When we are injured, exposed to infection, or need healing, inflammation rushes in to protect us.
Inflammation is one of the body’s natural defense systems. It’s a good thing…but…
The problem begins when this protective response does not switch off and becomes a constant, low-grade fire inside the body. This is chronic inflammation.
Over time, this hidden inflammation can quietly affect our energy, digestion, joints, heart, brain and overall health.
Inflammation is often compared to fire.In controlled amounts, there is no question that fire keeps us warm, healthy, and protected, but when there is too much fire, or if fire gets out of control, it can be destructive.
And this fire does not need to be big to cause damage. It is now understood that low-grade chronic or on-going inflammation that is below the level of pain, can contribute to many chronic health problems and can itself become a disease.
This ongoing low-grade inflammation is the stage where your body no longer has the ability to turn off the inflammatory response and starts damaging healthy tissue or prevents them from properly repairing.
It also begins to destroy healthy cells in arteries, organs, joints, and other parts of the body. It could damage the intestinal lining in your gut and cause digestive problems, it could damage the arteries in your heart and cause heart disease, or it could damage your joints and cause rheumatoid arthritis.
This is why chronic inflammation is often called silent. You may not feel it right away. There may be no obvious pain, swelling or redness. But under the surface, the body may be working too hard, too often, and for too long. Over time, this wears the body down and makes it harder to heal, repair and stay strong.
At that point, too many pro-inflammatory choices have created a monster.
Reduce Unnecessary Inflammation
Often, people take medications to decrease inflammation. Drugs like ibuprofen and aspirin can change the body’s chemical reactions, but they are not without side effects.
Research shows that lifestyle choices can also help lower inflammation. The food we eat, the way we move, how well we sleep and how we manage stress all influence the amount of inflammation in the body. By choosing a healthy diet and supporting it with good daily habits, we can have a powerful effect on keeping inflammation under control.
The wonderful news is, you can control and even reverse inflammation through a healthy lifestyle.
When you don’t eat healthy, don’t get enough muscle building and maintaining exercise, don’t get enough quality sleep or have too much stress, the body responds by triggering inflammation.
It is also important to remember that the body does not respond to one choice alone. It responds to the pattern of your daily life. One poor meal does not ruin your health, just as one healthy meal does not fix everything. But day after day, your habits begin to either calm inflammation down or feed it.
There are many simple things we all can do to dampen, counteract and prevent health issues caused by chronic inflammations.
Lose weight
If you are overweight, losing weight is a great place to start as it induces those fat cells to product fewer harmful cytokines. The more excess weight you carry as fat, the more active those fat cells are and the more inflamed you will be. Visceral deep internal fat triggers inflammation.
Here is how this works:
Excess fat from the cells oozes out, triggering an immune response.
Fat cells undergo mechanical stress, triggering an immune response.
What this means is that macrophages, the foot soldiers of the immune system, make their way into fat tissue to see what all the fuss is about.
Everybody has some macrophages in their fat tissue. But the proportion varies considerably from 10 percent macrophages in lean people, to 50 percent in obese people. As the macrophages make their way into fat tissue, the body shows an increase in markers of inflammation.
The important point is that chronic inflammation is not just another side effect of obesity. Instead, it appears to be the link between obesity and disease.
Even a small amount of weight loss can help. You do not have to reach a perfect number on the scale before your body begins to respond. Losing even a modest amount of excess fat, especially around the middle, can help lower inflammatory signals and improve how the body manages blood sugar, hormones and energy.
Exercise
Hands down the best way to reduce inflammation is with proper exercise.The dominant response from exercise is anti-inflammatory. The cellular signals released from contracting muscles during exercise inhibit the negative inflammatory response reducing pro-inflammatory signals and reductions in low-grade chronic inflammation.
Over time, the benefits from reduced chronic inflammation include improved glucose management, fat metabolism and immune function, thereby enabling our bodies to be more prepared to combat illness and recover from an injury.
Exercise also teaches our bodies to react better to stressors imposed on it.
