FUEL: February 13, 2015

Digging for Common Roots: Where Simple Defeats Complex

     

Spoiler Summary: Improving the odds of success often means putting the evidence on your side.  The more the health & prevention picture comes into focus, the more clear the connections are.  This time, clues from lung disease.

Imagine the sensation of not being able to catch your breath. The need to inhale forcefully in order to get that "deep breath" you need, but never quite being able to.  Imagine always coughing - all year long, like having a chest cold that just won't go away....or getting out of breath at even the slightest physical exertion.  These are some of the common complaints associated with a group of lung disorders commonly called "Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease" (COPD), something that impacts at least 15 million Americans and at last count (2011 data) was the third leading cause of death.  It's a nasty disease, a big burden and rightfully, something most would like to avoid if possible.

For years we've known that certain habits (smoking at the top of the list) and exposures (environmental pollutants) that irritate and inflame our respiratory system dramatically increase the odds of developing the disease. In fact, smoking is so closely tied with the disease (some studies suggest 80% of the risk) that research models use smoking rates to predict how common the disease is when good data isn't otherwise available.  The conclusion has always been: Stop irritating the system (quit smoking & reduce exposures) to lower your risk of COPD.....and it's been a good approach that has helped many people lower their risk; but when something continues to kill nearly 150,000 Americans each year, there's clearly more work to be done.

The more we learn about the chronic diseases we face (7 of the top 10 causes of death and 86% of the nation's health care dollars spent according to CDC), the more we realize that they have common traits.....and if they have common traits, maybe they have common influences? Maybe they have common causes? If so, they likely have common solutions. Could lung disease really tell us something or support what we know about other diseases too? As it turns out, it seems so.

Many of the common diseases, conditions and syndromes we face appear to share markings of inflammation - damage arising from a system that has been irritated over and over and over.  Heart disease has this marker (#1 killer), many forms of cancer have this marker (#2 killer) and lung disease has this marker (#3 killer); but that's not all. In addition to these big killers, diseases that are not as lethal but significantly impact our quality of life also have this marker. For example, joint disease has this marker (27 million Americans), back pain has this marker (80% will experience at least once) and obesity has this marker (78 million Americans).

What if there were a common and relatively simple (not easy per se, but not complex) way to lower the irritation on the body.  Would the conditions we face also be less likely?  This too seems so.

Better quality nutrition (simplified as: diets high in plant sources, low in processed foods) can help lower heart disease, cancer and obesity rates.  More recently evidence has shown that better quality nutrition can also help with joint pain and back pain - not only by lowering weight, but also by improving the body's resilience through lowered inflammation and improved circulation....but what about something tied to a conclusive stressor like lung disease and its tie to smoking?  If repetitive irritation was really important, and quality nutrition had such a big role to play in lowering the irritation, wouldn't it also impact COPD?

Again, as it turns out, YES!  In research published this weekon more than 100,000 citizens over a 15 year period, results showed that better quality nutrition was closely associated with a significantly lower risk of COPD; more evidence that high quality FUEL can help build a body that is more resilient against the stressors we face.

The study concluded (paraphrased): "A diet high in whole grains & "good" fats and low in processed meat, refined grains & sugary drinks was associated with a lower risk of COPD. These findings support a healthy diet to help prevent COPD."

Get at the root: Eat more plants; avoid the processed items whenever you can and give your body the FUEL it needs to win....you might be surprised at how far it can take you.

Have a great weekend,

Mike E.