Search Results for: spm

by Kara Fitzgerald, ND Allergy season is in high gear. The trees are budding and pollen is bursting forth in Connecticut. As our winters are warmer, we’re also seeing allergies kick in sooner, perhaps with a higher intensity than in years past. While most of us are cracking our windows open and emerging from the winter cocoon into the welcoming sun, our spring allergy patients step outside or crack their windows and they’re bombarded immediately with an almost invisible (to the non-sufferer)…

Specialized pro-resolving mediators (SPMs) offer an exciting opportunity to treat and manage the inflammation often associated with chronic disease. In this short video, Metagenics Institute asks Dr. Charles Serhan of Harvard Medical School about the significance of resolution physiology in the healthcare system today. Dr. Serhan responded that while resolution physiology has been known for decades, it has not been studied in detail of mechanisms until recently. Dr. Serhan’s work has shown that there is an organized progression to homeostasis from…

While inflammation is at the root of all sorts of poor outcomes and diseases it isn’t the fault of inflammation itself. Indeed, inflammation is a natural and protective response to specific insults and injuries. Healthy inflammation resolves naturally when you get a cut, for example. When inflammation becomes chronic, however, it can become destructive to the body’s tissues and systems. Long-term, chronic inflammation due to disease, a pro-inflammatory diet, or aging should be resolved as much as possible. Download the…

Inflammaging is a term that describes how immune system function deteriorates as we age. In individuals, it is determined by a variety of interrelated genetic and environmental factors, also known as epigenetics. This infographic shows how our bodies can become susceptible to inflammating and its effects. When we are young, we typically have good resolution of inflammation, low pro-inflammatory status, and a highly efficient stress response. Thus, most healthy young people do not suffer the negative consequences of inflammaging. However,…

This research review on Specialized Pro-resolving Mediators (SPMs) covers a novel nutritional approach to resolve inflammation. Acute and chronic inflammation is a widespread common experience in many who suffer from weight gain, as well as cardio metabolic disease and can be brought into resolution with the introduction clinical nutrition therapy and the use of SPMs to aid in the return to homeostasis, therefore reducing inflammation. This study demonstrates the use of SPM therapy in animal models of human disease. Acute…

How does chronic inflammation reinforce and cause chronic disease? Inputs like a sedentary lifestyle, obesity, and aging are associated with chronic systems inflammation throughout the whole body. This infographic illustrates the cascade from the input to the system inflammation to the resultant disease state. Disease states associated with inflammation include type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis, neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, and arthritis. Download the infographic Handschin C, Spiegelman BM. The role of exercise and PGC1alpha in inflammation and chronic disease.…