Inflammation

You have likely heard the term used extensively in the health and wellness space, but you may not know exactly what it means or how it relates to your overall health and wellbeing. To look at an example, let’s say that you rolled your ankle while playing soccer. On the outside of your ankle, where you can visibly see it, it will likely become bruised and swollen. This swelling is, of course, inflammation.

And that inflammation is the same thing that can happen on the inside of your body, you just can’t see it. And similar to how it happened due to a damaged ankle, internally, it when cells or cellular components are damaged, when the nutrient requirements for organs and systems aren’t being met, due to allergens or diseases and several other causes.

Inflammation inherently isn’t bad. In fact, it is the body’s way of telling us that something is wrong, and is the body’s first line of defence when it works to fight disease. The issue arises however when it is prolonged and ongoing, and when we don’t seek to address whatever it tells us is wrong!

Let’s dig deeper into some of the ways inflammation shows up in the body:

Gut Distress – When you have a poorly functioning gut, that has an imbalance of bacteria, it is regularly inflamed. This can lead to symptoms such as cramping, gas, bloating, and even the early stages of allergies due to food particles penetrating through the gut wall.

Stress – Chronic stress shuts down or downshifts several normally functioning systems of the body, such as digestion, immunity, and lymphatics. This stress makes the body think something is wrong, and hence respond with inflammation.

Compromised Immunity –  The immune system is a key player in initiating and regulating inflammation. If it is not optimally functioning, these methods of regulation can be affected, causing continued inflammation throughout the body.

Disease or Maladaptations – Many diseases cause inflammation as a symptom. As mentioned above, inflammation is the body’s natural response when something is wrong. As such, when disease is present the body may react via inflammation.

While these are some of the causes of inflammation, it’s also important to know how inflammation presents.

Just like you experience physical swelling externally when you roll your ankle, and can recognize the swelling due to characteristic symptoms, internal inflammation has resulting symptoms as well. These are different for everyone, but can include any of the following:

• Severe fatigue, or low energy.
• Pain in the joints or difficulty carrying out regular movements such as walking, reaching, bending over and standing up.
• An increase in allergic reaction or development of allergies.
• Digestive issues or symptoms of the gut, such as bloating, irregular bowel movements, undigested food in the stool and more.
• Pain
• Increased incidence of illness, or constant low grade sickness, like a cold or flu.

This is just an example of some of the symptoms that can be indicative of inflammation throughout the body. Left unchecked these can also be the underlying mechanism that leads to illness, as they are the early signs of bodily distress.

The good news is, that dealing with inflammation and reducing its occurrence throughout the body starts at home! There are some basic health and dietary changes that you can make, involving natural methods of inflammatory control, that will allow for dramatic improvements to how you feel, your energy, your mindset and your physical symptoms. Try these options to help you get started in addressing inflammation throughout your body:

• Incorporate regular movement into your day. Movement encourages blood flow and movement of the lymphatic fluid, and both of these are required to reduce inflammation.
• Look after your gut. Poor gut health both worsens and causes inflammation throughout the body.
• Remove foods from your diet that facilitate inflammation, including refined sugars, processed foods, meat and dairy to name a few. Everybody has different trigger foods, so experiment with how you feel after eating certain foods, and adjust your diet accordingly.
• Introduce anti-inflammatory foods into your diet. Some examples include turmeric, leafy greens, flaxseed, walnuts, avocado, olive oil and antioxidant rich fruits such as blueberries and cherries.

From a dietary perspective, inflammation control comes from both removing inflammatory enabling foods, and incorporating anti-inflammatory foods. In addition to food however, natural herbs and beverages can also be of value. For example, drinking turmeric tea, or swapping your coffee for a turmeric latte can be a great way to up your turmeric intake. Turmeric is a prominent player in the Afternoon Blend tea we offer through our health hydration system. In addition, the morning blend, which is high in antioxidants due to the matcha and green tea it contains, is also a positive contributor when it comes to reducing inflammation, as antioxidants help reduce free radicals in the body, allowing the immune system to function more optimally and naturally facilitate inflammation control.

Finally, we can’t leave the subject of inflammation without discussing sleep. Getting adequate sleep plays a huge role in reducing inflammation throughout the body and improving energy levels as well as enhancing focus and mental acuity. Sleep is the body’s extended reset button, where it goes through and cleans up any residual waste and in doing so, is able to improve systemic function as a result. Part of this is allowing for the elimination of inflammation causing components. Without enough sleep however, none of this happens and the inflammation remains, or worse yet, builds up.

Ready to get started in fighting inflammation? Let’s go!