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Inflammation and chronic inflammation

Practical Summary: The effect against inflammation and pain is a strong factor in the commercial success of adapogenic and conventional analgesics. When we wake up tens of thousands of herbal publications (and millions of regular medicines), we often read about the effects of inflammation, effects on transcription factor NF-κB, COX and NOS2. I needed to collect this information somewhere, so they're here. First of all, you will find an unbearably light explanation for the inflammation and its cushioning, followed by a longer list of effective herbs.

What is inflammation

Inflammation occurs when the tissue is damaged and, according to classical medicine, has four symptoms: caloric (increased temperature), dolor (pain), rust (redness) and tumor (swelling). They cause inflammatory signaling molecules that arise in the affected tissue - mainly prostaglandins and histamine. These cause the capillaries to expand and increase their permeability to sap (hence swelling) and white blood cells. By the process called diapedes, the white blood cells penetrate the vascular wall into the inflamed tissue, where the increased pain affords them a calm and warm work without heat. Is this text too simple for you? Skip directly to the herbs. And you, who like to read a simple text on a complex subject, keep on going.

Anti-inflammatory agents (anti-inflammatory) are partially covered with painkillers.

The white blood cells are moving amoeboid in their tissues and their protrusions, which cleanse and eat bacteria, are very fragile. Inflamed tissue must therefore be protected from mechanical stress. As? Increased pain, which is called hyperalgesia . Inflammation is accompanied by a change of perception, when we usually see painless stimuli (shock and even cold) as pain. This change of perception is called allodynia . White blood is also helped by a higher temperature that increases their activity but does not show much to microbes. Inflammation and pain are therefore , a priori, useful, which normally do not need to be dampened. However, inflammation is also useless - not just allergies and autoimmunity, but also inflammation resulting from ischemia in the brain and heart stroke, and even more damaging the affected tissue. Another example is inflammation of the brain and liver as a result of alcohol intoxication . In all these cases immune cells are unnecessarily panic, and combat substances (NO, oxygen radicals) damage their own tissue. These inflammations are worthwhile to dampen and the anti-inflammatory drugs are invoked . Because of the relationship between inflammation and pain, it is not surprising that many painkillers - painkillers - also act against inflammation.

Types of inflammation

In the context of inflammation, we may also be interested in herbs against infection , autoimmunity and those that are immunomodulatory .

From the point of view of phytotherapy, it is essential to distinguish inflammation from infectious and noninfectious . Herbs against infection (natural antiseptics , antibiotics , antivirals , antimycotics ...) are completely different from those that only inhibit inflammation. In infections, treatment (including phytotherapy) needs to be adapted to a specific bacterium, virus or other pathogen, which requires a laboratory. Herbs (and medications!) That only inhibit inflammation can harm you here. However, anti-phlogistics is well suited for autoimmunity and other unnecessary inflammation. Anti-inflammatory adaptogens are renowned for their effectiveness in physical stress , where pain and fatigue are nothing but mild inflammation of the strained muscles. In terms of duration, we distinguish between acute and chronic inflammation. Once again, the simple rule is that acute inflammation may require a lab and a scalpel, while those chronic, in which the usual drugs do not, are an opportunity for phytotherapy.

Immune communication in inflammation

Whether inflammation is infectious or noninfectious, its main participants are white blood cells. These create signaling molecules that communicate and signal the severity of inflammation in the brain, lymph nodes and the entire body. When the inflammation is severe, fever and malaise will be triggered to ensure bed rest. For the purposes of phytotherapy, it is easy to say that white blood cells are involved in two important activities in the inflammation: (1) fighting a supposed or real infection and (2) immune communication.

The two most important activities of white blood cells in inflammation

Again, the NO synthase 2 (NOS2) enzyme, which produces disinfecting molecules, mainly nitric oxide (NO) and oxygen radicals, is a simplified one. For communication, the enzyme is cyclooxygenase (COX) , which generates signal molecules prostaglandins and leukotrienes . These two enzymes are the key to understanding the effect of many natural and synthetic anti-inflammatory drugs. The genes of both enzymes, NOS2 and COX, are controlled by a common gene switch, which is referred to as the NF-κB abbreviation. It is a transcription factor that, after activation, weighed the DNA and triggered the production of NOS2 and COX. In other words, NF-κB will put the white blood cells into inflammatory alertness. In fact, inflammation is, of course, more complicated and multiple genes involved. I'm interested in my charlatan course of immunology .

