Inflammation and Stealth Bugs
Disclaimer. This web site is for research and educational purposes only. The information given in this site is not intended to replace a therapeutic practitioner relationship.
Background inflammation is a common problem with many long term health conditions. Many stealth bugs operate by using mechanisms that promote inflammation. They scavenge the nutrients that are produced in the body as a by-product of tissue breakdown caused by inflammation. This process is well documented in Stephen Buhner's books and many of the herbal and nutrient remedies he suggests are designed to reduce inflammation and replace nutrients that may be depleted by inflammation.
Arguably, the best way to promote healing from stealth bugs is to reduce and preferably eliminate inflammation. In this way symptoms, which are mainly caused by inflammation, will dissipate and the stealth bugs will be starved.
This page focuses on processes, remedies and lifestyle factors that can be used or adjusted to reduce inflammation in someone suffering from stealth bug invasion.
Processes to address in order to possibly reduce inflammation:
Liver dysfunction.
Gut dysbiosis.
MTHFR and other gene mutation expression.
Lifestyle factors to reduce inflammation:
Reduce and treat environmental pollution
Avoid excessive electromagnetic radiation
Avoid sick buildings, including excessive mould exposure
Optimise air quality
Stress management
Optimising sunshine exposure. I have found appropriate sunbathing to be particularly beneficial to some patients. Avoid burning. Remember that some medications can cause sun sensitivity (e.g. tetracycline antibiotics). Having sufficient vitamin D is important in trying to reduce inflammation: e.g. see Barker T. et al., Circulating pro-inflammatory cytokines are elevated and peak power output correlates with 25-hydroxyvitamin D in vitamin D insufficient adults. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2013 Jun;113(6):1523-34.
Optimising consumption of high quality water. If you can tolerate lemon juice, then adding it to your water may assist in reducing inflammation because citrus fruits contain anti-inflammatory substances: Guiadani R. et al, The Chemistry and Pharmacology of Citrus Limonoids Molecules 2016, 21(11), 1530.
Optimising exercise helps in avoiding inflammation. The effects of too much exercise are all too well-known to patients who suffer from stealth bugs. But too little exercise will promote inflammation by increasing the tendency to congestion of blood and lymph in tissues.
Sleep optimisation is important in reducing inflammation. E.g. see Faraut B. et al., Immune, inflammatory and cardiovascular consequences of sleep restriction and recovery. Sleep Med Rev. 2012 Apr;16(2):137-49.
Remedies to reduce inflammation.
Bathing remedies:
If you have a bath then, in my opinion, one of the best ways to combat inflammation is by using remedial bathing. The following suggested regime can be modified, as needed, according to your individual situation. Some general principles for safe and effective bath remedies: do bathing when someone else is in the house who can help out if you feel faint or have any other difficulties. Aim to keep the head cool to avoid headaches. Be careful to avoid slipping when getting in and out of the bath. Use a bath mat to reduce the risk of slipping, if needed. When getting out of a hot bath your blood pressure can be lower than normal and you can feel faint so get out slowly and carefully. Have an assistant, if needed. Don't burn. Don't go to sleep in the bath tub. You can wake up with a chill or get extra pains from bad posture. Don't have electrical apparatus near the bath that could fall in and cause electrocution.
Baths are generally done at a maximum of once a day and the evening is normally recommended due to the fact that many baths promote sleep. To get significant benefit you should be aiming to do them two or more times per week in my opinion. I think that normally the ideal for most is around 5 -7 times per week. In rare cases, more than once a day may be warranted.
If you are unable to use a bath then you could use a hot foot bath. It would be best to use a deep tub that gets the water up the the mid shin level.
Bath suggestion no. 1: Ginger bath.
