Nutrition. Vitamins. You.
In this episode of the InVite Health Podcast, Amanda Williams, MD, MPH discusses research on the powerful catechins found in green tea that can target inflammation associated with arthritis and other chronic diseases.
Chronic inflammation can wreak havoc on the body, so what can you do to help? Turn to powerful nutrients such as Vitamin D, resveratrol and more to help with inflammaging.
inflammation
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Please see below for a complete transcript of this episode.
Hosted by Amanda Williams, MPH
*Intro music*
InVite Health Podcast Intro: Welcome to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast, where our degreed healthcare professionals are excited to offer you the most important health and wellness information you need to make informed choices about your health. You can learn more about the products discussed in each of these episodes and all that InViteⓇ Health has to offer at www.invitehealth.com/podcast. First time customers can use promo code PODCAST at checkout for an additional 15% off your first purchase. Let’s get started!
*Intro music*
Amanda Williams, MPH:
[00:00:40] Today, I want to zero in on inflammaging. This is a term that I like to toss around when it comes to accelerated aging that’s brought on by chronic inflammation, and we know that chronic inflammation is a big time problem. So I want to define inflammation in general today and talk about the implications. And then in part two, I’m going to talk about nutrients that are very specified when it comes to targeting chronic inflammation. So I’m Amanda Williams, MD, MPH, and let’s get right to it.† [00:01:13]
[00:01:13] Let’s talk some inflammaging and what exactly inflammaging is. Well, it’s just as its name suggests, it’s inflammation that creates aging. And for most people, they don’t want to age. Most people want to stay youthful. Well, we know that chronic inflammation will drive the aging process much faster than we would like. When we look at the end results of chronic inflammation, we can categorize all of those different chronic diseases. We can look at heart disease, we can look at diabetes, we look at chronic kidney disease, arthritis. We can look at, you know, irritable bowel with ulcerative colitis, for example, strokes, Alzheimer’s disease. We see the impact that inflammation has on the body.† [00:02:06]
[00:02:07] Now there is a big difference between short-term or acute inflammation, which is warranted and and actually is protective to the body, versus chronic, long-term inflammation, which I always describe as like a low level of inflammation, but it’s like a like a forest fire. So it’s creating damage slowly over time, where acute inflammation, say you sprain your ankle or something like that, you’re going to see this acute inflammatory response, which helps to promote the healing. So there is a big difference between the two when we look at acute inflammation versus chronic inflammation.† [00:02:52]
[00:02:53] So understanding the causes of chronic inflammation is key to trying to figure out how to reverse that. So when we think about things like mitochondrial dysfunction. So at the heart of the cell, the energy component, the maker of energy in each and every single cell is the mitochondria. If that mitochondria starts to go dysfunctional, then the cell is not going to be able to provide the energy or function the way that it is supposed to. We can certainly see how advanced glycation end products, those AGEs that are due to elevated blood sugar levels, can contribute to the chronic inflammatory process. We can look at things like oxidized low-density lipoprotein, so when we think about our cholesterol and how inflammation is the driving force for atherosclerosis, when we think about those plaque buildups.† [00:03:58]
[00:04:00] Now there are many different risk factors that we can associate with chronic inflammation. We can look at the diet first and foremost. You know, dietary intake of bad fats, dietary intake of sugary sweetened beverages and high sugar intake. We can certainly look at excess weight, so being overweight or obese can play an integral role into driving that chronic inflammation. Now, certainly, we can look for chronic inflammation in the body. We can assess what our current status is when it comes to chronic inflammation. We can look at things like high sensitivity C-reactive protein. We can look at tumor necrosis factor alpha levels. We can assess different interleukins to see how inflamed we really are.† [00:04:52]
[00:04:54] But we have to see that the 10 leading causes of mortality in this country are directly linked to chronic, low level inflammation. So this plays a pathological role in every single one of those diseases. So when we have chronic inflammation, this is what creates all of that destruction in the body and hence we look at inflammaging because if we don’t do anything about that inflammation, it’s going to disrupt the cellular function, which means the cell no longer is working the way it’s supposed to, sending out signals, messages and hence it’s going to age faster. These are very important takeaways, because so much of this is modifiable.† [00:05:53]