Types of anti-inflammatory drugs

Inflammatory drugs can be divided into two types: allosteric and gene-modulation . Those allosteric bind to enzymes and act fast (minutes to hours). These include COX inhibitors - aspirin , paracetamol, ibuprofen ... These genomic modulators bind to DNA, reduce transcription of inflammatory enzymes, and act slowly (hours to days). This second group also includes typical adaptogens that reduce both NOS2 and COX levels by acting on NF-κB. However, anti-inflammatory corticosteroids, liquorice glycyrrhizin and many immunosuppressants also have a gene-modulating effect. The division of anti-inflammatory drugs into steroid and non-steroid , common in pharmacy, is not so significant. It's not about what the structure has, but which way it works. In herbal literature we will meet another inappropriate category called febrifuge ("fever medications"). It combines anti-inflammatory drugs with anti-infectives. It is only justified if the drug has a dual, parallel effect against infection and inflammation, such as quinine cortex.

Inflammation control and anti-inflammatory drugs

Anti-inflammatory adaptogens, herbs and natural ingredients

Anti-inflammatory drugs (and thus pain ) have always been on course. Great interest was also the commercial success they brought. Therefore, there is a certain amount of indignation among herbs and industrial analgesics. Industrial drugs blame adaptogens for pancakes, what again do they coincide with the slander that COX inhibitors leak cells in the leukocytes, and thus detract from the holistic wisdom of human immunity. Users (so-called "pacouši") are different to the thing - they were and they were hurting, the means, the whole wound heals. They love both herbs and industrial analgesics - white, pink, pressed, coated, solid and liquid. Still differently, researchers are building up. Everyone needs two publications for a doctorate and then another career two years a year to preserve the prestige, so the hydra of Asian science sparks peer reviewed texts of poor quality a joy. And finally, there are those whose drugs have destroyed the life (or the lives of their loved ones), and those who misinterpret the truth for personal reasons.

When we learn about medicinal plants from scientific journals, the anti-inflammatory effect is the most frequently mentioned. Anti-inflammatory herbs are so many that I do not even want to name them exhaustively. The focus of my interest is on adaptogens, and the ancient antiflogistics of quinine and willow bark (the effect of Vlachojannis2009sre ), though still effective, I am less interested in. That's why I start with a model adaptogen:

Before going on to a broader list of herbs, I would like to unambiguously highlight three anti-inflammatory adaptogens, none of which are mentioned in the Ghasemian2016rah scientific paper, entitled "Overview of Anti-inflammatory Herbal Remedies ":

  • The burdock (more precisely its dehydrocostuslactone) inhibits inducible NO synthase and NF-κB ( Jin2000iln ). The other active substance in the tortoise is lactone cyanopicrin ( Cho2000vae ) and the whole sesquiterpenic fraction of the thresher ( Damre2003esl ) is anti-inflammatory. However, Chopra1924pnp from the 20th Golden Age (full text for 3 clues ) remains the most exhaustive publication describing traditional and current medical applications of this miraculous Himalayan plant (including asthma , arthritis , migraine and other inflammations).
  • Vitagia snodarna (asvaganda, or Indian ginseng ) has even more intense anti-inflammatory effects than ginseng. And where are those peer reviewed texts that would support this bold statement? Here are: Minhas2012tew , Mishra2000sbt , Ojha2014wcf , Rasool2006inw , Singh2007wsi (NF-kB), Grover2010ina (NF-kB), Gupta2014eae . If I even briefly described the information from these articles, they would release on many lines of text. But you can also read googlit ... In any case, vitania is one of the most famous anti-inflammatory drugs of Ayurveda.
  • Aloe true differs from the two above, not from India, but from our (European to ancient) tradition.

This list, as I said above, is and remains incomplete - I do not see the point of naming more than 1,000 drugs that anyone in a scientific publication said to be anti-inflammatory . Every scientist has his preferences and I too. This article is subjective and so I choose only the ones I find the most interesting:

Related topics

What to say at the end? Practical long-term use of adaptogens to inhibit inflammation (whether we like it or that herb) is especially payable by older people because it slows down the development of a number of civilization diseases. It is not yet known that the inflammatory process is actually atherosclerosis and that the anti-inflammatory effect also reduces the risk of cancer . Not everyone knows that even obesity (especially intra-fat fat) increases the susceptibility of the organism to inflammation. If you think seriously with herbs, you can read all related topics as I link you here. Additionally, anti-inflammatory adaptogens are also neuroprotective , hepatoprotective and generally cytoprotective, and even their radioprotective effect ...

| 2016 - 27.11.2018