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Stopping Inflammation
Relieving the Cause of Degenerative Disease
by Nancy Appleton

Square One Publishers; NY11040, USA, 2004. 228 pages, $14.95

Inflammation is the result of infection by germs, right? Only partly, according to Dr. Nancy Appleton -- in a completely new insight she shows how inflammation, triggered by hitherto unsuspected agencies, can also CAUSE disease.

In this impressively researched book she documents how most, if not all, degenerative diseases like cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, diabetes and many more, can be either initiated or made worse by inflammation.

What is this inflammation and why does it happen? Dr. Appleton zeros in on one major factor: food and the allergies and intolerances it provokes. In clear language she describes how the body’s immune system is supposed to work and how it caves in under the pressure of the wrong foods, generating abnormal quantities of inflammatory compounds.

As the author of Lick the Sugar Habit, she comes down hard on sugar itself and all its aliases. She also singles out dairy and wheat. In handy tables she also lists the dozens of other foodstuffs that could be implicated. She highlights the paradox that it is often the food one craves that makes one sick.

In an insight that will be completely new to many people, she explains how the blood-brain barrier is made more porous by allergens, opening the brain to inflammatory compounds. These can aggravate a vast range of mood and behavioral problems including ADHD, aggression, schizophrenia and depression.

In the final part of the book she draws all the information together and puts perspective on it. She gives practical and clear guidelines to correct one’s lifestyle, notably eating habits.

From our point of view we would have also demonized starch (it is just sugar in another form); we would have given the role of omega-6 oils in inflammation greater emphasis; we would have liked the lifestyle errors to be ranked for risk. But these are minor quibbles.

In many degenerative diseases, conventional medicine is often power­less or just treats the symptoms. This book is a great guide for identifying and removing the underlying causes of many diseases and for restoring a harmon­iously working body.