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Extra Virgin Olive Oil helps inflammation

I thought this may be useful.

Scientists discover olive oil directly impacts genes to halt inflammation

by S. L. Baker, features writer

(NaturalNews) Research has been steadily accumulating that olive oil, a main component of the Mediterranean diet, has extensive health-protective properties. For example, phytonutrient components of olive oil have been found to be effective against breast cancer cells (http://www.naturalnews.com/025633_c...) and studies suggest the abundance of olive oil in the Mediterranean style of eating may be the reason that diet helps prevent depression (http://www.naturalnews.com/027265_d...). Now scientists have discovered that phenolic compounds in olive oil directly repress genes linked to inflammation.

This could be especially important in halting the dangerous effects of metabolic syndrome. Characterized by excess abdominal fat, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and high blood glucose levels, metabolic syndrome is linked to type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and early death.

Research published in the journal BMC Genomics investigated changes in genes mediated by olive oil phenols (which are most abundant in the extra-virgin varieties of olive oil). The double-blind, randomized study, headed by Francisco Perez-Jimenez from the University of Cordoba, involved 20 research subjects, all with metabolic syndrome. For six weeks, the patients did not take any supplements or drugs and they were all placed on similar low-fat, carbohydrate-rich diets. Then, for breakfast, they ate either a breakfast containing virgin olive oil with a high content of phenolic compounds or a similar breakfast with low phenol content.

The research team took blood samples after the meals to check for the expression of over 15,000 human genes. The results? The high phenol olive oil clearly impacted the regulation of almost 100 genes -- many of which have been linked to obesity, high blood fat levels, type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

"We identified 98 differentially expressed genes when comparing the intake of phenol-rich olive oil with low-phenol olive oil. Several of the repressed genes are known to be involved in pro-inflammatory processes, suggesting that the diet can switch the activity of immune system cells to a less deleterious inflammatory profile, as seen in metabolic syndrome," Dr. Perez-Jimenez said in a statement to the press. "These findings strengthen the relationship between inflammation, obesity and diet and provide evidence at the most basic level of healthy effects derived from virgin olive oil consumption in humans."

The ability of olive oil's phenolic compounds to reduce or prevent inflammation also provides a molecular basis for the reduction of heart disease observed in Mediterranean countries, where virgin olive oil represents a main source of dietary fat.
 

Silvermoon

Moderator
Interesting.... I wonder if this has to do with omega3 fatty acids...are they found in olive oil?

One thing I have wondered...and need to research to find the answer I guess is... what happens to olive oil when it is heated (ie to use it for saute-ing (is that a word?) food? I teach a lot of healthy cooking classes and for kicks we did nutrition label reading on olive and canola oil...turns out canola oil actually has less saturated fat in it...but olive oil is supposed to be better for you....so I wonder if a lot of it has to do with WHAT you are using the oil for.....
 
Here is a link to the smoke point of cooking oils.

http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/collectedinfo/oilsmokepoints.htm

Canola Oil may be lower in saturated fat, but it also is from a genetically engineered variety of the Rape Seed plant. It is not allowed in baby food, and that is enough to make me avoid it altogether.

In addition to the genetic modification, the process of making Canola oil is troubling. The procedure involves a combination of high-temperature mechanical pressing and solvent extract, usually using hexane. Hexane! Even after considerable refining, traces of the solvent remain. Like most vegetable oils, Canola oil also goes through the process of bleaching, degumming, deodorizing, and caustic refining, at very high temperatures. This process can alter the omega-3 content in the oil, and in certain conditions bring the trans fat level as high as 40 percent.

http://www.naturalnews.com/026630_canola_oil_olive_oil_saturated_fat.html

I do not think there is anything inherently bad about saturated fat, but trans fats and rancid cooking oil is a problem. Corn Oil and the like is chemically unstable and goes rancid quickly. It is deodorized so it does not stink, but it is not a healthy oil in my opinion.

Dan
 
Here is another small study indicating that vitamin B-6 in higher than normal doses can help with Arthritis. No mention of any possible problems with that high a dose over the long run, so do your research before trying it.