The idea here is to get the skin pores working and promote perspiration for detoxification purposes. Before doing this bath it is recommended that you test some ginger on a small patch of your skin to make sure you are not irritated by it. Even if this patch of skin is okay, some people may require a bit of extra barrier protection in sensitive body areas before getting in the bath. I would suggest using petroleum jelly or lanolin or similar. This is to avoid stinging that some people may experience. Make sure you are well hydrated. Also plan to drink plenty of water after the bath. You can use either fresh grated ginger or ginger powder. Put in about ½ a cup of freshly grated ginger or a heaped teaspoon of ginger powder in the bath when it has hot or warm water in and is ready to use. Stir around and then get in for a soak for 15-20 minutes. Be prepared for profuse perspiration for at least an hour after the bath, so wear a bathrobe or other appropriate clothes and be careful not to get chilled.
Bath suggestion no. 2: Ginger bath with added medicinal herbs.
The plan here is to get the skin pores open in order to absorb anti-inflammatory and/or anti-bacterial substances. The bath is the same as for the ginger bath except that you add one of the following suggestions. Check each on a small patch of skin first to make sure that you are not sensitive to them.
Anti-Inflammatory Herbs:
- Plaintain leaf. Plaintain is a ubiquitous garden weed in temperate climates. It is not found in the tropics. I am not talking about the green banana, but a small weed which comes in either a narrow or broad leaf variety and has characteristic parallel leaf veins and brown seed pods on long thin stalks. For the bath, I recommend liquidising about 20 leaves in about two cups of water and putting this straight in the bath water. It will turn it greenish.
- Oats. Use the best quality you can get. Put about a cup full in a thin cloth and fold the cloth around the oats and secure with an elastic band so that the oats don't escape. Then put the bag of oats in the bath. They will give off a soothing milky mixture. If you are very sensitive to eating oats or gluten then don't do this remedy or be cautious.
The above two remedies are usually good for an itchy skin.
- Nettle leaf. If you have nettle growing in your garden you can harvest a couple of hand fulls with gloves and put them in a pot. Then add boiling water to get rid of the stingers. Leave the boiling water in for about 3 minutes. Then you should be okay to carefully add the nettles and water from the pot to your bath. If you don't have nettles growing then you can use loose nettle leaf herbal tea. You will need about half a cup of the leaves. Use a similar method to adding the oats to your bath or you can steep the leaves overnight and then add the strong tea resulting to your bath. When steeping overnight use a large herbal tea pot and add boiling water and let it sit overnight.
Essential (aromatic) oils:
Always use high quality essential oils. If you are going to use multiple oils then reduce the quantities so that the total is a maximum of one teaspoon.
- 1 teaspoon of lavendar oil
- 1 teaspoon of melaleuca (tea-tree) oil.
- ½ teaspoon of frankincense oil
- ½ teaspoon of eucalyptus oil.
- ½ teaspoon of clove oil
- ½ teaspoon of cinnamon bark oil.
Bath Suggestion No. 3: Mineral salts
Add to your bath ½ cup of good quality sea salt or Himalayan salt, ½ cup of Epsom salts or magnesium chloride crystals and ½ cup of baking soda. Gradually increase the amount of sea salt or Himalayan salt in subsequent baths to a maximum of 3 cups. Notes: in an average sized bath you would need about ten cups of a salt to get to a similar concentration to ocean water. If you have a home septic system, the use of large amounts of salt repeatedly can damage the bacteria in your septic tank.
Juice Fasting Remedies
Fasting can help reduce inflammation in some people. Don't fast if you are pregnant or suffer from epilepsy. Get medical advise if you have diabetes or any other serious medical condition effecting your heart, kidneys, blood pressure, etc. I would only recommend a gentle fast in those who are suitable, consisting of missing the evening meal and, instead, having only juice between lunch and breakfast the following morning.
A good anti-inflammatory juice recipe the those who don't have candida problems is (serves two):
4 average sized celery stalks
1 cup pineapple
½ Granny Smith green Apple
1 cup spinach or kale
1 juice of lemon (not the rind)
1 cubic cm of ginger rhizome
½ average cucumber
Directions: Put all ingredients through a juicer. Stir and drink slowly and immediately.