[00:05:56] So you have the acute inflammatory response, we want that to happen. We know that this is important. Say we have an injury. I mentioned, you know, a sprained ankle, for example. You have an infection from a viral infection, bacterial infection, parasite, fungus. Of course, we want an acute inflammatory response to this. Now we also know that certain viruses can trigger a chronic inflammatory response, which is not good. But the acute inflammatory response, this is a very well-controlled process in the body. It’s trying to prevent damage done to surrounding tissues is trying to stop the spread of infection. It’s helping that healing process through the removal of the bad pathogen or through damaged tissue.† [00:06:56]
[00:06:59] Now, that is one aspect of inflammation. Chronic inflammation is a whole different beast. This is where we lose that function of the cell through that mitochondrial loss of energy production, which means we’re going to have excessive free radical or reactive oxygen species that do significant damage to the cell itself. All of these things are important to understand. We can look at how different biochemical pathways are involved in chronic inflammation. I had mentioned the oxidation of your low-density lipoproteins. We can see how this is a significant contributor to the development of atherosclerotic plaques. We can look at how elevations in homocysteine, which is a clear indication that there is inflammation occurring within the cardiovascular system, which can also be influenced through the inadequate exposure of key B-vitamins. So if you’re homocysteine levels are high, you should also be assessing your B12 in your folate levels because we know that there is a correlation between that. So understanding the, the impact, the long-lasting impact of chronic inflammation is essential to be able to target that chronic inflammation.† [00:08:37]
[00:08:39] If we know we’re carrying around excess weight, obviously we need to do something about that through lifestyle modifications via exercise, via diet. We can certainly look at hormonal components that can drive inflammation, looking at the endocrine system in general, so then what we’re thinking about pancreatic function in the setting of metabolic syndrome and diabetes. There are many ways by which our daily choices influence inflammation and make that inflammation linger and do significant damage.† [00:09:25]
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[00:09:27] So we think about the cardiovascular implications, we think about how chronic low level inflammation has been implicated in many types of cancers. Think about how chronic inflammation is directly implicated with the pro-inflammatory cytokine response that you see in diabetes, which creates greater insulin resistance and less insulin sensitivity over time. You can look at age-related macular degeneration and see how inflammation is correlated to that. When they look at people who have age-related macular degeneration and they look their C-reactive protein levels, they can see elevated CRP, greater destruction within the eye. We can look at bone health and the impact of inflammation on the destruction of our bones, weakening the bones, creating osteopenia and osteoporosis. We can look at the cognitive impacts, we can look at how chronic inflammation can lead to things like anxiety and depression.† [00:10:35]
[00:10:38] So we have to first and foremost, be aware of what inflammaging is. And then secondly, we need to be proactive in our approach to targeting and managing this. This is essential to our existence because remember, it’s inflammaging. If we don’t want our cells to lose function and start dying off, which is going to shorten our lifespan, then we need to be proactive in how to support that cellular function. And the first thing that we do is we target the inflammation. So I’m going to, in part two, talk about different nutrients that we know are incredibly supportive when it comes to the normal inflammatory response and making sure that if we have excess inflammation occurring, that we can actually do something to lessen that, to lower the inflammation, to give those cells the ability to do what we need them to do. So we will pick up at that point in part two. So certainly tune in to that.† [00:11:53]
[00:11:53] For today, I want to thank you so much for tuning in to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast. Remember, you can find all of our episodes for free wherever you listen to podcasts or by visiting invitehealth.com/podcast. Do make sure that you subscribe and you leave us a review. You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @invitehealth and we will see you next time for another episode of the InViteⓇ Health Podcast.† [00:11:53]
As we age, our bodies experience something called immunosenescence, in which the immune system begins to function less efficiently. This can impact our ability to fend off pathogens, allergens and more.
