Just listened to a really interesting podcast from the 'ZOE Science & Nutrition' app discussing inflammation in the body and the role diet and nutrition may play in causing/managing/improving it. (Notice I didn't say 'curing' it!)
Some very interesting information with what I considered to be well balanced opinions.
I've added a link in case anyone fancies listeningto it.... hopefully it will work!
Good one - may have to listen again though!
Great , I will give it a listen. On the topic of the ZOE app, I have been logging since it started and completed the new health logging feature yesterday. I'm tempted to email ZOE to see if they would consider adding research into PMR alongside all their other studies . What do you think ?
I wondered about them dishing out their diet app to a load of PMR patients - I'd do it if it weren't quite so expensive ...
No harm in asking…they might say yes 👍
I've been doing it too but what's the new health logging feature??🤔
Should see this on opening page -
Or look at website- covid.joinzoe.com/wider-hea...
Got it....thankyou.
Thanks for this I'll give it a listen as soon as I can it sounds very interesting.
Thanks for this. Very interesting. Turns out my cooking is all anti-inflammatory foods. So not the cause. Still very interesting and glad people are looking into this in detail. We are what we eat.
I listened to it yesterday too. And found it very interesting.
Zoe is gradually adding more people into their daily response questionnaire which instead of being Covid related will be about general health.
I have been told I will be included soon on this new app, but it hasn’t happened yet.
I think it would be great if PMR and GCA could be included in their assessments as well as heart disease, obesity, gut problems. Though I believe auto immune diseases are already on the Zoe radar.
See Dorset Lady's Post and follow the link . I'm doing the daily health questionnaire
Many thanks
Thank you for flagging this interesting podcast; I'd just listened to it too (and will need to do so again and take notes!)
I've also been a Zoe contributor since the beginning of the pandemic and after a tentative diagnosis of PMR over the phone by my GP (I seem to have a relatively mild case and I'm not yet on pred - we're watching to see if it will go away!) I've been reading and absorbing as much info as possible from this wonderful forum and other sources e.g. the Kate Gilbert book. There seems to be a major role for inflammation in both PMR and GCA , so one would think that Zoe might be able to add it to their list of conditions
However, as PRMPro says, it seems as if it will be expensive for individuals to buy in to Zoe's gut health testing when it becomes available. But maybe Zoe can access funding for large-scale studies of particular patient cohorts if there is a good chance that it might save the NHS some money in the long run? There again, with pred such a cheap drug, and the 'typical' patient being female and 72 at onset, I'm not sure it's worth holding my breath. But you never know! Certainly worth asking them, I would have thought.
All the best.
Pred itself is cheap and for those of us who don't end up with the adverse effect s a reasonable solution - it's all the (in many cases) "just in case" unnecessary add-ons that increase the cost plus any more dramatic problems like diabetes or fractures.
However - If I didn't need to pay the monthly charges I would pay towards the capital cost of the ZOE app.
On a kind of related note, I have been studying what the best diet is for auto-immune diseases for years and came across the auto-immune protocol (AIP diet) a few years ago. Unfortunately for me it actually made things worse initially, trying things like bone broth, kefir etc and cutting out nightshades etc, but that is how I learned to eliminate high-histamine foods, which has really helped me.
I also looked into eating to build your gut biome starting with Michael Mosley's 'Clever guts' book, but again that is difficult to for me as I can't eat anything pickled or fermented as they are high histamine. Despite all that, when I have had my gut biome tested for diversity (via Chuckling goat, who are an agent for Atlas labs which Tim Spector uses) my gut was 6/10 last year and up to an amazing 8/10 this year and I've got rid of some pathogens. I can't say I'm any better off healthwise yet as I still have high inflammation, but it makes sense to continue to try and improve given all the emerging science on guts, leaky gut etc. I'm sure some combination of the right diet and fasting will help but it will be an individual solution for everyone. Tim Spector is now saying have your biggest meal at lunchtime rather than in the evening, and other researchers are saying don't eat late at night, which is kind of on the same lines.
