I have been talking about inflammation for years. It feels that it’s starting to become more popular and trendy. Inflammation is an important part of our health, wellness and overall well being. It may seem like just another trend, but it definitely is not! It’s definitely here to stay and I hope it gets more widespread knowledge. We’re learning more and more that our food, environment, and traumas, clearly impact our body’s health. And we can no longer just rely on bandaging these issues, as more and more people are being diagnosed with chronic diseases and autoimmune diseases. So let’s get into it:
What is inflammation of the body?
Inflammation is the body’s natural response to infection, injury or imbalance. There are 2 types of inflammation: Acute and chronic. Acute inflammation is when something causes a temporary reaction where your body is triggered to heal, and causes redness, swelling and aching – a more physical and apparent reaction. For example, when you get a cut, your body cells system gets triggered to heal it, so it may swell or turn red.
The 2nd type is chronic inflammation – this is when your body is constantly fighting or reacting to some sort of stimuli that is affecting you internally. It’s accumulated over time. For example, those with joint pain from rheumatoid arthritis.
Both types of inflammation are your body’s natural response to healing whether it’s for an infection, injury or imbalance. In Chinese medicine, inflammation is considered to be having too much “heat” within the body. And we must balance the body by consuming and doing things that can “cool” it down. And then we need to balance the hot and cold within our body for optimum health.
When does inflammation become a problem?
This first thing to acknowledge is that inflammation is a good thing because it tells our body when something needs to be healed, and is in the process of healing. It becomes a problem when it becomes chronic. Chronic inflammation is directly linked to cancers, rheumatoid arthritis, autoimmune diseases, alzheimer’s, chronic diseases such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Inflammation caused by autoimmune diseases is also when your body starts to attack healthy organs and tissues. As more research is being discovered and supported, chronic inflammation can affect many of our important organ systems such as our brain, blood vessels, and lungs.
What are the causes of inflammation?
There are a variety of things that can cause inflammation. Everyone’s body has different responses to different things so that’s why there are so many different possibilities. What causes someone an inflammatory response, might not affect another person. This is just a very general list.
- Foods and drinks you consume
- Alcohol
- Toxic products, containers, chemicals
- Pollution
- Stress
- Smoking
- Viruses
- Bacteria
- Candida overgrowth
- Drugs
- Medications
- Over exercising, or not moving enough
- Surgery
- Trauma, burns
What are the symptoms of inflammation?
These symptoms vary depending on each person, and is not a complete list. It’s to give you a general idea of the various possibilities.
- Fatigue
- Headache
- Joint pain
- Lowers your immune system
- Skin – Rashes, acne, dry skin, or suffer from eczema
- Digestive issues – bloating, cramping
- Heart burn
- Swollen lymph nodes
- Brain fog
Our next post is going to explain more of the anti-inflammatory diet, and the foods and drinks that cause inflammation and are anti-inflammatory. We live in a world where we need to combine both western and eastern medicine to truly heal more of the people. I will also share another post how I follow a relatively anti-inflammatory diet.
