Monday, September 27, 2010

Dr. Dipnarine Maharaj Featured Guest at Cell Science Systems to discuss Reducing Inflammation and Risk for Cancer by Collecting and Storing Healthy Stem Cells


Speech to focus on inflammation, cancer and healthy stem cells

September 23, 2010 – Deerfield Beach, FL – Dr. Dipnarine Maharaj, MD, FACP of The South Florida Bone Marrow/Stem Cell Transplant Institute will be a featured speaker at Cell Science Systems / The ALCAT Laboratories on Monday, October 18, 2010.  The topic of his speech is How to Reduce Inflammation and Risk for Cancer by Collecting and Storing Healthy Stem Cells.  It will highlight the importance of how stem cell therapy can benefit patients.

Roger Deutsch, President and CEO of Cell Science Systems, and author of the book, Your Hidden Food Allergies Are Making You Fat, will also be a featured speaker at the dinner discussion.

“We are delighted to have Dr. Maharaj as our guest to lecture about this increasingly important topic. It is a valuable addition to any regenerative integrative medical practice” said Deutsch.

Dr. Maharaj is dedicated to refining Bone Marrow Stem Cell transplant treatments in order to achieve the highest quality of care possible. Dr. Maharaj is also an accomplished author and frequent speaker. He has published several scientific papers in journals such as, Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation, British Medical Journal, and, The Lancet.

“I chose to study Hematology/Oncology to make a real difference in the quality of cancer care and to help change people’s lives for the better. My education helped shape me as a doctor and as a person. But for me, learning never ends. My patients are far too important” stated Maharaj.

Dr. Maharaj has extensive experience in performing outpatient bone marrow / stem cell transplants since 1995. He has demonstrated that the majority of patients can be treated safely with minimal complications on a totally outpatient basis. This has been achieved by close monitoring and early intervention through all phases of the treatment by the same staff. Patients who receive a totally outpatient bone marrow / stem cell transplant return home following treatments and remain with family and loved ones.

Every day, lives are changed as a result of the South Florida Bone Marrow / Stem Cell Transplant Institute. Under the direction of Dr. Dipnarine Maharaj, The South Florida Bone Marrow / Stem Cell Transplant Institute offers a full range of outpatient treatments for many hematologic cancers including: Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, Leukemia, and Multiple Myeloma. There are also other treatments such as immunotherapy for cancers. Patients are cared for by a team of highly-skilled professionals with extensive training and experience in treating cancers that react favorably to stem cell transplants. This specialized approach helps patients whose cancer has shown little or no response to other methods of treatment.
The “day 100” post-transplant mortality rate and patient success rate of being alive and disease free match or exceed those of nationally know transplant centers. The incidence of infections in this program is significantly lower than at inpatient transplant centers. That says a lot about trusted, quality care that you can feel good about.

Cell Science Systems., Corp. (CSS), located in Deerfield Beach, Florida, is a life sciences company and the worldwide market leader in food sensitivity testing as the manufacturer of the ALCAT Test.  ALCAT identifies cellular reactions to over 350 foods, chemicals and herbs. These inflammatory reactions are linked to chronic health problems like obesity and diabetes, as well as skin, heart, joint, and digestive disorders. CSS is expanding research into the area of cellular activity related to nutrition, immune function and other aspects of regenerative medicine.

For more information on Cell Science Systems visit www.ALCAT.com.  For more information on The South Florida Bone Marrow / Stem Cell Transplant Institute visit www.BMSCTI.org.

Media contact:  Mr. Lee Rolnick, CSS, (954) 426 2304

Common Food Sensitivities: What You Need to Know By Susan Brady

Rashes, asthma, gastrointestinal discomfort, migraines, anaphylactic shock—whatever the resulting symptom, food sensitivities take their toll on your body and your patience. Whether in the form of an actual allergy or an intolerance due to disease or illness, a significant portion of the world population is affected and must monitor their diet—some with just a watchful eye, others will full-blown vigilance.


