WHEATFIELD — The Kankakee Valley School Board held a public hearing at its regular meeting on Monday, July 24, to discuss a bond to pay for renovation and improvements to
“When experiencing a stressful event, the area of the brain that controls emotions, the amygdala, sends a distress signal to the hypothalamus, the brain’s command center,” explained Lucie Lingrand, a brain-gut axis specialist and product manager at Lallemand Health Solutions. “The hypothalamus then sends out an alert through the nervous system, which responds by releasing a flood of stress hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol.”
As the fight-or-flight response kicks in, digestion slows and gut sensitivity is increased. “Many studies in animal models of stress, as well as acute or chronic stress in human models, have shown that the intestinal barrier is impaired and that the composition of the gut microbiota is changed,”
Inflammation can give rise to a variety of diseases and harmful health conditions, and many natural ingredients have been put to the test to determine their relative effects on inflammation. The following examples represent some of the most noteworthy natural ingredient research findings published over the last 10 to 20 years.
Bilberry (
Vaccinium myrtillus) is a blueberry-like fruit that contains anthocyanosides, polyphenols and free radical scavenging antioxidants.
Researchers investigated the effect of bilberry juice on serum and plasma biomarkers of inflammation and antioxidant status in subjects with elevated levels of at least one risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in a randomized controlled trial where 62 participants consumed either bilberry juice or water for four weeks.