Avoiding chronic inflammation will help improve nutrient absorption, alleviate cravings, improve insulin function, help control body weight, and improve your mental state; 90 percent of the feel good brain chemical, serotonin which is produced in the gut.
The key is consistency, not punishment.
Many people think exercise has to be extreme to be useful, but that is not true. Walking, strength training, stretching, gardening, cycling, swimming and simply moving more during the day all help the body become more efficient and less inflamed. The body loves movement when it is done in a way that builds it up instead of breaking it down.
Inflammatory foods
These foods cause a constant immune response and should be limited or even better avoided.
These include:
Get your Omega-3
You need to get a proper balance of omega-6 to omega-3 fats:
Prostaglandins, the lipid compounds derived from fats, can be either pro-inflammatory or anti-inflammatory. The prostaglandins produced by the breakdown of omega-6 fats are mostly pro-inflammatory, and the prostaglandins produced by omega-3 fats are mostly anti-inflammatory.
Many people consume too much omega-6 fat and not enough omega-3 fat. The solution?
Dump cooking oils made with corn, safflower and other omega-6 oils, choose grass-fed meat over grain-fed meat, and eat more cold-water fish or take fish-oil supplements.
Most adults should aim for an omega-6 to omega-3 ratio of 2:1 or 3:1.
Omega-3s contain potent anti-inflammatory properties. Some foods rich in this fatty acid include chia seeds, fish, fish oil, flaxseeds, lean meats, seafood, soybeans, spinach, and walnuts.
Avoid trans fats
Trans fats, man-made fats and oils, inhibit the enzymes responsible for breaking down omega-3 and omega-6 fats, crippling your body’s ability to process healthy fats normally.
These fats are found in processed foods, things that come in a packet, bag, tin or frozen in the supermarket that contain generic refined vegetable oils, hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated fats, also known as trans fats.They include margarines, non-butter spreads, baked goods, some packaged foods, vegetable shortenings, sunflower, safflower, corn, grape seed, groundnut peanut soya oils and the processed and fried foods that contain these food villains.
These bad fats are high in omega 6, disrupting the crucially important omega 6 to omega 3 balance.
Use cold pressed oils like extra virgin olive oil, macadamia and avocado oils for drizzling and dressings only. Although some cold pressed nut and seed oils can be pricey such as walnut, flax seed, hemp and hazelnut they are worth the money spent on them.
For cooking use organic or grass fed butter or ghee, virgin coconut oil or animal fat lard from a grass fed animal; they are all stable at higher temperatures and do not degrade into oxidative compounds.
Limit refined carbohydrates
Consuming excess refined sugars contributes to inflammation both by increasing the production of pro-inflammatory prostaglandins and raising insulin levels, which is not catastrophic by itself, but will eventually lead to increased inflammation.
To reduce the effects of inflammation and inflammation-related medical conditions, and to control blood sugar levels it is essential to decrease or eliminate the amount of flour and sugar from our diets. Some of the more common sources of refined carbs include bread, cereal, cookies, crackers, pasta, and soft drinks.
One easy rule to follow is to avoid white foods, such as white bread, rice and pasta, as well as foods made with white sugar and flour. Build meals around lean proteins and whole foods high in fiber, such as vegetables, fruits and whole grains, such as brown rice and whole wheat bread.
Check the labels and make sure that whole wheat or another whole grain is the first ingredient.
Blood sugar balance is one of the simplest ways to help calm inflammation. When blood sugar rises and crashes all day long, the body is forced to work harder. This can lead to cravings, fatigue, mood swings and more inflammation. Eating protein, healthy fats and fiber at meals helps slow digestion and gives the body a steadier supply of energy.
Note: Don’t be fooled by gluten free products as they are high in other starch flours like potato and rice, which cause high insulin responses leading to potential fat storage, contain anti-nutrients as well as being devoid of nutrition.
Sugars and their by-products.
