Inflammation

Inflammation is the body's response to injury which can be due to trauma, pathogens (bacteria, viruses, fungi), irritants like chemicals. With inflammation blood flow is increased, blood vessels might leak fluid and white blood cells can accumulate. Signs of this response are redness from increased blood flow; swelling from fluid leakage; pus if enough white blood cells are recruited.

Without the inflammatory response we would not survive long, but excess or inappropriate inflammation causes many serious chronic diseases. Atherosclerosis and acute heart attacks result from an inflammatory response to cholesterol in an artery lining. Many cancers are triggered by cell damage from the inflammatory response. An example is the response to the chemicals in cigarette smoke. Auto immune diseases like rheumatoid, lupus, Crohn's, multiple sclerosis are inflammatory attacks against the body's own cells. With these diseases a specific trigger for the damaging inflammation is rarely apparent.

Inflammation is looked for with common medical tests: temperature, white blood cell count, sedimentation (sed) rate, CRP (C reactive protein.) Most visits to your physician will include one or all of these tests as your doctor determines if you are sick or likely to become sick. Abnormality in any of these tests is a sign of a problem, one that may not have surfaced with any symptoms so far. For example, people with occult atherosclerosis often have a high CRP.

The most common cause of inflammation is not pathogens or chemicals but the food we eat. This is a major reason why a healthy diet works- it decreases general body inflammation-- less atherosclerosis, cancer, auto immune disease. How powerful this can be is illustrated by a tribe in the jungles of New Guinea where the men are all heavy smokers but eat a diet of almost entirely unprocessed plant foods. There is no lung cancer in these men! Their diet has reduced inflammation so much that they don't respond to the carcinogenic smoke by developing cancer. No surprise that foods most likely to cause inflammation are meats, dairy, fried foods, sugars, refined grains. Vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts and seeds reduce inflammation, but medical science keeps searching for pills to accomplish the same thing. Nobel prizes are not awarded for diet; no promotions are offered at the university; no patents or other sources of income are available.

                Dr. H. Gilbert Welch

"An internationally recognized expert on the effects of medical screening and overdiagnosis, H. Gilbert Welch’s work is leading many patients and physicians to think carefully about what leads to good health. For Welch, the answer is often “less testing” and “less medicine” with more emphasis on non-medical factors, such as diet, exercise, and finding purpose in life.

Welch’s research examines the problems created by medicine’s efforts to detect disease early: physicians test too often, treat too aggressively, and tell too many people that they are sick. Most of his work has focused on overdiagnosis in cancer screening: in particular, screening for melanoma, thyroid, breast, and prostate cancer. He is the author of three books: Less Medicine, More Health: 7 Assumptions That Drive Too Much Health Care (2015), Overdiagnosed: Making People Sick in the Pursuit of Health (2012), and Should I Be Tested for Cancer? (2006).  His op-eds on health care have appeared in numerous national media outlets, including the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal." (From Dartmouth Medical School website)

Medicine has been haunted by the myth that early diagnosis allowed by screening provides optimal results for most diseases especially cancer. This is true for colon and cervical cancer but not so for many others: breast, prostate, thyroid, kidney for example.

Welch is an expert in medical outcomes analysis- what happens after different interventions. His work has received attention by independent observers but the medical community has not paid much heed. Medical centers and physicians make a lot of money because of ill advised screening and treatments. The validity of Welch's conclusions are ignored and many patients are harmed.

             The Cochrane Collaboration

"The Cochrane Collaboration is an international network of more than 37,000 dedicated contributors from over 130 countries, working together to prepare, update, and promote Cochrane Reviews. Cochrane Reviews provide evidence based advice to help health care practitioners and patients make well informed decisions about health care.

The Cochrane Collaboration’s work is internationally recognised as the benchmark for high quality information about the effectiveness of health care." (Australian Government National Health and Medical Research Council website)

Medicine is filled with misinformation and poor treatment choices. The best medical journals have reviewed their distant past articles and found that a high percentage of conclusions have later been shown to be wrong. One of the major problems is bias. Authors are often funded by drug and equipment companies. Their future research support is dependent on how much the supporting companies like their work. Specialists often make their livelihood on a particular procedure such as surgery, endoscopy, mammography. When they write and teach about this procedure they have an enormous bias but they are the "experts" whose teaching on the subject is studied and followed by physicians and patients.

The Cochrane Collaboration was created in the early 1990's to have impartial non-funded reviews of important medical topics. It's recognized as the gold standard for evaluation of medical issues. Unfortunately few physicians or patients use this free internet resource; most don't even know of its existence. Check out their website and make use of its search engine when you have a medical topic you want to pursue. http://www.cochranelibrary.com