It is estimated that 12 million Americans suffer with food allergies alone. Typically, avoidance is the best way to keep symptoms at bay, but for some there are alternatives, such as regular/periodic allergy shots, supplements, and desensitization treatments. The best weapon you can have is knowledge, about the sensitivity and how best to work with or around it.

Here are the basics on 5 common food allergies. For additional information you can check out the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network or the Food Allergy Initiative.

(1) Peanut

This one has been in the news a lot lately, with airlines discontinuing peanut service, and some schools banning peanut butter. Peanut allergies are the most common of food allergies and probably one of the most dangerous. Anaphylactic shock can occur from just peanut particles or peanut dust for those who have severe sensitivity.

The Food Allergy Initiative reports that peanut allergies are on the rise, and in the U.S. the number of children with a peanut allergy doubled between 1997 and 2002. To add insult to injury, this allergy tends to be life-long, not something that you can grow out of, and it increases the likelihood that you will be allergic to other tree nuts, such as almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, and cashews.

The federal government requires that packaged food products list peanuts as an ingredient, making it slightly easier to determine the presence of the offending allergen. But you also need to steer clear of anything cooked in peanut oil and many ethnic foods which use ground nuts in food preparation. For those with a severe allergy, you may have to eliminate anything that is processed in the same plant as peanuts, such as candies, baked goods, and ice creams.

(2) Dairy/Beef/Lactose

Typical symptoms of dairy/beef/lactose sensitivities include respiratory (asthma, wheezing, constriction of throat), gastrointestinal (severe gas, diarrhea, vomiting), and dermatological (hives, rashes). Whether you are allergic to dairy, sensitive to beef protein, or have a lactose intolerance, you need to be very careful about checking ingredients in everyday products: there are the obvious ones like milk, ice cream, yogurt and cheese, but can also be hidden in bread, cereal, instant soups, powdered breakfast drinks, margarine, lunch meats, pancake/biscuit/cake mixes, and more. Look not only for milk in the ingredient list, but also casein, whey, rennet, lactalbumin, lactalbumin phosphate, lactoglobulin, lactoferrin, lactulose, hydrolysates, and even things like cheese flavoring and artificial butter flavor. So read those nutrition labels closely!

Milk allergies affect 2 to 3 percent of infants in the United States and is the most common allergy in infants and small children. According to the National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse, between 30 and 50 million Americans are lactose intolerant. It is also the case that certain ethnic and racial populations are more affected than others by lactose intolerance. Up to 80 percent of African Americans, 80 to 100 percent of American Indians, and 90 to 100 percent of Asian Americans are lactose intolerant.

Alternatives: Soy products, such as milk, yogurt, cheese, ice cream; Goat milk products. Mocha mix and other non-dairy liquids; Lact-AID or Dairy Ease milk; rice milk; almond milk

Make sure you get enough calcium if you have any problem with dairy products. Calcium is important for formation of bones and teeth when young, and preservation of bone tissue as you age.

(3) Shellfish

This type of allergy is not as common in young children, developing in young adulthood and later. It is the most common adult-onset allergy and is not something you typically “outgrow” or become desensitized to. Once it hits, that will mean no shrimp gumbo, crabcakes, or tasty little crawdads for the rest of your life. While these are not everyday or basic food items, like milk, eggs and wheat, it will take some adjusting.

Typically people are more highly allergic to what I call the “legged” shellfish, such as shrimp, crab, lobster, langoustine, crawdads. But the allergy can extend to bivalves (clams, mussels, scallops, oysters, cockles) and other types of mollusks (squid, octopus, conch). To be safe, most people allergic to shellfish will steer clear of all types. You will also need to read packaging on all prepared items. Again, this is a foodstuff which the government requires specific labeling, making it a bit easier to spot than reading the whole list of ingredients.

