Inflammatory new findings: which foods are your best medicine?(health research from grad students)

Editor's note: Better Nutrition, in collaboration with Bastyr University, a world leader in the advancement of natural health sciences, has established a grant program to foster well-researched articles by graduate students. Each article is vetted by a Bastyr faculty member. The intent of the program is to provide readers with new and reliable information while encouraging future leaders in various health disciplines.

Inflammation occurs when the immune system recognizes something inside the body that it deems foreign. This object can be an intruding bacteria or virus, or something mistaken as harmful, such as a particle of food or pollution. These foreign objects, or antigens as they are called, prompt the immune system to release a series of proteins called cytokines.

The cytokines have a number of roles, including attracting white blood cells to the site of "invasion"--causing swelling and heat via increased blood supply, and beginning a domino effect of cytokine production.

Inflammation can be acute, such as with a bee sting or bacterial illness, or it can be chronic. Chronic inflammation occurs when the body is repeatedly exposed to an antigen. This can occur with the intake of allergenic foods, exposure to environmental toxins and pollution or with an autoimmune disease, whereby a part of the body itself becomes the antigen.

Why the Concern?

Inflammation is essential for keeping us healthy, but it can get out of hand. That's why it's become an area of intense research in disease prevention and nutrition. Linked to cancer, heart disease and other chronic diseases, inflammation is under study by scientists seeking to understand the role that it has in many of the illnesses that have become epidemic in our society.

During inflammation, the cytokines that are released turn off a mechanism called apoptosis. Also called programmed cell death, apoptosis is the way in which abnormal cells self-destruct so as not to become cancerous. However, when this mechanism is thwarted, the body cannot regulate its cell division properly, and tumors may develop.