Are You Experiencing Chronic Inflammation?
Inflammation And Disease: Is Your Body On Fire?
We all know that inflammation can be healing. Remember the time you had an injury or an infection caused by some virus or bacteria? Swelling, fever, pain and redness would have been some of the acute inflammatory signs. These are caused by white blood cells rapidly moving into the affected area in order to protect tissues from pathogens and damage. The process lasts a few weeks while the body gets over the trauma, and then everything goes back to normal. Thus, acute inflammation is a pretty good mechanism to have in our healing tool box.
However, there is another inflammatory scenario, one where chronic inflammation sets in and starts burning our body. This type of inflammation is not healing as it usually takes place in the absence of pathogens or injuries. In this case, the immune system mistakenly activates a destructive type of blood cells, and they start to eat at tissues and organs. Importantly, chronic inflammation does not produce acute symptoms, so we can become used to it while our body is being set on fire and gets gradually burnt down.
Now, how would you know you might have chronic inflammation? Well, pretty much any chronic condition or complaint can be traced back to it. Fatigue, weight gain, bloating, muscle pain, joint pain, numbness, headaches, brain fog, acne, eczema, psoriasis, PMS, polycystic ovaries, IBS, Crohn's, celiac, asthma, allergies, cancer, lupus, MS, arthritis, heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's... As you can see, the list is practically endless. To sum up, if you suffer anything chronically, your body is most likely experiencing chronic inflammation.
Luckily, chronic inflammation can be managed extremely successfully with life style changes. Here, you only have 2 rules to follow. First, remove the substances and habits that cause inflammation. Second, add substances and habits that are anti-inflammatory. In that order! For instance, knowing that smoking is pro-inflammatory while meditation is anti-inflammatory, you can't hope to reduce inflammation by meditating between smokes. You have to give up smoking first, and that will account for 80% of your results. Then you can take up meditation to add the final 20%.
Now, let's look at the main things that trigger inflammation:
Sugar, grains, starch, soy, seed oils, processed foods, alcohol and cigarettes
Excess weight
Some cosmetics and environmental chemicals
Stress, anger, worry, aggravated relationships
Late dinners and late nights
Conversely, here is a list of things that reduce inflammation:
Turmeric, ginger, garlic
Vitamins and other anti-oxidants, Omega-3 fatty acids, Boswellia
Meditation and other stress reducing practices
Skipping dinner, going to bed early, exercising appropriately
To recap, if you want to address chronic inflammation, start at the top of the list first working your way down. Start with your diet! Adding garlic to your take-away dinner plate and washing your sugary desert down with a multi-vitamin smoothie simply won't cut it. Roll up your sleeves and take the junk out of your life. Make room first and then start adding back anti-inflammatory goodies. Granted, the process may seem difficult at first. But the more you do it, the more you would want to do it, as you will be charging your body with strength, vitality and life force.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10354852