As with other severe allergies, you may need to avoid cross-contamination when eating out. You aren’t going to be able to eat those hush puppies if they have been fried in the same oil as the popcorn shrimp; no steak from the same grill used for lobster; no sushi prepared on the same work surface as a California Roll. This will require diligence at restaurants and asking more questions that you probably want to.

(4) Wheat Allergy/Gluten Intolerance (aka Celiac Disease)

An increasing number of Americans are being diagnosed with wheat and gluten intolerance, due to increased awareness programs surrounding Celiac disease. A wheat allergy deals specifically with the wheat grain, while Celiac disease is brought about by an autoimmune disorder which affects the body's ability to process gluten proteins within grain (wheat as well as others).

Those diagnosed with wheat allergies have about a 20 percent chance of being allergic to other grains. With Celiac disease, you must also avoid barley, rye and oats. There is the possibility of outgrowing a wheat allergy, however those suffering from Celiac disease will have a lifelong issue with gluten and wheat products. Celiac disease can lead to severe malnutrition if not properly diagnosed and because it will require a lifestyle change, make sure that you seek out a proper diagnosis from trained medical personnel, such as an allergist, rheumatologist, or gastroenterologist.

As with other common allergens, the government has mandated packaged food be properly labeled as containing wheat (although not gluten). Be particularly careful about baked goods, bread crumbs, cereals, and grains like semolina, couscous, and farina. You may also find wheat, in various incarnations, in beer, breaded food, sausage, sauces, and even ice cream, salad dressings and soups. General food guidelines for wheat allergy can be found here at the Lucille Packard Stanford Children’s Hospital website.

(5) Egg

Egg allergies are second only to cow’s milk in children, according to the Food Allergy Initiative, but it is one that many children outgrow. The allergy is to the protein in the white part of the eggs, but it is recommended that all egg products be avoided, including the eggs of other birds.

Ingredients to watch for are albumin, egg, globulin, and any ingredient starting with ova-. Labels are required, once again by the government, to show the presence of egg. Foods to avoid include mayonnaise, meatloaf and meatballs, baked goods, salad dressings, frostings and meringue, marshmallows, custards/puddings, and some soups.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Battling Inflammation Through Food By Shara Yurkiewicz

Though it's an emerging field, proponents of anti-inflammatory diets point to growing evidence that foods like vegetables and fish can ease an overactive immune system.

If you want to live longer -- avoid heart disease, Alzheimer's disease and cancer -- then pick and choose your foods with care to quiet down parts of your immune system.

That's the principle promoted by the founders and followers of anti-inflammatory diets, designed to reduce chronic inflammation in the body.

Dozens of books filled with diets and recipes have flooded the market in the last few years, including popular ones by dermatologist Dr. Nicholas Perricone and Zone Diet creator Barry Sears.

Those who frequent message boards that discuss arthritis or acne trade tips on which pro- or anti-inflammatory foods may help or trigger their symptoms -- urging co-sufferers to try cherries for their rheumatoid arthritis or avoid gluten for their psoriasis.

But proponents claim the benefits go far beyond that, fighting not just pain from inflamed joints or skin flare-ups but also life-threatening diseases.

"If your future currently looks bleak because of high levels of silent inflammation, don't worry, because you can change it within thirty days," Barry Sears promises in his book, "The Anti-Inflammation Zone."

There's still a lot of science to be done. And should you try such a diet, you probably shouldn't expect any 30-day miracles. But there may be something to eating in an anti-inflammatory way.

"[Chronic inflammation] is an emerging field," says Dr. David Heber, a UCLA professor of medicine and director of the university's Center for Human Nutrition. "It's a new concept for medicine."

The point of an anti-inflammation diet is not to lose weight, although it is not uncommon for its followers to shed pounds. The goal: to combat what proponents call "chronic silent inflammation" in the body, the result of an immune system that doesn't know when to shut off.

