 35% reversal in carotid-intima-media thickness. That study was "Pomegranate juice consumption for 3 years by patients with carotid artery stenosis reduces common carotid intima-media thickness, blood pressure and LDL oxidation." Clinical Nutrition, 2004, June, 23(3)423-33. Also see, Potential drug-food interactions with pomegranate juice.

You can find the list of medical and scientific article studies on the various nutrients cited in Life Extension Magazine, pages 19-23, Sept. 2010 issue. (Next month the previous month's magazine issue will be posted online).

The nutrients include the following on this partial list:

Curcumin (comes from turmeric) (Safety and anti-inflammatory activity of curcumin: a component of turmeric (Curcuma longa) Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 2003, Feb;9(1):161-8. Also see the article, A potential role of the curry spice curcumin in Alzheimer's disease. Also see, Neuroprotective properties of the natural phenolic antioxidants curcumin and naringenin but not quercetin and fisetin in a 6-OHDA model of Parkinson's disease.

Irvingia - See the Stanford's Wellsphere site, "More Information on Irvingia."

Vitamin K - See - Vitamin K and Vitamin D Status: Associations with Inflammatory markers in the Framingham Offspring Study, American Journal of Epidemiology, 2008. Feb. 1;167-(3):313-20.

Luteolin - Luteolin as an anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic constituent of Perilla frutescens.

Fish Oil - Effect of Concomitant Consumption of Fish Oil and Vitamin E on Production of Inflammatory Cytokines in Healthy Elderly Humans

Borage Oil ( source of gamma-linolenic acid) - Borage oil reduction of rheumatoid arthritis activity may be mediated by increased cAMP that suppresses tumor necrosis factor-alpha.

Acetyl-L=carnitine - Vitagenes, dietary antioxidants and neuroprotection in neurodegenerative diseases.

Vitamin C - Dietary vitamin C down-regulates inflammatory gene expression in apoE4 Smokers.

Theaflavins - Theaflavin, a black tea extract, is a novel anti-inflammatory compound

Soluble fiber - Relationship between dietary fiber and cancer: metabolic, physiologic, and cellular mechanisms

Coenzyme Q 10 - Effects of coenzyme Q10 in early Parkinson disease: evidence of slowing of the functional decline, and Beneficial effect of coenzyme Q10 on increased oxidative and nitrative stress and inflammation and individual metabolic components developing in a rat model of metabolic syndrome.

Isoflavones - Reduction of C-reactive protein with isoflavone supplement reverses endothelial dysfunction in patients with ischaemic stroke.