Resveratrol is commonly known for its anti-aging properties, but this nutrient actually packs a punch for the health of your brain, heart and more.
Vitamin C
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Please see below for a complete transcript of this episode.
Hosted by Amanda Williams, MPH
*Intro music*
InVite Health Podcast Intro: Welcome to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast, where our degreed healthcare professionals are excited to offer you the most important health and wellness information you need to make informed choices about your health. You can learn more about the products discussed in each of these episodes and all that InVite Health has to offer at www.invitehealth.com/podcast. First time customers can use promo code PODCAST at checkout for an additional 15% off your first purchase. Let’s get started!
*Intro music*
Amanda Williams, MPH: When it comes to vitamins, Vitamin C certainly does so many things in the body that go far beyond that of just supporting our immune system. And when we look at the science of Vitamin C, it is astronomically large. If you just go to PubMed, for example, there’s 70,000 clinical research studies that include Vitamin C. So we know that Vitamin C is an integral part of our overall health and today I want to talk a little bit about how Vitamin C is utilized in the body, outside of just that for the immune system support, because it really is a multi-functional vitamin that is affecting so many different systems.†
I’m Amanda Williams, MD, MPH and oftentimes when people think of Vitamin C or Vitamin C deficiency, they think of scurvy. Now, we know that scurvy is very rare when it comes to its occurrences now. You still see this in developing parts of the world, but, in general, scurvy is very, very rare. We know that back during the Scottish war with England, this was a very big problem within the Scottish army and navy, but we’re talking back in the late 1700s. Scurvy in modern day is definitely very rare. What it is is it’s a Vitamin C deficiency and it includes things such as feeling weak, feeling tired, having a lack of energy, weakness within the extremities and certainly, when we don’t have adequate red blood cell production and we’re having issues that then become a bleeding concern. So this is how, generally, it would present itself: the weakness, the issues within the gums, poor wound healing, changes within the hair, certainly are common.†
But we know that Vitamin C is required for collagen synthesis and so for the proper crosslinking of those collagen fibers, we have to have Vitamin C, so hence, this is when you would see that lack of Vitamin C, how that collagen would actually be impacted by this.†
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Looking at the broad scope of Vitamin C, when it comes to disease prevention, it is really quite pronounced as to how it is that Vitamin C is playing this very important role in many different metabolic functions, including playing a role with the activation of B-vitamins. When we think about folic acid, for example, and how folic acid needs to convert into its metabolically active form, Vitamin C plays a part in this. So if we don’t have adequate Vitamin C, now you can start to see how folate can be impacted by this.†
We know that we require Vitamin C just as its antioxidant properties yield us when it comes to fending off oxidative stress and free radicals in the body. But when you start to look at Vitamin C in respect to different disease states, whether that’s atherosclerosis, whether that’s diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases, cancers, for example, we now understand that Vitamin C is definitely critical as a physiological component to so many different pathways in the body. When we think about the synthesis and the metabolism of things like tyrosine, which is important when we think about thyroid function, when we think about folic acid and tryptophan, so even when we’re thinking about neurotransmitters like serotonin, when we look at the facilitation of cholesterol into bile acids, so low Vitamin C can impact your cholesterol levels. There’s a lot of ways that Vitamin C is playing a part in the different ways in which the body is responding.†
Most times we think about Vitamin C solely as that immune system support and obviously we know that both our innate and adaptive immune systems are heavily reliant on the function of Vitamin C for the activation of key processes of the immune response. But we also have to look at Vitamin C when it comes to its role for eye health, for example. For fending off oxidative stress, keeping the optic nerve healthy, keeping the retinal cells healthy. These are all very, very important.†