That's pretty impressive.
Almost everyone here eats their main meal at lunchtime - except me! I need mine at after 7pm to take my pred ...
So is it worth me trying to bring my main meal forward? I tend to eat between about 5 and 6 pm on most days and I only have one meal. I don't have breakfast and seldom have lunch. That would give me a longer overnight fast which latest research and Tim Spector seems to indicate is a good thing, he says delay breakfast until at least 11 am. On the other hand, an article in the iPaper this week titled 'Eat like a king at breakfast, a prince at lunchtime and a pauper at dinner' is being advocated by Prof Russell Foster of Oford uni. "Evening eaters who eat most of their food between 6pm and bedtime are at greater risk of impired glucose tolerance, type 2 diabetes, weigh gain and obesity", he says. Apparently the same meal eaten at different times of the day will cause different blood sugars due to circadian rhythms. The last few months I've slipped and been having lunch, often including a bread roll, I know I know, slapped wrists, and I think that might be part of the cause of recent increases in blood sugar levels as well as the high steroids. It also makes sense that if we eat earlier we are going to use those calories for energy, whereas if you have spare calories at the end of the day they can only be stored as fat. Then again, when I lived in Spain, the Spanish always eat late, about 9 or 10 pm and they say the Mediterranean diet is the way forward. That said, they didn't seem to eat as many carbs as we do. All so complicated it's hard to know what's best even with something as basic as food, which must surely be the pillar of good health?
Tim says the same - hence the role of the monitor in his programme.
Most of Europe doesn't eat bread and carbs with meals like Brits do. Nor in general do they drink with the same patterns.
Italians must eat a lot of pasta pizza and garlic bread 
and wine
They don't drink as much wine as you'd think. And you are very unlikely to find them eating garlic bread except in the form of a very plain pizza. Pasta comes with far less sauce than in the UK and rarely cream sauce. Further south there is cucina povera where pasta is served with just vegetables.
You take your Pred at night? Doesn't it affect your sleep?
It is Lodotra - delayed release formulation. Take it at 10pm, releases at about 2am. My sleep isn't usually affected though sometimes I do wake in the middle of the night for a couple of hours. The next night I sleep like a baby!
Thanks for sharing this Kendrew, I've just listened to it now, fascinating and two great contributors. Chronic inflammation seems to be bad news for the longer term. Some foods directly cause inflammation for me, through my own research I've pinned it down to foods that are high histamine, I'd describe them as allergies as the effect is instant, but apparently it's not an allergy by the immunologist's definition as its not caused by immunogoblins. Odd that blood tests show I'm not allergic to mustard for example, but mustard makes me very ill.
So the question for us with PMR etc is how do you stop the inflammation once it has gone into overdrive and resulted in autoimmune diseases? I avoid foods that are direct triggers and also processed food (most of the time, I'm only human) and both Tim and Sarah recommend that. Sarah Berry says polyphenols, omega 3 and 6 and unrefined oils and lose weight, but the latter needs investigating. Also mentions the Dietary Inflammatory Index which I will Google as never heard of it. Tim says microbiome is the key. Eat like Tim Spector seems to be good advice as the tests done on him show he is as fit as an 18 year old. 20 years ago he'd have been considered crazy but who knows, he could be on to something. Maybe we need faecal implants of the right bacteria to cure us? Tim says things that are good for your biome tend to be anti-inflammatory so eat a diverse range of vegetables mainly. I also discovered from this that Tim used to be a rheumatologist! He say nitrites bad generally but nitrates good and anti-inflammatory. We've come a long way but our knowledge is still primitive he says. 40 minutes well spent listening, thanks again.
black cumin oil (nigella sativa oil), PMR and inflammation
The Infinite Monkey Cage - The Immune System
Link to podcast featuring Dr Sarah Myhill.