July 2010

A daily dose of vitamin B-6 at the current upper tolerable levels may reduce amounts of inflammatory compounds in people suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, a new study says.

Levels of the pro-inflammatory compounds interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) significantly decreased following 12 weeks of supplementation with 100 mg of vitamin B-6, according to findings published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

However, scientists from Chung Shan Medical University in Taiwan said that no changes were observed for pyridoxal-5-phosphate (PLP), the active form of vitamin B-6, in relation to levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), another marker of inflammation.

The Taiwanese scientists performed a single-blind co-intervention study with 35 participants randomly assigned to receive either 5 mg per day of only folic acid or 5 mg per day of folic acid, plus 100 mg of vitamin B-6.

After 12 weeks of supplementation, significant decreases were observed in levels of IL-6 and TNF-alpha only in participants of the B-6 group, the researchers said.

“A large dose of vitamin B-6 supplementation (100 mg per day) suppressed pro-inflammatory cytokines (that is, IL-6 and TNF-alpha) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis,” the researchers concluded.

Vitamin B-6, a water-soluble vitamin that exists as pyridoxine, pyridoxal and pyridoxamine is found in beans, meat, fish and some fruits and vegetables, like spinach and avocado. The Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) is 1.3 mg for men and women aged between 19 and 50.

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition Published online ahead of print.
 
By integrating several of these inflammation reducing methods, it should be possible to minimize symptoms of the disease.

There are several other methods, and most of them are virtually risk free.

Dan
 

Dexky

To save time...Ask Dusty!
Location
Kentucky
Dan, I'm glad you are out there my friend. Coincidentally, we just started EJ on a B-complex vitamin yesterday. After reading this, I'm thinking it may be a good move. Thanks for sharing what you find.
 
Canola Oil may be lower in saturated fat, but it also is from a genetically engineered variety of the Rape Seed plant. It is not allowed in baby food, and that is enough to make me avoid it altogether.

In addition to the genetic modification, the process of making Canola oil is troubling. The procedure involves a combination of high-temperature mechanical pressing and solvent extract, usually using hexane. Hexane! Even after considerable refining, traces of the solvent remain. Like most vegetable oils, Canola oil also goes through the process of bleaching, degumming, deodorizing, and caustic refining, at very high temperatures. This process can alter the omega-3 content in the oil, and in certain conditions bring the trans fat level as high as 40 percent.
Ack. Did not know this. I'm beginning to think it's impossible to make an informed decision about anything. I have been using canola oil as my general oil of choice because the You Docs tout canola oil as the healthiest of all. Guess I will switch to using EVOO and regular olive oil in all instances.

Thanks for this information.
 
i heard a brief report on the anti-inflammatory effects of olive oil last week, and have since bought olive oil margarine for the whole family to use, & we'll continue to use it from now on. thanks for elaborating on this, Dan - really interesting stuff!
 
Yay! Olive oil is our #1 oil in the house, but we do also have canola oil to use on things we don't want to have too much oil flavor. I had no idea they used hexane to process canola oil. Ew! Do you know if that is also the case with organic canola oil?

If so...maybe it's time to switch to regular olive oil on top of our EVOO!
 
Most any vegetable oil is unstable. It is has to go through a lot of processing to be eaten, odds are it is not good for you.

Canola Oil is touted as a good Oil because it does not have a lot of saturated fat. There is no long history of people eating Canola Oil, which is the first hint that we are the lab rats by using this oil. The Rape seed plant in its natural form has a very high Omega six to Omega three ratio, making it inflammatory, and even a carcinogen because of the unsuitable ratio. That is why it is genetically altered to make it somewhat edible. You have to ask yourself, if humans have never eaten this in the past, how does your body deal with this alien food? No one really knows, but why not just eat food that has been eaten since the beginning of time instead?

The reason it is out there, is simply because it is cheap to produce.

Saturated fat is not bad for you, but transfats, and rancid oil is very bad for you. Our body knows how to deal with saturated fat, and cultures that eat saturated fats in high amounts have less heart disease than ours. It is because most oils high in saturated fats are balanced with good cholesterol.