An alternative for those are trying to keep sugar content low is:
4 average sized celery stalks
1 Granny Smith green Apple
1 cup spinach or kale
1 juice of lemon (not the rind)
1 cubic cm of ginger rhizome
1 average cucumber
Herbal Garlic Tonic Remedy
For the basic recipe you will need:
30 peeled cloves of garlic
5 organic lemons, skin and all.
2 litres water
Liquidise all in a food processor. Heat up the mixture until it is just about to boil and then turn off the heat and place the pan somewhere for the mixture to cool. Run through a sieve. Keep the resultant mixture in the fridge and aim to drink 30-100ml per day for 21 days. Then have a week off before making a new batch.
The tonic can be made stronger by the addition of any or all of the following:
1 tsp turmeric powder
¼ tsp of cayenne pepper powder.
20 washed plaintain leaves.
Half an onion
3 tsp of green, unprocessed Stevia leaf powder.
Other Anti-Inflammatory Therapies
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy
Shoemaker's CIRS multi-step protocol.
If you can obtain it legally, non THC medicinal cannabis oil. Helpful for pain, inflammation and nausea.
Possibly helpful Anti-inflammatory Pharmaceuticals
Low-dose naltrexone. Younger J, et al., The use of low-dose naltrexone (LDN) as a novel anti-inflammatory treatment for chronic pain. Clin Rheumatol. 2014 Apr;33(4):451-9.
Pentosan polysulphate. Herrero JL, et al, Pentosan Polysulfate: a Novel Glycosaminoglycan-Like Molecule for Effective Treatment of Alphavirus-Induced Cartilage Destruction and Inflammatory Disease., J Virol. 2015 Aug;89(15):8063-76.
References to anti-inflammatory properties of items mentioned above:
Ginger Semwal RB et al., Gingerols and shogaols: Important nutraceutical principles from ginger.
Phytochemistry. 2015 Sep;117:554-68
Lavendar oil. Silva GL, et al., Antioxidant, analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects of lavender essential oil. An Acad Bras Cienc. 2015 Aug;87(2 Suppl):1397-408.
Melaleuca (tea-tree) oil. Koh KJ et al., Tea tree oil reduces histamine-induced skin inflammation.
Frankincense oil. Su S et al., Frankincense and myrrh suppress inflammation via regulation of the metabolic profiling and the MAPK signalling pathway. Sci Rep. 2015 Sep 2;5:13668.
Eucalyptus oil. Juergens UR, Anti-inflammatory properties of the monoterpene 1.8-cineole: current evidence for co-medication in inflammatory airway diseases. Drug Res (Stuttg). 2014 Dec;64(12):638-46.
Clove oil. Han X, et al., Anti-inflammatory activity of clove (Eugenia caryophyllata) essential oil in human dermal fibroblasts. Pharm Biol. 2017 Dec;55(1):1619-1622.
Cinnamon bark oil. Han X, et al., Antiinflammatory Activity of Cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum) Bark Essential Oil in a Human Skin Disease Model. Phytother Res. 2017 Apr 26.
Salt water. Brockow T, et al., A pragmatic randomized controlled trial on the effectiveness of low concentrated saline spa water baths followed by ultraviolet B (UVB) compared to UVB only in moderate to severe psoriasis. J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol. 2007 Sep;21(8):1027-37.
Anisimkina AN et al., The use of sodium chloride baths in patients with chronic bronchitis [in Russian] Vopr Kurortol Fizioter Lech Fiz Kult. 1996 May-Jun;(3):14-8.
Magnesium in bath water: Proksch E, et al., Bathing in a magnesium-rich Dead Sea salt solution improves skin barrier function, enhances skin hydration, and reduces inflammation in atopic dry skin. Int J Dermatol. 2005 Feb;44(2):151-7
Sodium bicarbonate. Verdolini R., et al., Old fashioned sodium bicarbonate baths for the treatment of psoriasis in the era of futuristic biologics: an old ally to be rescued. J Dermatolog Treat. 2005 Feb;16(1):26-30.
