Chronic Inflammation
One of the new hot button issues being discussed in the medical community is the issue of Inflammation and its effect on the body in terms of chronic illness. Recent studies have pointed to chronic inflammation in the body as a root cause of Cancer, Heart disease, Diabetes, Depression, and Allergies.
So what is the deal with chronic Inflammation?
The school of thought on inflammation is as follows, It all starts with the immune system, the body’s first line of defense against harm. When you are injured or sick your bone marrow dispatches white blood cells to root out infection and jump start the healing process. Sometimes the immune system gets a faulty distress signal and deploys unnecessary white blood cells. Those misguided white blood cells still mobilize just like they would if you were actually under attack, but because there is no infection for them to attack they end up hanging around. The problem is, your body isn’t made toaccommodate this kind of unfocused immune activity so those white blood cells start damaging your internal organs. They can also start to assault other cells the body uses to ward off disease cracking the door open for illnesses such as cancer. The great news is this.. We now know what common inflammation triggers are and what we can do to prevent them.
Top Inflammation Triggers:
- Carrying excess weight: Swollen fat cells trigger the immune system to send white blood cells to protect the other cells causing all over inflammation. Over time they have found that this inflammation causes the healthy cells to resist insulin which in turn can lead to diabetes.
- Eating high-sugar, high-carb, high-fat foods: Foods that quickly dump excess fat and sugar into the blood stream set off the immune response causing the inflammation process to begin.
- Experiencing high anxiety: Basically the fight or flight system is working here. It has been proven that with the release of the stress hormone cortisol, a signal to the immune system is given to protect its host (your body). This protection response over time acts as an inflammatory response.
- Breathing bad air: This is in the form of cigarette smoke, smog, or other airpollutants. All of these things are an assault on the lungs. The immune system rushes to fix the problem often times overcompensating and rather than healing, the white blood cells end up in excess leading to problems such as lung disease.
Top Inflammation Fighters:
- Eating foods rich in Omega-3 fatty acids: Studies are now proving that Omega-3′s (the good fat) work to dial down the over accumulation of white blood cells.
- Eating lots of fruits and vegetables: Plants are a known inflammation fighter, they are full of anti-inflammatory elements such as magnesium (check out my post on Magnesium below), antioxidants, and carotenoids.
- Get moving: Exercise has a powerful effect on inflammation. It helps you break down and sweat out those over released white blood cells. It is recommended that in our over consuming, stress filled society we need 45-50min of moderate exercise on most days to beat the inflammation. That 45 minutes can be broken down into several smaller 15 minute segments to still have the same effect.
Foods to add to your shopping cart that help reduce inflammation:
- Greens
- Blueberries
- Salmon
- Flax seed
- Legumes
- Turmeric
Some information derived from Womens Health, December 2010
