Chronic Inflammation

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There are two sorts of inflammation, chronic and acute.
Your body fights off infections through “Acute inflammation”.  This process works like an equivalent if you’ve got an epidemic sort of a cold or the flu. In contrast, when inflammation gets turned up too high and lingers for an extended time, and therefore the system continues to pump out white blood cells and chemical messengers. This prolonged process is called, “Chronic inflammation”.

Common symptoms of chronic inflammation are chronic pain, chronic fatigue, chronic GI issues, ongoing psychological state issues (depression, anxiety, mood disorders), unintentional weight fluctuations (gain or loss), and frequent illness. This chronic inflammation is often simmering and invisible and shows up later in life as diseases like Alzheimer’s, heart conditions, arthritis, diabetes, and certain cancers, which is why it’s important to address inflammation early.

Testing For Chronic Inflammation

A lab will measure a protein produced by the liver that rises with inflammation. An hsCRP test level between 1­3 shows low­ level chronic inflammation that must be addressed. However, a functional practitioner will want to ascertain your hs-CRP level is in the range of 0.5 to 10 mg/L.  Often conventional and functional practitioners utilize different lab ranges.  These tests are usually performed when a person is ill. A functional practitioner is trying to find an optimal level of health and wellness.

Another test for inflammation is commonly called the sed rate test. This measures the rate of red blood cells falling to the bottom of a collection tube.  The higher the inflammation, the faster the red blood cells fall.

Ways To Reduce Chronic Inflammation

One of the simplest ways to scale back chronic inflammation is by living a healthy lifestyle. It is important to drop unhealthy habits like smoking, drinking excessive amounts of alcohol, and being overweight. It is advised to avoid long-term use of antibiotics, proton­pump inhibitors (PPIs), and nonsteroidal anti-­inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) because they cause changes in the gut microbiome that can lead to chronic inflammation.

The Four Pillars Of A Healthy Lifestyle

Today’s environment can make it a challenge to live a healthy lifestyle. The convenience and 24/7 availability of tasty, inexpensive junk food create addictive and unhealthy temptations to eat more than we should. Natural daily movement is replaced by machines that do most of the manual labor for us, like cars vs. walking, or playing video games rather than playing outside. With modern technology, it seems the planet never sleeps and is usually on the go. Humans aren’t designed for this type of nutrient­depleted, sedentary, sleepless, and stressed lifestyle.

Not surprisingly, these unhealthy ways catch up with us over time and can negatively affect our long­term health. The quality of life has been declining within the U.S. since 2014 mostly due to an increase in middle age deaths from drug overdose, alcohol abuse, suicide, and disease. These untimely deaths are sometimes caused by an unhealthy lifestyle that negatively affects our health and shortens our lifetime. The good news is that there are tons we can do to enhance our health just by implementing lifestyle changes.

DIET AND NUTRITION

A whole ­food anti­-inflammatory diet includes lots of varieties of fruits and vegetables, whole grains (such as amaranth and quinoa), plant­based proteins (beans and nuts), high­quality, grass­fed meat and pasture­raised organic eggs, fatty fish high in omega­3 fatty acids (like wild ­caught salmon), grass­fed dairy, and fresh herbs and spices. (Since even high ­quality meat and dairy are still somewhat inflammatory, you’ll want to scale back or eliminate them altogether to decrease inflammation.)

Contrast that diet with the highly inflammatory Standard American Diet (SAD), which is filled with processed foods high in unhealthy fats (trans fats and too many omega­6 fats) and low in nutrients. This diet should be avoided at all costs. A good rule of thumb is to stay with foods that line the perimeter of the grocery while avoiding the pre­packaged, shelved foods within the middle aisles.

Stick with foods that have labels with details, or have only a few preservatives and additives. They should contain raw ingredients. Avoid foods that are available in boxes, cans, and packages, especially if they need ingredients that you simply cannot pronounce or contain over five ingredients on the label. Packaged foods are often depleted of their nutritive value through processing and contain many chemicals to make them addictive. It’s no wonder we are always hungry: our bodies are seeking the nutrition they’re missing from the depleted modern diet.