How about eating saturated fat to lose weight, and improve your cholesterol? This is one reason I do not gain weight easily, as I did before. I eat quite a bit of fat, but it is saturated fat. It is a weight loss food, but not many people are aware of that.

Saturated fat is required by the body and brain to function properly. In fact, one study in Brazil compared the effects of soybean oil to coconut oil (a highly saturated fat) and found that while both groups showed a drop in BMI, the soybean oil group showed an increase in overall cholesterol (including a drop in HDL, the good cholesterol). The coconut oil group actually showed an increase in the HDL:LDL ratio (meaning there was more of the good cholesterol), as well as smaller waist sizes (something that was not shown in the soybean oil group. See the abstract here.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19437058

A vast majority of the cholesterol we have in our blood is produced by the Liver. Some comes from our food, but cholesterol is important for brain function. I eat lots of saturated fat, and my cholesterol ratio is about as good as you can get. So is my wife's. The ratio is important, the total is not, unless you have some kind of Liver disease.

The number one Oil out there is probably cold pressed extra virgin Olive oil. The cold pressed part is important, and if it is cold pressed, it will say so on the bottle.

Coconut Oil is also very good, and even better in some respects, due to its antibacterial and anti viral properties. Peanut oil is also pretty good. There is nothing wrong using real lard either, but burning oil makes it bad, so lower temperatures are better than high temps.

Avoid any statin medications, unless you actually have a disease that warrants consideration of these drugs. You can quite easily balance good to bad cholesterol without drugs. These drugs are not without side effects that have a good chance of impairing your health with long term use. All of them strip your body of Coenzyme Q10, which is needed for heart function. There is in reality very few people that should be using these drugs.

This latest prescribing fury of these drugs is going to have a lot of victims over time. Be very thoughtful before taking any of these medications. I believe it is the quack medicine of our time, but you can research this yourself, and make up your own mind.

Dan
 

Dexky

To save time...Ask Dusty!
Location
Kentucky
Again Thanks Dan!! We've been olive oil users for years. We had a naturopath recommend coconut oil as well and we did buy some but have used it sparingly. I think I will give it another try.
 

ameslouise

Moderator
Thanks, Dan,for the additional info, and for your straight up delivery. I, for one, really appreciate all of the information you post and the educated manor in which you post it.

I started using coconut oil last year. I dont' like it for everything, though, because I find it has a fairly strong coconut flavor. I use peanut oil when I don't want that "Hawaiian Tropic" hint of flavor in my food.

Now, how do I dispose of my big bottle of Canola Oil??!?!
 
So, peanut oil is pretty mild on flavor? Maybe I'll look into that instead of regular olive oil. :)

Amy - I'm sure a neighbor or friend could use your canola oil!
 
I wonder if anybody on here has ever just straight up drank a glass of olive oil a day to see if it would improve symptoms. I may just be desperate enough to try it out...

So far, gathering all my information from Dan, I should be taking....

Olive oil
coconut oil
Vitamin B6
Turmeric
Ginger
Vitamin D
Krill Oil

Probably missing a bunch but this is just off the top of my head...
 
I think a glass might be a bit OTT, but you could try a spoonful a day, let us know if you notice a difference! I have always used olive oil in cooking, so don't know if it's helping or not.
 
Since I am Greek Olive oil is the only oil we eat. You can use it to fry things but ONLY once. While sunflower seed oil can be used more than one time Olive oil gets nasty when you try to use it twice for frying. On the other hand the process of making the oil (in Greece) is natural and does not involve any chemicals. Basically its olive juice. My father even has olive trees and we produce our own oil tottaly natural.

Scifimom
 
So I just drank about a cup of olive oil about an hour ago. Now I feel like I'm going to puke. I don't think I'll be drinking anymore olive oil. LOL
 
LOL. I was taking 1 tablespoon organic olive oil daily at one point because my cholesterol was/is too low. Didn't know there was solid evidence that it decreased inflammation. Cool. I'm in remission without meds but I have no idea how it happened or what exactly contributed to it.
 
Sweet! Good info :D Last year when i was in remission i was eating at least 1TBSP olive oil and dried fig concoction i brought back from europe. I'm back on it. I hope it helps.
 
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