Two more ways to reduce inflammation….

Today's Post: Thursday, 10-8-2009

We’ve already posted on many ways to lower inflammation & that inflammation as measured by the HS CRP test is heart protective if kept low & indicative of increased heart attack risk or active cardiovascular disease if high.

Statin drugs are expensive & have what to me are an unacceptably high level of side effects some of which are quite dangerous. But there is research to show that they lower inflammation; that people with high HS CRP, or high sensitivity C Reactive Protein, do get more heart attacks, and that people who have high HS CRP readings who take statins to lower them do get somewhat fewer heart attacks even if their LDL cholesterol levels are below the danger zone. And, though statin drugs do lower LDL cholesterol, there is also some evidence that the somewhat fewer heart attacks in people who take statins may be mostly due to their inflammation reducing ability NOT their cholesterol lowering.

We’ve already posted on a wide variety of things you can do that effectively lower inflammation & HS CRP readings. Since each of these actions have other health benefits instead of side effects as statins do, I’ve posted that these actions are a MUCH wiser course than taking statin drugs to reduce inflammation.

(At the end of this post, I’ll list most of those actions in case you missed those posts.)

So, as you might imagine, if I read ways that I was unaware of before that lower inflammation, I pay close attention.

I. I’ve read that drinking celery juice or taking celery seed extract has a modest but definite effect on lowering high blood pressure. But what I did NOT know until a bit over a week ago, is that this effect may largely be due to the several ways the active ingredient that does this lowers inflammation. That specifically means that if your HS CRP reading is high, taking celery seed extract or drinking a glass of celery juice daily, may help to bring it down.

Celery seed contains 3-n-butylphthalide. It gives celery its unique flavor. And it’s the ingredient that is known to lower high blood pressure.

But here’s the information I did NOT know, this compound lowers the levels of uric acid in your bloodstream. That’s really significant since high uric acid levels cause crystals to form in your joints which damages them & hurts like hell. The disease is called Gout. And, I’ve also read that high uric acid levels may cause high blood pressure and heart disease.

3-n-butylphthalide also lowers most of the markers of inflammation that cause pain but without the serious side effects of the drugs that do so.

So for those reasons, it makes sense to try taking celery seed extract for joint pain. Apparently it often works & reduces pain a great deal.

II. Dr Al Sears says that excessive levels of homocysteine also cause inflammation. That’s good news since we know how to lower high homocysteine levels.

(Ideal levels of homocysteine are between 6.0 & 8.0. Damage to your blood vessels apparently begins to happen above 9.0 & gets severe above 15.0. This has been shown to cause mental decline and heart attacks.)

If your homocysteine levels test as being 9.0 or higher you can bring them down to safer levels with a combination of 4 things.

1. Take the supplements that lower it:

800 to 2100 mcg a day of folic acid;

up to 100 mg a day of B6;

500 to 1,000 mcg a day of B12, ideally as a sublingual tablet;

500 to 3,000 grams a day of TMG, also called betaine;

500 to 1,000 grams a day of NAC.

It’s also wise to take multivitamin and a B Complex vitamin for these and other the B vitamins.

And, since these vitamins help support and increase something called methylation, taking other supplements that do the same, is likely a very good idea. CoQ10 or its active form ubiquinol do this. And, I’ve read recently, so does L-Carnitine.

2. Eat the foods that are high in these nutrients:

Leafy greens and other green and nonstarchy vegetables and beans and lentils as these foods have the active ingredient directly that folic acid is transformed into that actually has the many health benefits. These foods also help you stay trim without getting too hungry.

Wheat germ, brewer’s yeast, & some other whole grains such as non-instant oatmeal and liver-but only from completely naturally fed and organically raised animals. These foods are rich in all the B vitamins

Eat some health OK animal protein foods, wild caught fish, and beef fed only grass, nonfat and very lowfat dairy products, eggs, pasture raised poultry. These foods are high in B12.

3. Stay completely away from direct and second hand tobacco smoke. It boosts homocysteine levels and also speeds aging and causes heart disease in other ways.

4. Avoid excessive drinking of alcohol and to the extent you can avoid excessive stress. These things tend to increase homocysteine.

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Here are some of the ways to lower inflammation that we’ve already posted on.

A. We’ve already posted that eating walnut if you aren’t allergic, using extra virgin olive oil, and eating wild caught fish and seafood & taking purified fish oil supplements while completely avoiding oils like soy, canola, safflower, and corn oils that are high in omega 6 oils and completely stopping eating refined grain foods and to the extent you can meat from animals fed grain – which are high in omega 6 oils, very sharply lowers inflammation. Doing this set of things also increases your HDL cholesterol and lowers your triglycerides and LDL levels which also prevents heart disease. Most people in this culture now get 15 to 20 times more omega 6 than omega 3. The balance that supports good health is one to one. So, it does take a bit of effort to lower the excessive omega 6’s and increase the omega 3’s. For best results you need to do all of the above.

Eating nuts such as almonds and pecans as well if you aren’t allergic and eating avocados has similar effects & is known to lower inflammation.

B. Ingesting trans fats and any and all hydrogenated oils causes inflammation and directly causes heart disease. So NEVER ingest this stuff. Eat natural foods that this junk is NOT added to and AWAYS read the labels on all packaged foods to be sure to avoid it. Unfortunately, it’s still in a huge percentage of packaged foods. Candy, snacks, and baked goods seem to be the worst. But I’ve seen the stuff listed in ice cream and peanut butter too.

C. Stop eating refined grains and foods made from them and ingesting high fructose corn syrup. (Specifically, never drink soft drinks.) And eat very little sugar and then in modest amounts and not every day. These foods also boost inflammation.

D. Get regular exercise. As long as you don’t injure yourself, regular exercise actually has a strong inflammation reducing effect.


Between the previous things and the ones we posted on today, that’s quite a bit. But each of them does lower inflammation. The more of them you do the lower your inflammation will be.

And, even better, each and every one of these actions has huge amounts of other health benefits.