Developing the Dietary Inflammatory Index for Clinical Application

Inflammation

Diet plays a central role in the regulation of chronic inflammation. However, until the investigators developed the dietary inflammatory index (DII) there had been no scientifically valid way to relate what individuals eat to the capacity of foods consumed to modulate inflammation. The DII provides a tool that will form the basis of a counseling/instructional system aimed at helping patients and their providers to control chronic, systemic inflammation by improving the diet with specific, actionable dietary recommendations, counseling, and expert instruction. The goal of this study is to test the applicability of a DII mobile tool and associated counseling measures in clinical practice.

A large, persuasive, and ever-increasing body of evidence links chronic inflammation to virtually all of the chronic diseases that cause the majority of disability and death in the U.S., including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases (CVD), and cancer. Diet plays a central role in the regulation of chronic inflammation. However, until the investigators developed the dietary inflammatory index (DII) there had been no scientifically valid way to relate what individuals eat to the capacity of foods consumed to modulate inflammation. The new generation DII has now produced an impressive research base that ranges from predicting blood levels of inflammatory markers, to clinical conditions associated with inflammation, to a variety of health-related endpoints including cancer incidence, CVDs and mortality (several of which are already published). Connecting Health Innovations (CHI), LLC and the scientific and clinical research partners at the University of South Carolina are committed to translating these research findings to places of clinical need and public health relevance. That commitment to translation provides the motivation for the current proposal. The DII provides a tool that will form the basis of a counseling/instructional system aimed at helping patients and their providers to control chronic, systemic inflammation by improving the diet with specific, actionable dietary recommendations, counseling, and expert instruction. This project is part of Phase II of the grant, which includes: 1) Designing and implementing an intervention trial based on DII response associated recommendations aimed at reducing levels of chronic inflammation in two diverse populations in Columbia, South Carolina and 2) Providing data for developing methods for commercialization/ dissemination of the product and associated software.

United States