Shrimp and lobsters make their own anti-inflammatory molecules, and that has scientists very excited. In a press release posted last week by the College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University, officials announced that they had received a $380,000 National Institute of Health grant to investigate just how the marine medicine could be used to eliminate inflammatory diseases in humans.

The crabby chemical that is the center of attention is called a chitin, and it’s a key constituent of the shells of various oceans animals including crayfish, shrimp, krill, and barnacles, and is one of the most abundant molecules in all of nature, second only to cellulose. And, as it turns out, in addition to being abundant (and cheap), chitin has powerful anti -inflammatory properties. Properties that are so impressive, that the natural molecule found in so many crust critters is being studied in hope of finding a pharmaceutical treatment for inflammatory diseases including Irritable Bowel Syndrome, arthritis, and heart disease. And it’s not just shellfish that contain this fascinating medicinal molecule. You can find chitin in the hard shells of insects as well as in the cell walls of most fungi and algae.

In less than two minutes, Pharmacist Ben Fuchs reveals how our connective tissue is our most abundant biological tissue and suggests specific supplements for its care.

Connective tissue (CT) is one of the 4 types of tissues that form the human body. (The others are the nervous, muscle and covering or “epithelial” tissue.) The connective tissue supports all the other tissues by binding them together. The connective tissue also nourishes, oxygenates, electrifies and detoxifies all the cells of the body. The connective tissue includes bones and the internal material within which the various organs of the body are embedded. The skin gets its resilience from supportive connective tissue, that is located in the dermis. The heart sits on a framework of connective tissue. The strength and elasticity of the arteries, veins, capillaries and lymphatic vessels depends on connective tissue, while even the blood itself is a type of liquid (actually gel) connective tissue.

At some point we all face sore knees, thumbs, fingers. hips. The list goes on. Over time the cartilage that buffers the bone in all of our joints wears down and inflammation sets in causing pain and discomfort. This can be debilitating for some. Good news. Many recent studies show that it is not only possible to regrow cartilage, but it can be done without poisonous drugs!

"For example, my doctors (I ended up seeing four specialists) left me deeply pessimistic about damaged knee cartilage ever getting better on its own. After listening to them, I would have guessed that healing of any kind occurred in one or two percent of patients -- at most.