Northern Nutritionals

Tag: alcohol

  • Inflammation, Alcohol, and Pain

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    Karline Jensen
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    Pain is, at its core, a signal of inflammation. Understanding how the immune system generates that inflammation — and how alcohol use specifically adds fuel to the fire — makes it easier to understand how inflammation contributes to chronic pain, and what might help resolve that inflammation. How the Immune System Creates Inflammation When toll-like…

  • Yoga and Immune Balance

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    Karline Jensen
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    Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are central to immune tolerance, and it turns out a daily yoga practice is one way to support them. That finding — along with ideas about cytokines and immune balance — is central to my thinking on lifestyle recommendations. Yoga and the Treg/Th17 Balance in Rheumatoid Arthritis Gautam et al. (2023)…

  • What Happens in the Body When Alcohol Dehydrogenase Goes to Work

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    Karline Jensen
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    I’ve been digging into a few studies on alcohol dehydrogenase — the enzyme responsible for the first step of ethanol metabolism, oxidizing ethanol to acetaldehyde while reducing NAD+ to NADH. I found some genuinely strange toxicology, and some insight into hangovers. When It’s Not Ethanol: A Forensic Toxicology Case Ethanol is not the only substrate…

  • Everyday Exposures Stacking Up: Oxidative Stress and Mitochondrial Dysfunction

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    Karline Jensen
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    Many conversations about oxidative stress focus on a single cause — perhaps too much sugar, not enough antioxidants, or too much sun. But in real life, oxidative stress accumulates from many sources. A person might be exposed to vehicle exhaust on their commute, spend hours around chemical fumes at work, and enjoy a drink or…

  • Reflux

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    Karline Jensen
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    A systematic review by Pan et al. (2019) concluded that people who consume alcohol are more likely to be diagnosed with GERD than those who don’t drink regularly, in a dose-dependent manner.  When looking at subgroups, they found that studies conducted in Asia resulted in a statistically significant relationship between alcohol consumption and GERD, while…

  • Brassicas for Liver Function

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    Karline Jensen
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    An association has been found between higher levels of gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT) and serum levels of several persistent organic pollutants (Lee & Jacobs, 2006).  Also, increased oxidative stress has been found in association with elevated GGT (Lim et al., 2004).  Brassicas are emphasized in the Detox Food Plan, and consumption of cooked, frozen brassica vegetables…