NUTRITION TIPS TO REDUCE CHRONIC INFLAMMATION

1) Reduce or eliminate sugar – Experts agree that sugar causes a pro-inflammatory response within the body and will be reduced or eliminated as sugar offers no nutritional value. This also goes for foods that act like sugar once consumed, like light bread and straightforward, processed carbs. One way to guard against eating an excessive amount of sugar is to teach yourself about low-glycemic foods and have a general sense of where foods fall on the glycemic index. It is important to notice, however, that equivalent food can impact people differently. One way to work out how a portion of food affects your
blood glucose specifically is to use an endless glucose monitor.

The name of the sport is to keep your blood glucose stable throughout the day, as against having it spike and drop, to tame inflammation. The glycemic index (GI) is the ranking of carbohydrate-containing foods by their effects on your blood glucose levels as compared to 50 grams of pure glucose. There are three levels of GI: low (55 or less), medium (5669), and high (70 or more). It is best to stay with foods that rate lower on the GI to keep blood glucose from rising or dropping too quickly. Be aware that the GI does not take into account the amount of food eaten.

The glycemic load (GL) is often a far better measure that takes under consideration both the GI ranking and therefore the quantity of food consumed (grams per serving). The GL also has three levels: low (10 or less), medium (1119), and high (20 or more). According to the Glycemic Index Foundation, the goal is to keep the entire GL under 100 per day.

2) Reduce or eliminate processed and fast foods. Processed foods usually contain high levels of sugar, salt, unhealthy trans fats, and empty calories with little or no nutrition topped off with a plethora of chemical additives to form its taste or look good. High salt (sodium) is connected to high vital signs and increased inflammation in certain people. White salt is processed and lacks minerals present in unprocessed salts like grey Celtic sea salt and Himalayan pink salt. Choosing these sorts of salts is a component of a healthy whole-food diet.

3) It is important to reduce or eliminate alcohol. If you’ve got chronic inflammation, your liver health is particularly important for eliminating toxins from your body. Don’t make it work over time by adding excess alcohol to the toxin load our bodies naturally process.

4) Eat the rainbow! Aim for a variety of fruits and vegetables to ensure you get a wide range of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Be mindful of not only the variability but also the particular colors that you simply eat every day. Different colors of fruits and vegetables have different nutrients, and therefore the larger the variability of nutrients the higher. Aim for a minimum of 59 servings each day.

5) Eat anti-inflammatory superfoods. Increase your intake of anti-inflammatory superfoods such as berries, omega3 fatty fish, broccoli, avocados, green tea, peppers, mushrooms, grapes, curcumin, olive oil, bittersweet chocolate, tomatoes, cherries, nuts, mung beans, and sesame oil. These foods are considered superfoods thanks to the high level of nutrients and antioxidants they supply. Sometimes what is considered healthy foods may not work for everyone.

Those with histamine intolerance should avoid high-histamine foods (e.g., fish that are not fresh or flash-frozen, avocados, green tea, and dark chocolate). Those who are mold-sensitive may have to avoid high-mold foods (e.g., mushrooms, grapes, dark chocolate, and lots of sorts of nuts). It is important to understand which “healthy” foods affect you adversely, and an elimination diet or specialty lab testing can assist you in figuring that out.

Cook with anti-inflammatory herbs. Add in fresh herbs like turmeric (curcumin) and ginger to scale back
inflammation. In another study, ginger has been shown to be simpler than NSAIDs in reducing inflammation in some cases.

6) Increase your intake of omega3 fatty acids and decrease your intake of omega6 fatty acids Typically, the SAD diet contains a ratio of omega6 to omega3 at 20:1, compared to an optimal ratio of 2:1. This dramatic difference contributes to higher inflammation levels. Omega3 fatty acids are often found in fatty fish. Eat fish like mackerel, salmon, anchovies, herring, and sardines. Omega3 fatty acids also are found in avocados, nuts, and seeds, like flaxseed, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, and walnuts, and in supplements like animal oil or linseed oil.

Omega6 fatty acids are found in red meat and dairy products. If you eat meat and dairy products, choose quality meats and dairy that are organic and grass-fed since they need a more favorable ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 fatty acids. Avoid certain vegetable oils such as peanut, canola, corn, cottonseed, sunflower, safflower, soybean, and peanut. These oils are often utilized in restaurants to fry foods or in processed and packaged foods because they’re cheap. Not all omega-6 fatty acids are inflammatory, however. A good source of healthy omega-6 fatty acids comes from plant and seed oils.

Root Causes And Diseases Caused By Inflammation. Video

Thank you for reading

Michael

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