Northern Nutritionals

Tag: cytokines

  • Inflammation

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    Karline Jensen
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    Inflammation can be triggered by microbes, foods, trauma, or toxins, but when the immune system is well-supported, the result is tolerance rather than over-reactivity.  Supporting Resolution Ginger and Boswellia can help with inflammation. Dietary fiber (50 grams/day) can help to move toxins out of the body and reduce the amount of toxins that are reabsorbed…

  • 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)…

  • Intestinal Permeability, Celiac Disease, and Tight Junctions

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    Karline Jensen
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    Intestinal permeability — how easily substances pass through the intestinal barrier rather than being kept out — plays a central role in celiac disease and gluten sensitivity.  Remission Can Mean a Return to Normal Barrier Function Hollon et al. (2015) exposed intestinal biopsy specimens to gliadin and measured the resulting change in permeability across several…

  • Nightshade Sensitivity: The Immune Mechanism, and Interventions

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    Karline Jensen
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    Some people experience joint pain as an inflammatory reaction to nightshades like tomatoes and peppers. Understanding the immune pathway behind that reaction — and what separates a reactive response from a tolerant one — points toward some practical places to intervene. The Immune Pathway Behind Nightshade Sensitivity Nightshade proteins are transported across intestinal microfold cells,…

  • Chasing Easter Eggs: Explaining Chemotaxis (and Rosemary as an Immune System Modulator)

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    Karline Jensen
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    Teaching Immunology With an Easter Egg Hunt This is a story to explain the concept of chemotaxis. Neutrophils are a type of cell that can actually move around inside your body. They live in your blood vessels. And if you get a cut that lets germs (bacteria) in, the cells in your finger send out…

  • Quercetin

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    Karline Jensen
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    Among the polyphenol phytochemicals found in blueberries, broccoli, onions, and green tea is the flavonoid quercetin (Li et al., 2021).  Quercetin is also found in apples and grapes (Gugliandolo et al., 2020).  Sanver et al. describe the structure of quercetin in a peer-reviewed primary article; they found that the different structures of different types of…