Increasingly, doctors and researchers at the forefront of medicine are finding that most, if not all, of the major degenerative conditions of old age—heart disease, arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease—have a common cause, and it’s not the inevitable outcome of old age or mechanical problems of ‘wear and tear,’ as commonly proposed, as though the body were a piece of worn-out machinery.

Increasingly, doctors and researchers at the forefront of medicine are finding that most, if not all, of the major degenerative conditions of old age—heart disease, arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease—have a common cause, and it’s not the inevitable outcome of old age or mechanical problems of ‘wear and tear,’ as commonly proposed, as though the body were a piece of worn-out machinery.

The cause of all these diseases is purely chronic, low-grade inflammation.

The arthritis connection
This association first came to light with arthritis, when associate professor of immunology and rheumatology William Robinson and his colleagues at Stanford University carried out studies showing that osteoarthritic joint tissues contain larger-than-usual numbers of inflammatory cells, which secrete certain substances early on in the progression of the disease and, in fact, appear to be its central driver.

These substances trigger a chain of molecular events that eventually escalates into an attack against the joint itself, mounted by the body’s own defence systems, which are ordinarily only deployed against invading microorganisms.

With heart disease, even conservative groups like the American Heart Association (AHA) now acknowledge the role of inflammation, after studies have shown that men with the highest levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) in their blood—a recognized marker of inflammation—are more than twice as likely to suffer from the condition.

Even LDL cholesterol, the so-called ‘bad’ guy in heart disease, has a role to play in the inflammatory process. In an attempt to repair the damage to arterial walls, it ends up clogging them by laying down plaque.

And now, diabetes
And we now have new evidence from Dr. Patrick Kingsley, a British integrative doctor, now retired, who treated hundreds, if not thousands, of diabetic patients over his acclaimed career and discovered that inflammation was once again the common culprit.

Ordinarily, inflammation is not a bad thing. Characterized by heat, swelling, redness and pain, it’s an attempt by the body’s immune system to heal injury, allergy and infection by increasing the flow of nutrients carried by the blood and lymphatic system into damaged areas, while flushing away harmful pathogens and damaged cells.

An ‘inflammation cascade’ occurs when tissue injury or a pathogen of some sort, like a virus or bacteria or even an allergen, triggers the creation of cytokines. These small proteins ultimately stimulate the production of cell-killing chemicals, all part of the ‘seek-and-destroy’ mission of the immune system and usually essential to the healing process.

When it has to do with degenerative conditions, inflammation is a healing response that has got out of hand.

Chronic conditions such as joint pain, heart disease and diabetes are an inflammatory warning sign that the body is struggling to maintain health in the face of an overwhelming assault of some sort of stressor—in the case of diabetes, usually some food-provoked inflammation—that not only inhibits normal healing, but also contributes to an ever-worsening cycle of disorder.

Environmental diseases
Findings like those from Stanford University offer laboratory confirmation of what many practitioners of functional medicine discovered in their clinical practice.

Dr John Mansfield, author of Arthritis: The Allergy Connection (Chivers Press, 1991), who successfully treated several thousands of arthritis patients in the UK at his clinic in Surrey before recently retiring, maintains that most forms of arthritis are “environmentally induced” by an intolerance to certain foods or environmental chemicals, and that some 90 per cent of patients can be improved or fully cured just by making certain lifestyle changes.

Dr Kingsley discovered a similar situation when treating diabetes. As he describes in our forthcoming February issue of WDDTY (on sale next week), a cytokine protein called ‘tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha’, present in all forms of inflammation, also happens to destroy glucose transporter (GLUT) type 4, another of the body’s proteins necessary for processing sugar and transporting it to muscle cells.

Dr. Kingsley’s own experience and casebook confirm what he’d read from other research: what causes high glycemic reactions in diabetics is not simply high-sugar foods, but “individualized idiosyncratic reactions to a food”.

Find the source of inflammation—usually one or more foods or food groups—and his patients were often able to drastically lower their need for insulin.

Serving up a miracle
In our issue, Kingsley has put together the seemingly impossible: a simple means of locating the sources of your inflammation and, consequently, your condition.

With a little persistence, you may be able to perform your own small miracle and drastically reduce your need for insulin or drugs.

In the process, you might even find the cure for all of your degenerative diseases.

To find out more or get hold of the February 2016 issue: www.wddty.com