Fasting. Faris MA et al., Intermittent fasting during Ramadan attenuates proinflammatory cytokines and immune cells in healthy subjects. Nutr Res. 2012 Dec;32(12):947-55.
Pineapple. Fitzhugh DJ et al., Bromelain treatment decreases neutrophil migration to sites of inflammation. Clin Immunol. 2008 Jul;128(1):66-74.
Granny Smith green Apple. Denis MC, Apple peel polyphenols and their beneficial actions on oxidative stress and inflammation. PLoS One. 2013;8(1):e53725.
Kale. Kaulmann A et al., Carotenoids, polyphenols and micronutrient profiles of Brassica oleraceae and plum varieties and their contribution to measures of total antioxidant capacity. Food Chem. 2014 Jul 15;155:240-50.
Lemon. Guiadani R. et al, The Chemistry and Pharmacology of Citrus Limonoids Molecules 2016, 21(11), 1530.
Garlic. Areola R. et al., Immunomodulation and anti-inflammatory effects of garlic compounds. J Immunol Res. 2015;2015:401630.
Turmeric. Aggarwal BB, et al., Curcumin-free turmeric exhibits anti-inflammatory and anticancer activities: Identification of novel components of turmeric. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2013 Sep;57(9):1529-42.
Cayenne. Hernández-Ortega M Antioxidant, antinociceptive, and anti-inflammatory effects of carotenoids extracted from dried pepper (Capsicum annuum L.). J Biomed Biotechnol. 2012;2012:524019.
Plaintain. Zhou Q, et al., Identification and quantification of phytochemical composition and anti-inflammatory, cellular antioxidant, and radical scavenging activities of 12 Plantago species. J Agric Food Chem. 2013 Jul 10;61(27):6693-702.
Onion. Gunawardena D et al, Determination of anti-inflammatory activities of standardised preparations of plant- and mushroom-based foods. Eur J Nutr. 2014 Feb;53(1):335-43.
Stevia: Chatsudthipong V. et al., Stevioside and related compounds: therapeutic benefits beyond sweetness. Pharmacol Ther. 2009 Jan;121(1):41-54.
Cannabis oil: Burstein, SH, et al. Cannabinoids, endocannabinoids, and related analogs in inflammation. AAPS J. 2009 Mar;11(1):109-19.
Arguably, the best way to promote healing from stealth bugs is to reduce and preferably eliminate inflammation. In this way symptoms, which are mainly caused by inflammation, will dissipate and the stealth bugs will be starved.
This page focuses on processes, remedies and lifestyle factors that can be used or adjusted to reduce inflammation in someone suffering from stealth bug invasion.
Processes to address in order to possibly reduce inflammation:
Liver dysfunction.
Gut dysbiosis.
MTHFR and other gene mutation expression.
Lifestyle factors to reduce inflammation:
Reduce and treat environmental pollution
Avoid excessive electromagnetic radiation
Avoid sick buildings, including excessive mould exposure
Optimise air quality
Stress management
Optimising sunshine exposure. I have found appropriate sunbathing to be particularly beneficial to some patients. Avoid burning. Remember that some medications can cause sun sensitivity (e.g. tetracycline antibiotics). Having sufficient vitamin D is important in trying to reduce inflammation: e.g. see Barker T. et al., Circulating pro-inflammatory cytokines are elevated and peak power output correlates with 25-hydroxyvitamin D in vitamin D insufficient adults. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2013 Jun;113(6):1523-34.
Optimising consumption of high quality water. If you can tolerate lemon juice, then adding it to your water may assist in reducing inflammation because citrus fruits contain anti-inflammatory substances: Guiadani R. et al, The Chemistry and Pharmacology of Citrus Limonoids Molecules 2016, 21(11), 1530.
Optimising exercise helps in avoiding inflammation. The effects of too much exercise are all too well-known to patients who suffer from stealth bugs. But too little exercise will promote inflammation by increasing the tendency to congestion of blood and lymph in tissues.