The theory goes that long after the invading bacteria or viruses from some infection are gone, the body's defenses remain active. The activated immune cells and hormones then turn on the body itself, damaging tissues. The process continues indefinitely, occurring at low enough levels that a person doesn't feel pain or realize anything is wrong. Years later, proponents say, the damage contributes to illnesses such as heart disease, neurological disorders like Alzheimer's disease or cancer.

In general terms, following an anti-inflammatory diet means increasing intake of foods that have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. (Antioxidants reduce the activity of tissue-damaging free radicals at sites of inflammation.) The diet includes vegetables, whole grains, nuts, oily fish, protein sources, spices such as ginger and turmeric and brightly colored fruits such as blueberries, cherries and pomegranates.

Foods that promote inflammation -- saturated fats, trans fats, corn and soybean oil, refined carbohydrates, sugars, red meat and dairy -- are reduced or eliminated.

It would seem logical that a diet that could dampen an overactive immune system could help prevent or slow diseases that are caused or exacerbated by inflammation. And evidence is certainly mounting that such diseases include heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer's.

Studies with animals suggest that the diet's followers may be on to something.

"If you feed rodents different diets, you can very strongly modulate inflammation," says Dr. Andrew Greenberg, the director of the Obesity and Metabolism Laboratory at the Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston. "Fish oil, for example, ameliorates inflammation in rodents."

Resveratrol, found in grape skin and red wine, has been shown to improve blood vessel function and slow aging in rats.

Pomegranate juice decreases atherosclerosis development in mice with high cholesterol. Garlic improves blood vessel functioning in the hearts of rats with high blood pressure.

And curcumin (an antioxidant chemical found in turmeric) improves ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis and pancreatitis in mice and has anti-cancer effects in the animals too.

Curcumin has also been shown to ease the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis in people, reducing joint swelling, morning stiffness and walking time. In India, turmeric is used to promote wound healing and reduce inflammation. But though curcumin's effects are being tested in several clinical trials addressing various diseases, rigorous human results are lacking -- as is the case for most anti-inflammatory foods.

Large, careful human clinical trials are expensive and few have been designed to test dietary interventions. Small trials on individual supplements have been done, though. And scientists have learned a lot from studying populations -- chronicling the natural habits of people and seeing what diseases they get and which they don't.

Large, careful human clinical trials are expensive and few have been designed to test dietary interventions. Small trials on individual supplements have been done, though. And scientists have learned a lot from studying populations -- chronicling the natural habits of people and seeing what diseases they get and which they don't.

The drug factor

It makes sense that anti-inflammatory diets might help the heart, says Dr. Robert H. Eckel, a past president of the American Heart Assn. and professor of physiology and biophysics at University of Colorado Denver's Health Sciences Center.

Statin drugs, for example, are known to cut heart disease risk by reducing cholesterol levels -- among other things, these meds fight inflammation.

"We don't know how much of statins' effect are due to their anti-inflammatory effects," Eckel says. But, he adds, a growing number of researchers suspect that this property is important.

Fish oil, rich in anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids and derived from oily fish such as tuna, salmon and mackerel -- is already recommended by the American Heart Assn. to help prevent cardiovascular disease. It has been shown to reduce blood triglyceride levels and slightly lower blood pressure, lowering the risk for heart attacks and strokes.

There is also reason to believe that anti-inflammatory substances would help to ward off cancers. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs have been shown to prevent tumors with people with inherited colorectal cancer, for example.

And population studies have shown that people who had been taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory meds for other conditions were less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease.

In trials, such drugs have failed to treat already-developed Alzheimer's, but the studies suggest that it might be possible to prevent the disease by reducing inflammation, says Greg Cole, a professor of medicine and neurology at UCLA and associate director of the UCLA Alzheimer's Disease Research Center.