Sugar has many guises; corn syrup, dextrose, maltodextrin, fructose, golden syrup, maltose, agave syrup, sorghum syrup and sucrose are some of the creative names used. Artificial food additives such as aspartame and other artificial sweeteners, MSG, colourings and flavourings should be avoided. Use natural sweeteners like Truevia, Purevia or pure Stevia.
Increase dietary antioxidants:
In general, a diet high in healthy fats down-regulates the production of inflammatory cytokines; coconut and its by-products, cold pressed oils, fat from naturally raised animals and poultry, raw nuts and seeds, olives, avocados, oily fish, wild fish, meats including offal and poultry from free range, grass fed or naturally reared animals, eggs, high fat organic or grass fed dairy in moderation, fruits, vegetables and all spices and herbs.
Brightly colored fruits and vegetables are especially helpful because they contain natural compounds that help protect cells from damage. The deeper and richer the color, the more protective nutrients the food usually contains. Berries, leafy greens, peppers, carrots, beetroot, herbs and spices can all help support the body’s natural repair system.
Other factors and inflammation
• Sleep or the lack of, is also a cause of elevated cytokines, inflammatory markers.
• Stress is a major contributor to inflammation and steps should be taken to reduce it; a proper night’s sleep is in actual fact one of the best strategies, along with adherence to a regular exercise program which will help deal to stress.
• Environmental toxins, also labelled as endocrine disrupters or hormone mimickers, increase oestrogen levels in turn causing fat gain as already discussed; fat is a factory for cytokines, inflammatory chemical mediators.
These toxins are found in household cleaners, pesticides, canned foods, plastics, toiletries in particular phthalates and parabens, industrial products e.g. solvents and paints, herbicides and non-filtered water; they all cause inflammation.
Stress deserves special attention because it is easy to overlook. Many people focus only on food, but emotional stress, worry, rushing, overworking and lack of rest can keep the body in a constant state of alarm.
When the body feels under threat, it is not focused on repair. It is focused on survival.
To summarise an anti-inflammatory lifestyle includes:
• Eating anti-inflammatory foods
• Adequate exercise and being active
• Managing weight
• Not smoking
• Limiting alcohol intake
• Getting enough quality sleep
• Managing stress well
When it comes to chronic inflammation, there is evidence to show that your diet, weight around your stomach, stress levels, smoking status, activity levels and amount of sleep can affect your overall health and risk of developing chronic disease.
Inflammation is a natural part of life, but today’s lifestyle is causing more than ever before. Inflammation is caused by stress, sugars, trans fats, soy, msg, gluten, aspartame, alcohol, chemicals ingested, sometimes dairy and everything that is refined. It is just part of everyday life, but what if there was a way to naturally reduce inflammation?
Every action contributes to health or promotes disease.
Each day we make choices about this so called silent killer. For example, every item of food we choose to eat, every pill we take, the time we decide to go to bed, the city we choose to live in, the job we choose to have… each one contributes to chronic inflammation or helps calm it down.
Every choice we make about our health boils down to this: Pro-inflammatory or anti-inflammatory.
• Working 100 hours a week at a stressful job with little sleep? Pro-inflammatory
• Eating a high-carb, low-fat diet filled with grains and sugar? Pro-inflammatory
• Drinking a few beers a night? Pro-inflammatory
• Exercising regularly and living an active lifestyle. Anti-inflammatory
• Eating lots of healthy fats. Anti-inflammatory
• Getting 8 hours of sleep? Anti-inflammatory
Years of making pro-inflammatory choices add up to chronic inflammation and is something way too common in our bodies these days. Fighting it through simple lifestyle choices is what we are aiming for every day.
The great thing about an anti-inflammatory lifestyle is that apart from reducing inflammation it also gives us a clearer mind, healthier looking skin, a strong and fit body, a calm and happy tummy and many other benefits.
The body is always listening to what we do most often. When we feed it well, move it daily, rest it properly and reduce unnecessary stress, we give it the chance to repair. We do not have to be perfect. We simply need to make more choices each day that calm the fire instead of feeding it.
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