Sleep optimisation is important in reducing inflammation. E.g. see Faraut B. et al., Immune, inflammatory and cardiovascular consequences of sleep restriction and recovery. Sleep Med Rev. 2012 Apr;16(2):137-49.
Remedies to reduce inflammation.
Bathing remedies:
If you have a bath then, in my opinion, one of the best ways to combat inflammation is by using remedial bathing. The following suggested regime can be modified, as needed, according to your individual situation. Some general principles for safe and effective bath remedies: do bathing when someone else is in the house who can help out if you feel faint or have any other difficulties. Aim to keep the head cool to avoid headaches. Be careful to avoid slipping when getting in and out of the bath. Use a bath mat to reduce the risk of slipping, if needed. When getting out of a hot bath your blood pressure can be lower than normal and you can feel faint so get out slowly and carefully. Have an assistant, if needed. Don't burn. Don't go to sleep in the bath tub. You can wake up with a chill or get extra pains from bad posture. Don't have electrical apparatus near the bath that could fall in and cause electrocution.
Baths are generally done at a maximum of once a day and the evening is normally recommended due to the fact that many baths promote sleep. To get significant benefit you should be aiming to do them two or more times per week in my opinion. I think that normally the ideal for most is around 5 -7 times per week. In rare cases, more than once a day may be warranted.
If you are unable to use a bath then you could use a hot foot bath. It would be best to use a deep tub that gets the water up the the mid shin level.
Bath suggestion no. 1: Ginger bath.
The idea here is to get the skin pores working and promote perspiration for detoxification purposes. Before doing this bath it is recommended that you test some ginger on a small patch of your skin to make sure you are not irritated by it. Even if this patch of skin is okay, some people may require a bit of extra barrier protection in sensitive body areas before getting in the bath. I would suggest using petroleum jelly or lanolin or similar. This is to avoid stinging that some people may experience. Make sure you are well hydrated. Also plan to drink plenty of water after the bath. You can use either fresh grated ginger or ginger powder. Put in about ½ a cup of freshly grated ginger or a heaped teaspoon of ginger powder in the bath when it has hot or warm water in and is ready to use. Stir around and then get in for a soak for 15-20 minutes. Be prepared for profuse perspiration for at least an hour after the bath, so wear a bathrobe or other appropriate clothes and be careful not to get chilled.
Bath suggestion no. 2: Ginger bath with added medicinal herbs.
The plan here is to get the skin pores open in order to absorb anti-inflammatory and/or anti-bacterial substances. The bath is the same as for the ginger bath except that you add one of the following suggestions. Check each on a small patch of skin first to make sure that you are not sensitive to them.
Anti-Inflammatory Herbs:
- Plaintain leaf. Plaintain is a ubiquitous garden weed in temperate climates. It is not found in the tropics. I am not talking about the green banana, but a small weed which comes in either a narrow or broad leaf variety and has characteristic parallel leaf veins and brown seed pods on long thin stalks. For the bath, I recommend liquidising about 20 leaves in about two cups of water and putting this straight in the bath water. It will turn it greenish.
- Oats. Use the best quality you can get. Put about a cup full in a thin cloth and fold the cloth around the oats and secure with an elastic band so that the oats don't escape. Then put the bag of oats in the bath. They will give off a soothing milky mixture. If you are very sensitive to eating oats or gluten then don't do this remedy or be cautious.
The above two remedies are usually good for an itchy skin.
- Nettle leaf. If you have nettle growing in your garden you can harvest a couple of hand fulls with gloves and put them in a pot. Then add boiling water to get rid of the stingers. Leave the boiling water in for about 3 minutes. Then you should be okay to carefully add the nettles and water from the pot to your bath. If you don't have nettles growing then you can use loose nettle leaf herbal tea. You will need about half a cup of the leaves. Use a similar method to adding the oats to your bath or you can steep the leaves overnight and then add the strong tea resulting to your bath. When steeping overnight use a large herbal tea pot and add boiling water and let it sit overnight.
Essential (aromatic) oils:
Always use high quality essential oils. If you are going to use multiple oils then reduce the quantities so that the total is a maximum of one teaspoon.
