The Truth About Inflammation

You may have heard the word “inflammation”, or the phrase “inflammatory foods” been used a lot over the last few years when it comes to health, but what exactly is inflammation? And how does it affect you and me?

In today’s blog, I want to have a bit of a deep dive into this subject to give you a better idea of how to avoid and deal with “bad” inflammation…

Can Inflammation Actually Be A Good Thing?

When you hear the word inflammation, you might first think about a red, swollen wound or injury you had, but this is in fact just one form of inflammation we see.

This kind of inflammation is the immune system’s response to an injury, illness or irritant, and the area becomes inflamed as your body sends blood cells to repair any damage and protect against infection. As you can imagine, inflammation in this situation is generally a good thing and plays a significant role in your body’s ability to heal.

But inflammation is not always a good thing, and, like many symptoms, can be divided into two groups, acute inflammation, and chronic inflammation. Acute is the kind we mentioned above and is nothing to worry about. Chronic inflammation, however, is a little different.

Chronic Inflammation

This is a long-term condition that can cause some serious negative changes in the way the body functions.

Common causes of chronic inflammation include:

·      Autoimmune disorders

·      Poor dietary choices

·      Long term exposure to irritants

·      Bad habits like drinking alcohol and smoking

·      Chronic stress

·      Obesity

Many of these lie within our control, so reducing chronic inflammation is often a case of changing bad habits that have crept into our lives.

Unlike acute inflammation, which disappears after it is no longer needed, chronic inflammation lingers on long after, which leaves your body in a heightened state of stress.

This means even after an injury has healed, your immune system keeps sending white blood cells to fight an infection that isn’t there, and over time, healthy tissues begin to get attacked. This leads to a chain reaction of conditions that can significantly affect your health, including an increased perception of pain.

How Does Chronic Inflammation Affect Pain?

When you suffer from chronic inflammation, the redness, swelling, and stiffness that accompanies it is no longer a positive thing for your body and can make you feel more pain than you should. 

This is largely because the swelling and build-up of tissue start to press against nerve endings resulting in pain signals being sent to the brain.

The scary thing is, our brains are great at adapting, and when they receive these signals constantly, they can learn to “ignore” them, meaning many people might not even be aware they are suffering from the condition.

This is why it’s so important to be aware of inflammation in our bodies, and why we should be establishing habits to help reduce it.

So how can we do that?

Eat Your Way To Less Inflammation

The foods you eat can either promote or prevent the chronic inflammation response. One of the best ways to reduce inflammation is to consume a healthy diet that is rich in anti-inflammatory foods.

The Mediterranean diet in particular, includes lots of anti-inflammatory foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts and olive oil.

Food to avoid:

·       Red meat

·       Refined carbohydrates

·       Processed foods

·       Foods high in sugar

Instead, try to include more:

·      Avocados

·      Fatty fish

·      Extra virgin olive oil

·      Green leafy vegetables

·      Berries

·      Green Tea

·      Whole Grains

How are Stress and Chronic Inflammation linked?

Poor dietary choices aren’t the only thing that has been linked to chronic inflammation, with chronic stress also being cited as a major cause. 

Chronic stress is known to induce or worsen medical conditions, like depression and heart diseases. Chronic Inflammation is no different.

When our body is in a chronic stress response, (check out my stress blog to learn more about this), the inflammatory response that would normally disappear after it has healed and protected a wound lingers on.

This is due to the presence of stress chemicals, that perpetuates a kind of “feedback loop” where your body is in a state of stress due to inflammation, and your inflammation won’t disappear because of the stress chemicals in your body.

It’s just another reason why stress management and a healthy diet are so important.

Prevention is Always Better Than Cure

Don’t wait until you are in a state of chronic inflammation before you start thinking about how you can reduce it. Prevention is always better than cure, and it’s so much easier to prevent chronic inflammation from happening in your body than it is to treat, especially when combined with chronic stress.

By making conscious choices of the foods you eat and learning how to manage your stress levels, you will go a long way to managing inflammation in your body, and you will hopefully never have to experience the negative effects that chronic inflammation can bring.