Now, Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin, so this is kind of like when we think about those B-vitamins and potential deficiencies. If we’re not getting adequate exposure to Vitamin C, you may not be deficient to the point that it’s triggering scurvy, but you could be deficient to the point that it’s certainly impacting your blood vessels, that it’s impacting your eye health. We know all of these different ways in which Vitamin C is critical. We know that Vitamin C is directly correlated with inflammation, that plasma levels of Vitamin C have been shown to be directly correlated with things such as C-reactive protein, looking at low levels of Vitamin C in the blood and seeing higher levels of endothelial dysfunction within the cardiovascular system. So there’s a lot of different ways in which Vitamin C is certainly playing this very important and key and essential role with keeping us healthy each and every single day.†
Now, it’s very important when we’re supplementing with Vitamin C that we are choosing a form of Vitamin C that’s actually going to absorb and not just be broken down through the digestive process itself and that the sourcing of that Vitamin C is from a natural source and it’s not synthetically produced. The problem is that most people who manufacture Vitamin C, they go with the cheapest raw material that they possibly can use and this is where that problem comes into play. We want to make sure that we are using a clean Vitamin C coming from natural sources. Hence, when you’re using our Vitamin C’s, whether it’s the buffered, which is easier on the GI system to kind of dampen down that acidity that is associated with Vitamin C, our Vitamin C’s are coming from that natural source and the absorption rate is very, very good.†
Knowing that Vitamin C is associated with inflammation and seeing that low levels of Vitamin C are linked with higher C-reactive protein levels, higher homocysteine levels… Understanding all of these and understanding that in terms of wound healing, we have to make sure that we have adequate Vitamin C on board. This is the biochemical functions of this key and essential vitamin. So thinking about wound healing, thinking about the correlation between Vitamin C and iron absorption in the body, for example… Knowing that Vitamin C does a really nice job at binding iron, so for someone who is anemic, for example, Vitamin C-rich foods, along with Vitamin C supplementation, is incredibly advantageous. When you look at issues with fertility, this is a real interesting component with Vitamin C, is that reactive oxygen species or the free radical damage that can occur within the reproductive organs, this is a big area of research right now. Understanding that having adequate Vitamin C levels can certainly impact the issues that even a lot of men have in terms of low sperm quality, so Vitamin C supplementation in men who are having an issue when it comes to fertility is an area that many physicians are certainly diving into.†
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And, as I mentioned, being able to target oxidative stress within our LDL particles, which is the low-density lipoprotein, this is another area that’s very important and hence where Vitamin C plays this critical role when it comes to supporting our cardiovascular system, when it comes to the support of the endothelial cells, or the cells that line your blood vessels. When it comes to really helping to downregulate Tumor Necrosis Factor alpha for basically impeding or mitigating inflammation. All of these different areas that we see Vitamin C playing this really important or significant role… Vitamin C and diabetes, this is another area where we see that diabetics oftentimes have lower levels of serum Vitamin C, which can lead to issues with higher blood glucose, but it can also lead to issues with atherosclerosis in diabetics because they’re getting more significant damage done due to those endothelial cells and it’s impairing the endothelial function. So, as a whole, even if you’re utilizing Vitamin C just in the setting of its modulation for our immune system, that’s great, but I just want you to always understand how it is that Vitamin C is working for detoxification in our system, helping to fend off oxidative stress, helping to support that crosslinking of collagen when it comes to skin health, hair health, wound healing, as well as eye health and when we look at neurodegenerative disorders, we are seeing the important way in which Vitamin C is helping the neurons in the brain fend off the oxidative stress that has been correlated with so many different neurodegenerative disorders.†
So that’s just a little highlight on some of the utilizations of Vitamin C in the body and that is all that I have for you for today. I want to thank you so much for tuning into the InViteⓇ Health Podcast. Remember, you can find all of our episodes for free wherever you listen to podcasts or by visiting invitehealth.com/podcast. Now, do make sure that you subscribe and you leave us a review. You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at @invitehealth and we will see you next time for another episode of the InViteⓇ Health Podcast.†
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