But it is not safe to take non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for years because of harmful side effects, such as gastrointestinal bleeding. What about anti-inflammatory foods? Several clinical trials, in the U.S. and abroad, have shown that people with mild memory complaints related to aging (not necessarily Alzheimer's disease) showed significant improvement when given the omega-3 fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid, Cole says.

And in an 18-month study released in June sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, treating Alzheimer's disease with docosahexaenoic acid slowed its progression in a subgroup of the study population.

There are other trials with positive results for fish oil in early Alzheimer's cases, but they are not large enough to be definitive, Cole says.

But, he adds, "the real utility is not to slow the progression of someone who's already demented, but it's to treat before dementia happens. We'd like to turn off or keep down [the inflammation] with something that doesn't cause gastrointestinal bleeding or other side effects."

Cole's laboratory is looking at the potential for Alzheimer's prevention by controlling inflammation with omega-3 fatty acids and curcumin. Other food substances -- such as resveratrol in red wine and flavonoids in fruits -- may have anti-inflammatory effects by acting along the same pathway that curcumin does, he says.

Cole suspects that people are more likely to take a supplement or two than to radically change their diets. "Nutritionists, they'll tell you to eat right. It is good, sound advice, but you can't always get people to do it," he says. "The question is, can you find an easier supplement approach that doesn't require a restricted diet?"

Supplements do have their drawbacks. "Many Alzheimer's researchers were prescribing vitamin E [an antioxidant] to all their patients," says Debra Cherry, a clinical psychologist and the executive vice president of the Alzheimer's Assn. of the California Southland. "But some data came out that people had high bleeds and suffered from cardiovascular problems."

Dietary revamp

Perhaps a complete diet overhaul -- difficult though that may be -- would be a better strategy. The Mediterranean diet, named for the region in which it originated, has many anti-inflammatory features.

It includes fruits, vegetables, nuts, fish, whole grains, alcohol, and healthful fats like olive and canola oil. It has been shown to lower LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels and reduce the risk of blood clots. Studies have shown that diets high in fish, olive oil and cooked vegetables reduce the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. A Mediterranean diet or elements of it seems linked to reduced risk for a number of chronic conditions, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer's.

"If people noticed they're slightly overweight, or if blood pressure is starting to creep up, or if blood sugar [increases], and they went on a Mediterranean-type diet, they might be able to decrease inflammation and stop the progression of disease," says Dr. Wadie Najm, a clinical professor of family medicine and geriatrics at UC Irvine who directs an integrated medicine clinic at UCI that focuses on complementary and alternative medicine.

Many patients visiting his clinic have chronic inflammatory conditions, including autoimmune diseases such as arthritis and gastrointestinal problems such as Crohn's disease. Patients begin a specialized diet and exercise, and make other lifestyle changes to decrease inflammation.

"In three weeks, if [patients] follow the protocol, we see great results in improvement in symptomology and reduction in flare-ups," says Bianca Garilli, a naturopathic doctor at the clinic.

Of course, these dietary and other lifestyle changes might help treat pain conditions through the placebo effect -- a belief in a treatment rather than the treatment itself, says Dr. Roger Chao, an associate professor of medicine at Oregon Health and Science University and director of clinical guidelines development for the American Pain Society.

"You're giving something for people to focus on and do something good for themselves," Chao says.

At the end of the day, there is evidence to suggest that your best bet at curbing inflammation is to eat a healthful diet -- and keep your weight in check -- without specifically thinking about anti-inflammatory foods.

"There is no doubt that if you lose weight, inflammation is dramatically improved," Greenberg says. When a person is overweight or obese, body fat breaks down into fatty acids, which circulate in the blood. These fatty acids promote an immune response in the same way that infection does, increasing inflammation.

It will take time to tease apart the effects of anti-inflammatory diets and supplements. But Cole thinks the effort is well worth it. "The alternative to these kinds of things aimed at prevention is to pay for treatments," he says. "And we can't always afford them."

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health@latimes.com