Healthy Food Cranberry, the Natural Anti-Inflammatory Remedy

By Kyle J. Norton

Inflammation is a process of the immune system that responds to harmful pathogens.

Inflammation can be acute or chronic. In the acute phase of infection, the immune system after receiving information from the neurons, macrophages, the largest white blood cells in the first line of defense stimulate the production of blood palette to cover the wound and the production of inflammatory cytokines to kill off micro-organisms, leading to symptoms of fever, redness, and swelling.

However, in some cases, overproduction of proinflammatory cytokines may damage nearby healthy cells and tissues, causing the formation of scars.

In severe cases, a protein with duo functions in the production of pro and anti-inflammatory cytokines which produce anti-inflammatory cytokines under normal condition also switch to produce pro-inflammatory cytokines.

Most cases of acute inflammatory are resolved within a few days without causing damage to the wound tissues.  However, if the immune first line of defense can not completely destroy the invaders within a period of 3 to 8 weeks, it will compromise, leading to low-grade chronic inflammation. 

Diseases associated with low-grade chronic inflammation include diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.

Dr. Duprez DA, the lead scientist at the University of Minnesota.in the investigation of inflammatory makers and chronic inflammation wrote, "Numerous studies have shown that high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), one of the most frequently studied inflammatory markers, is associated with chronic inflammatory-related disease, cardiovascular disease, cancer and mortality [1]. While hs-CRP is a single marker of inflammation".

In other words, if you have a chronic inflammatory disease, your levels of hsCRP are much high comapred to people who do not.

Conventionally, treatment of acute phase inflammation is to manage inflammation and prevent the risk of long-term damage, including anti-inflammatory nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) which can be bought without a prescription.

Cranberry is an evergreen dwarf shrub, genus Vaccinium, belongings to the family Ericaceae, native to Northern America and Southern Asia. Because of its health benefits, cranberry has been cultivated in some parts of the world for commercial profit and used in traditional and herbal medicine to treat wounds, urinary disorders, diarrhea, diabetes, stomach ailments, and liver problems.

On finding a potential compound for the treatment of diseases associated with inflammation, researchers examined the effect of the effects of freeze-dried cranberry powder on anti-inflammation and lipid profiles.

The study included a total of 40 Sprague-Dawley male rats (6-weeks-old) were equally divided into the following five groups: 1) normal diet group + saline (NC); 2) atherogenic diet + saline (HFC); 3) atherogenic diet + LPS (HL); 4) atherogenic diet with 5% cranberry power + LPS (C5); 5) atherogenic diet with 10% cranberry power + LPS (C10).

Based on the analysis after LPS (0.5 mg/kg) was injected into the abdominal cavities of rats 18 hours prior to sacrifice, researchers found that

* C5 rats treated by atherogenic diet with 5% cranberry power + LPS showed a mean serum high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol level in C5 rats was significantly higher compared to those in NC and HL rats.

* The mean serum levels of CRP and IL-1β associated with pro-inflammatory marker and expression were significantly lower (P < 0.05) in the cranberry powder groups compared to HL rats.  

* Furthermore, levels of anti-inflammatory cytokines expressed by the serum IL-10 and NO showed 29% and 88% higher mean values in the C5 group and 49% and 24% higher in the C10 group than those in the HL group, respectively.

In other words, cranberry powder protects the Sprague-Dawley male rats induced inflammation by elevating the levels of anti-inflammatory and lowering the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines.

Collectively, researchers wrote, " freeze-dried cranberry powder may have beneficial effects on cardiovascular diseases by modifying serum lipids and the early inflammatory response."

Taken altogether, cranberry may be considered an anti-inflammatory remedy, pending to the confirmation of the larger sample size and multicenter human study.

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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

Sources
(1) Effects of freeze-dried cranberry powder on serum lipids and inflammatory markers in lipopolysaccharide treated rats fed an atherogenic diet by Kim MJ1, Ohn J, Kim JH, Kwak HK. (PubMed)
(2) GlycA, a composite low-grade inflammatory marker, predicts mortality: prime time for utilization? by Duprez DA1, Jacobs DR Jr. (PubMed)