That burger you just ate may be throwing your body’s inflammatory response out of balance. Since many diseases – including cardiovascular disease – are linked with inflammation, managing this natural process has become an increasingly important study area for researchers. Dr. Britt Burton-Freeman, director of the Center for Nutrition Research at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), shared results from her research with Sirius Satellite Radio listeners. She studies the effects of specific foods once they are inside the body. Her work with premium grape seed extract focuses on its role in managing blood pressure.
Inflammation is the body’s immune response to an adverse condition. During this process our white blood cells releases chemicals into the blood to protect the body. Burton-Freeman explained that vascular disease could be an inflammatory disease. “We are looking at the blood vessel wall, and we see these inflammatory responses.” She added that her team is working to better understand and modify this inflammation. “Our focus has been on the dietary changes that we can make on a meal-to-meal basis. We’re looking at how meals that represent a modern day eating pattern can induce or produce an inflammatory response, and how we can knock that down.” The goal is to moderate the body’s inflammatory response. “We don’t want to suppress the immune system. But we certainly don’t want it to be hyperactive,” she said. “We just want to keep things in balance.”
Her research at IIT’s Institute for Food Safety and Health uses human subjects. “We give them specific diets,” she explained. “We monitor them over six to ten hours to see the changes in their body in response to the food we give.” Burton-Freeman has studied several foods associated with the Mediterranean diet such as avocados and strawberries. “We’ve even worked with extracts. Grape seed extract is one that we specifically worked with relative to blood pressure regulation.” She is studying both acute and long-term responses. The purified grape seed extract, Burton-Freeman uses in her work is branded as MegaNatural-BP. This patented grape seed extract may contribute to a healthy cardiovascular system by maintaining the natural, supple elasticity of healthy blood vessels. It has been studied for its role in maintaining ideal blood pressure.