- 1 teaspoon of lavendar oil
- 1 teaspoon of melaleuca (tea-tree) oil.
- ½ teaspoon of frankincense oil
- ½ teaspoon of eucalyptus oil.
- ½ teaspoon of clove oil
- ½ teaspoon of cinnamon bark oil.
Bath Suggestion No. 3: Mineral salts
Add to your bath ½ cup of good quality sea salt or Himalayan salt, ½ cup of Epsom salts or magnesium chloride crystals and ½ cup of baking soda. Gradually increase the amount of sea salt or Himalayan salt in subsequent baths to a maximum of 3 cups. Notes: in an average sized bath you would need about ten cups of a salt to get to a similar concentration to ocean water. If you have a home septic system, the use of large amounts of salt repeatedly can damage the bacteria in your septic tank.
Juice Fasting Remedies
Fasting can help reduce inflammation in some people. Don't fast if you are pregnant or suffer from epilepsy. Get medical advise if you have diabetes or any other serious medical condition effecting your heart, kidneys, blood pressure, etc. I would only recommend a gentle fast in those who are suitable, consisting of missing the evening meal and, instead, having only juice between lunch and breakfast the following morning.
A good anti-inflammatory juice recipe the those who don't have candida problems is (serves two):
4 average sized celery stalks
1 cup pineapple
½ Granny Smith green Apple
1 cup spinach or kale
1 juice of lemon (not the rind)
1 cubic cm of ginger rhizome
½ average cucumber
Directions: Put all ingredients through a juicer. Stir and drink slowly and immediately.
An alternative for those are trying to keep sugar content low is:
4 average sized celery stalks
1 Granny Smith green Apple
1 cup spinach or kale
1 juice of lemon (not the rind)
1 cubic cm of ginger rhizome
1 average cucumber
Herbal Garlic Tonic Remedy
For the basic recipe you will need:
30 peeled cloves of garlic
5 organic lemons, skin and all.
2 litres water
Liquidise all in a food processor. Heat up the mixture until it is just about to boil and then turn off the heat and place the pan somewhere for the mixture to cool. Run through a sieve. Keep the resultant mixture in the fridge and aim to drink 30-100ml per day for 21 days. Then have a week off before making a new batch.
The tonic can be made stronger by the addition of any or all of the following:
1 tsp turmeric powder
¼ tsp of cayenne pepper powder.
20 washed plaintain leaves.
Half an onion
3 tsp of green, unprocessed Stevia leaf powder.
Other Anti-Inflammatory Therapies
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy
Shoemaker's CIRS multi-step protocol.
If you can obtain it legally, non THC medicinal cannabis oil. Helpful for pain, inflammation and nausea.
Possibly helpful Anti-inflammatory Pharmaceuticals
Low-dose naltrexone. Younger J, et al., The use of low-dose naltrexone (LDN) as a novel anti-inflammatory treatment for chronic pain. Clin Rheumatol. 2014 Apr;33(4):451-9.
Pentosan polysulphate. Herrero JL, et al, Pentosan Polysulfate: a Novel Glycosaminoglycan-Like Molecule for Effective Treatment of Alphavirus-Induced Cartilage Destruction and Inflammatory Disease., J Virol. 2015 Aug;89(15):8063-76.
References to anti-inflammatory properties of items mentioned above:
Ginger Semwal RB et al., Gingerols and shogaols: Important nutraceutical principles from ginger.
Phytochemistry. 2015 Sep;117:554-68
Lavendar oil. Silva GL, et al., Antioxidant, analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects of lavender essential oil. An Acad Bras Cienc. 2015 Aug;87(2 Suppl):1397-408.
Melaleuca (tea-tree) oil. Koh KJ et al., Tea tree oil reduces histamine-induced skin inflammation.
Frankincense oil. Su S et al., Frankincense and myrrh suppress inflammation via regulation of the metabolic profiling and the MAPK signalling pathway. Sci Rep. 2015 Sep 2;5:13668.
