Re: Does Benicar & less vit. D treat TH2 dominant conditions?

[Guest guest]

>--- " Schaafsma " <compucruz@y...> wrote:

>This gets close to magical thinking. In your argument, if vitamin D

>reduces inflammation, it's interfering with immunity, despite

>evidence that it enhances resistance to bacteria and cancer.

> But if BENICAR reduces inflammation, it's not interfering with immunity,

>despite evidence that it retards macrophage function. That's

>convenient, but makes no sense.

The key difference is that one of the ways that Angiotensin II causes

inflammation, is via activation of pathways that stimulate

NF-{kappa}B production. An excess of NF-{kappa}B is implicated in

all sorts of problems, including cancer. Combine the effects of

NF-{kappa}B, with the other problems that excess ANGII can cause, and

the possible benefits of blocking ANGII via Benicar seem to outweigh

the positive effects of ANGII.

There's at least one person who has postulated a role for NF-{kappa}B in CFS:

http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/app/home/contribution.asp?wasp=2fa1689qmh7\

uym9fhm2u & referrer=parent & backto=issue,9,9;journal,2,17;linkingpublicationresult\

s,1:104343,1

There's also a recent study that postulates that NF-{kappa}B

downregulates the activity of the vitamin D3 producing enzyme:

http://mend.endojournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/18/10/2440

NF-{kappa}B may also reduce Vitamin D receptor sensitivity:

http://ajpendo.physiology.org/cgi/content/full/279/1/E213

Plus, the inflammtory cytokine TNF-alpha is well known to reduce

vitamin D sensitivity. So this information points to the fact that

inflammation could likely be the cause of either low vitamin D3, or

low vitamin D3 sensitivity. In order for this effect to be

significant, we would need to find studies that show that worsening

of TH1 disease symptoms coorelate with lower levels of D3, like the

following one:

" Relationship between disease activity and serum levels of vitamin D

metabolites and PTH in rheumatoid arthritis. "

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve & db=pubmed & dopt=Abstra\

ct & list_uids=9501950

On the other hand, there's much less evidence that such inflammation

occurs in CFS. But there is evidence of increased T lymphocyte

activation and cytokine levels in CFS, which could reflect a vitamin

D deficiency. Also, people CFS usually have higher levels of

alkaline phosphatase, which also may reflect low levels of D3. See:

http://www.phoenix-cfs.org/RNase%20L%20Landmark%20Study%2004.htm

On the other hand, this paper notes poor cellular function, i.e. NK

cell functioning, and impaired lymphocytes response to mitogens. Who

knows, this could be caused by the known elevated levels of the

immunosuppressive TGF-Beta 1 cytokine (which Benicar may help to

reduce).

Mark