Chronic Inflammation is the Main Cause of Most Diseases – Learn How to Prevent

Inflammation is now linked to just about every health condition from rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, asthma, and even Alzheimer’s. According to a Harvard Medical School report, “Chronic inflammation plays a central role in some of the most challenging diseases of our time.” 

But what is inflammation? 

If you’ve ever twisted your knee, cut your finger, or been stung by an insect, you have firsthand experience with inflammation. Inflammation is an essential survival mechanism that helps the body fight off hostile microbes and repair damaged tissue. Yet there is another side of inflammation that can be harmful rather than helpful to human health. There’s evidence that inflammation, promoted in part by such factors as obesity, smoking, and a sedentary lifestyle, contributes to various diseases. 

Types of Inflammation 

Inflammation can be divided into three types based on the time of the process that responds to the injurious cause; acute, which occurs immediately after injury and lasts for a few days; chronic inflammation, which may last for months or even years when acute inflammation doesn’t heal, and subacute which is a transformational period from acute to chronic which lasts from 2 to 6 weeks. 

Acute inflammation comes on rapidly, usually within minutes, but is generally short-lived. Many of the mechanisms that spring into action to destroy invading microbes or toxins switch gears to cart away dead cells and repair damaged ones, and inflammation dissipates within a few hours or days.

On the other hand, chronic inflammation begins as acute inflammation, with the same cellular response but for some reason does not shut off so the inflammatory response continues into a lingering state that persists for months or years when the immune system response fails to eliminate the problem.   The problem is always a toxin.  It could be a food from a leaky gut, heavy metals , heavy chemicals, or an immune challenge that can include viruses, bacteria, candida or parasites.   

Unchecked, the immune system prompts white blood cells to attack nearby healthy tissues and organs, setting up a chronic inflammatory process that plays a central role in some of the most challenging diseases of our time, including rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, asthma, and even Alzheimer’s.

Symptoms 

Symptoms of inflammation are different depending on whether the inflammatory reaction is acute or chronic. There are five fundamental signs of inflammation that include: heat, redness, swelling, pain, and loss of function. The sensation of heat is caused by the increased blood movement. This reaction will also lead to redness due to increased blood cells passing through the injured area. The swelling of the site occurs due to an increase in the permeability and dilatation of the blood vessels. Pain is due to increased pain mediators, either due to direct damage or resulting from an inflammatory response itself. Loss of function occurs due to either simple mobility loss due to swelling or pain or replacement of the cells with scar tissue.

Causes 

Lifestyle choices, diet, and even family history play a role in the diseases and conditions brought about by chronic inflammation. Other causes can be gut health, stress, and pollution exposure.

There is recent strong evidence that continuous stress and diverse inflammation in the brain could be a significant and direct cause of dementia and memory impairment due to the constant accumulation of inflammatory cytokines in the brain. 

Foods that Cause Inflammation 

Diet plays one of the most critical roles in our health.  Every time we put food in our mouth we are eating something that is either inflammatory or healing. Muscle testing is great to figure out exactly what foods would cause inflammation in your body.  We get the biofeedback from your body and create a list of foods you can and cannot eat for better health.  In general though, I will tell you the more whole foods closer to Mother Nature we eat, the less inflammation we will have. On the other hand, the consumption of foods in most markets today creates inflammation due to additives, sugars, bad saturated fats, and all other hard-to-pronounce names used as stabilizers. 

A lifestyle rich in fresh fruits and vegetables freshly picked from local organic farms, and eaten in season, is the best approach for preventing inflammation. Additionally, consumption of superfoods such as Spirulina, and other anti-inflammatory foods high in antioxidants, will help reduce damage caused by inflammation. Exercise, sunshine, positive thinking and other healthy practices such as meditation will also help more than we can imagine.