Eucalyptus oil. Juergens UR, Anti-inflammatory properties of the monoterpene 1.8-cineole: current evidence for co-medication in inflammatory airway diseases. Drug Res (Stuttg). 2014 Dec;64(12):638-46.
Clove oil. Han X, et al., Anti-inflammatory activity of clove (Eugenia caryophyllata) essential oil in human dermal fibroblasts. Pharm Biol. 2017 Dec;55(1):1619-1622.
Cinnamon bark oil. Han X, et al., Antiinflammatory Activity of Cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum) Bark Essential Oil in a Human Skin Disease Model. Phytother Res. 2017 Apr 26.
Salt water. Brockow T, et al., A pragmatic randomized controlled trial on the effectiveness of low concentrated saline spa water baths followed by ultraviolet B (UVB) compared to UVB only in moderate to severe psoriasis. J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol. 2007 Sep;21(8):1027-37.
Anisimkina AN et al., The use of sodium chloride baths in patients with chronic bronchitis [in Russian] Vopr Kurortol Fizioter Lech Fiz Kult. 1996 May-Jun;(3):14-8.
Magnesium in bath water: Proksch E, et al., Bathing in a magnesium-rich Dead Sea salt solution improves skin barrier function, enhances skin hydration, and reduces inflammation in atopic dry skin. Int J Dermatol. 2005 Feb;44(2):151-7
Sodium bicarbonate. Verdolini R., et al., Old fashioned sodium bicarbonate baths for the treatment of psoriasis in the era of futuristic biologics: an old ally to be rescued. J Dermatolog Treat. 2005 Feb;16(1):26-30.
Fasting. Faris MA et al., Intermittent fasting during Ramadan attenuates proinflammatory cytokines and immune cells in healthy subjects. Nutr Res. 2012 Dec;32(12):947-55.
Pineapple. Fitzhugh DJ et al., Bromelain treatment decreases neutrophil migration to sites of inflammation. Clin Immunol. 2008 Jul;128(1):66-74.
Granny Smith green Apple. Denis MC, Apple peel polyphenols and their beneficial actions on oxidative stress and inflammation. PLoS One. 2013;8(1):e53725.
Kale. Kaulmann A et al., Carotenoids, polyphenols and micronutrient profiles of Brassica oleraceae and plum varieties and their contribution to measures of total antioxidant capacity. Food Chem. 2014 Jul 15;155:240-50.
Lemon. Guiadani R. et al, The Chemistry and Pharmacology of Citrus Limonoids Molecules 2016, 21(11), 1530.
Garlic. Areola R. et al., Immunomodulation and anti-inflammatory effects of garlic compounds. J Immunol Res. 2015;2015:401630.
Turmeric. Aggarwal BB, et al., Curcumin-free turmeric exhibits anti-inflammatory and anticancer activities: Identification of novel components of turmeric. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2013 Sep;57(9):1529-42.
Cayenne. Hernández-Ortega M Antioxidant, antinociceptive, and anti-inflammatory effects of carotenoids extracted from dried pepper (Capsicum annuum L.). J Biomed Biotechnol. 2012;2012:524019.
Plaintain. Zhou Q, et al., Identification and quantification of phytochemical composition and anti-inflammatory, cellular antioxidant, and radical scavenging activities of 12 Plantago species. J Agric Food Chem. 2013 Jul 10;61(27):6693-702.
Onion. Gunawardena D et al, Determination of anti-inflammatory activities of standardised preparations of plant- and mushroom-based foods. Eur J Nutr. 2014 Feb;53(1):335-43.
Stevia: Chatsudthipong V. et al., Stevioside and related compounds: therapeutic benefits beyond sweetness. Pharmacol Ther. 2009 Jan;121(1):41-54.
Cannabis oil: Burstein, SH, et al. Cannabinoids, endocannabinoids, and related analogs in inflammation. AAPS J. 2009 Mar;11(1):109-19.
Images and content © D. Bird 2017