EDITORIAL – SEPTEMBER 2001

Medical researchers at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston have just announced the discovery of a strong association between inflammation and the development of type 2 diabetes. This adds diabetes to a long list of other common diseases that are initiated and sustained by a chronic inflammation. Among them, atherosclerosis, angina, heart attack, congestive heart failure, intermittent claudication, asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, irritable bowel syndrome, hepatitis, gastritis, pancreatitis, prostatitis, and on and on it goes. Just recently depression and most common cancers were also added to the list[1,2]. It is probably not an overstatement to conclude that over 90% of all that ails us is caused by an underlying inflammation.

So why are we so inflamed? There are several possible explanations:

• Our lifestyle often emphasizes factors that are known to initiate inflammation - mental and physical stress, vigorous exercise, alcohol consumption, mercury poisoning (mostly from dental amalgams), and oxidative stress. Inflammation can also be initiated by a bacterial, viral or fungal infection.

• Many common foods are inflammatory given the right conditions. The excessively high ratio of omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids to omega-3 fatty acids found in our modern diet favours the production of inflammatory prostaglandins, which certainly does not help matters[3].

• Childhood exposure to bacteria and viruses has been sharply curtailed through obsessive cleanliness and vaccinations. According to the "hygiene hypothesis" this has created an imbalance in the body's T-cells (key immune system defenders) so that the ones that promote inflammation have become dominant.

Whatever the reason, there is no doubt that inflammation and the many diseases resulting from it are rampant today. In this issue of The AFIB Report I provide convincing evidence that lone atrial fibrillation is also caused by an inflammation (of the heart lining).

References

1. Brown, Phyllida. A mind under siege. New Scientist, June 16, 2001, pp. 34-37
2. O'Byrne, K.J. and Dalgleish, A.G. Chronic immune activation and inflammation as the cause of malignancy. British Journal of Cancer, Vol. 85, No. 4, August 2001, pp. 473-83
3. Simopoulos, Artemis P. Omega-3 fatty acids in health and disease and in growth and development. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 54, 1991, pp. 438-63