Inflammation Emerges as Marker to Detect Heart Attack Risk

[Guest guest]

http://www.aarp.org/bulletin/yourhealth/Articles/a2003-10-15-revelations.html

 

Inflammation Emerges as Marker to Detect Heart Attack Risk

By Michele Meyer

 

October 2003

 

 

Inflammation is the body's way of healing sprains, bee stings, blisters and

other ills. But scientists are finding that inflammation can run amok, too,

contributing to ailments such as heart disease, asthma, osteoporosis and

Alzheimer's, among others.

 

As medical experts learn more, they are viewing inflammation as a vital

indicator of health—even a predictor of illnesses prevalent among people over

age 50.

 

" Inflammation is part of every process in the body, " says Lewis Lipsitz, M.D.,

gerontology chief at Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Focusing on

its role in disease, he says, opens up " innovative approaches " to treatment.

 

Inflammation normally is a sign that the immune system has swung into battle.

The body increases production of cytokines—proteins that attack germs and repair

damaged tissue.

 

On the skin, for example, an injury swells and reddens, becoming painful and

warm to the touch. An almost identical, if invisible, defense can be mobilized

anywhere deep in the body.

 

Too much inflammation, however, can do harm, assailing not just germs but the

body's tissues. Some specialists say, for example, that inflammation proteins

boost the buildup of plaque found in the brains of people with Alzheimer's

disease.

 

Inflammation is " a two-edged sword, " says Duke University rheumatologist Marc

Levesque, M.D. " It protects us against pathogens, but if uncontrolled it attacks

the human body. "

 

Although it's unclear why, cytokine production rises in older people, says

Ronenn Roubenoff, M.D., nutrition professor at Boston's Tufts University. " As

people age, " he says, " their immune system apparently loses its ability to

regulate itself.

 

" You need inflammation to heal, " Roubenoff adds, " but you also need it to shut

down when its work is done. The prolongation of inflammation … is what makes it

'bad.' "

 

A Tufts study in the mid-1990s of 560 people 72 to 92 found that an increase in

inflammatory proteins led to loss of mobility, weight, muscle strength and the

power to fight disease.

 

" We now know the progressive decline in function that you see in many older

people is not an inevitable consequence of aging, " says Lipsitz of Beth Israel.

 

Inflammation proteins include interleuken-6 (IL-6), which can launch bone

deterioration, and C-reactive protein (CRP), a liver enzyme that fights

infection but becomes harmful when it lingers. A recent Johns Hopkins University

study of 5,000 people 65 and older found that those with elevated IL-6 and CRP

were two to four times likelier to become disabled or die in the next three

years.

 

Researchers are studying the link between inflammation and several diseases,

among them:

HEART DISEASE

High levels of LDLs—low-density lipoproteins known as the " bad " cholesterol—have

long been linked to coronary disease, yet nearly half of heart attacks occur in

people who have only mildly elevated LDLs (below 130).

 

Now researchers have uncovered a second culprit: C-reactive protein. High CRP

levels boost heart attack risk two- to fivefold, the American Heart Association

(AHA) reports.

 

The body interprets plaque that accumulates in arteries as an injury to the

blood vessel wall, says Robert Bonow, M.D., cardiology chief at Northwestern

University medical school in Chicago. " This can lead to white cells attacking

[and inflaming] the plaque, resulting in its breakdown, creating a

heart-attack-inducing blood clot. "

 

Last January the AHA and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

endorsed CRP tests for people with a moderate risk of heart disease. [see Should

You Be Tested?]

 

" With a large segment of the population at moderate risk, " says Paul Ridker,

M.D., of Harvard University's medical school, " [CRP tests] will help them know

what their true risk is. "

OSTEOPOROSIS

After menopause, levels of interleuken-6 increase because the production of

estrogen, the hormone that keeps the protein in check, tapers off.

 

" When IL-6 is up chronically, it takes a toll, " says William Ershler, M.D.,

director of Washington's Institute for Advanced Studies in Aging. " Calcium is

leached from the bone because IL-6 awakens ... cells that cause bone erosion. "

 

A test to detect IL-6 may be available in the next few years.

ARTHRITIS

In rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory proteins release enzymes that eat at bone,

causing joints to lose their shape and limiting movement.

 

Research shows that CRP and IL-6 are about 10 times higher in people with

arthritis than in others. A 1997 study by Brenda Penninx, head of the Geriatric

Research Center at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., found that

people 70 to 79 with elevated IL-6 had a higher chance of losing mobility within

three years.

 

" One hypothesis is that IL-6 promotes loss of muscle mass and strength as well

as skeletal loss, " says Marco Pahor, M.D., professor of geriatrics at Wake

Forest.

GUM DISEASE

Periodontal disease—inflammation caused by plaque along the gumline—is now

considered the second leading risk factor for heart disease after smoking, says

Frederic Pashkow, M.D., of the University of Hawaii's School of Medicine.

 

When plaque invades under the gum, the immune system attacks not only the

intruder but also the body's tissues, carving deep pockets in the gums and

eroding the jawbone. CRP levels also rise, which may explain why people with

severe gum disease tend to have heart disease.

 

Despite evidence of inflammation's risks, doctors warn against self-medicating.

Anti-inflammatories like aspirin and ibuprofen can cause side effects and have

not yet been proven to reduce inflammatory proteins.

 

 

 

NEW WEB MESSAGE BOARDS - JOIN HERE.

Alternative Medicine Message Boards.Info

http://alternative-medicine-message-boards.info

 

 

 

The New with improved product search