Ten ways to reduce inflammation

Dr. Barbara Rodwin

If you suffer from a chronic condition that just does not seem to heal, or which is healing at a very slow rate, then your problem may be due to a chronic inflammatory response. Dealing effectively with this chronic inflammation can make the difference between resolution of a condition or ongoing pain and dysfunction for years to come.

Chronic, low-level inflammation greatly reduces the ability of your body to heal itself. In many cases, individuals are not even aware that they are suffering from an inflammatory response.

Besides slowing your healing, Inflammation has been shown to be the underlying cause of many conditions including asthma, heart attacks, rheumatoid arthritis, tuberculosis, Crohn's disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and several heart conditions.

So...what is inflammation?

First of all, it is important to understand that inflammation is a completely natural process. It is your immune system's first response to any infection or irritation, and is its first step in the healing process.

Inflammation is often characterized by redness, heat, swelling, pain, and dysfunction of the organs involved!

How does chronic inflammation affect healing?
Chronic inflammation is one of the key factors that stop many of my patients from healing and recovering from their injuries. In many cases, my patient does not even realize that he or she is having a chronic inflammatory response.

Inflammation causes "pooling" of fluids within tissues and increased development of what are known as fibrinogens or adhesive tissue. This in turn causes an increase in scar formation, with all sorts of functional charges that can keep a condition going on for years.

Chronic, or long-term inflammation, causes tissue damage, and often results in non-specific immune responses.

The Four Possible Results of Inflammation
1. Resolution: The complete repair of damaged tissue, and full recovery from injury. This does not usually occur, there is usually some type of residual side-effect related to scar tissue formation.

2. Connective Tissue Scarring: During wound healing, connective tissues (adhesions) are laid down to bridge the gap caused by the injury. New blood vessels bring nutrients to newly formed tissue. Scar tissue may form.

3. Abscess Formation: Abscess typically form in areas of infection as the white blood cells attempt to destroy causes of infection.

4. Chronic Inflammation: Inflammation continues to exist in the area of injury for weeks, months or years. This type of inflammation inevitably causes tissue damage.

Chronic inflammation is also now known to play a major role in: anemia, allergies, chronic pain, coronary heart disease, diabetes, dementia, psoriasis and a wide range of arthritic conditions. Chronic Inflammation is BAD NEWS for your health!

TEN Ways to Reduce Inflammation
If you want to completely resolve your injuries you will need to reduce inflammation in your body. This will help your body to heal faster, and prevent a host of diseases from taking control of your health.

No matter what type of therapy you are currently undergoing, these simple strategies for reducing inflammation will help to SPEED UP your recovery and healing processes.
Use the following simple tips to begin this inflammation reducing process:

1. Sleep at least 8 hours every night : Lack of sleep has been shown to increase chronic inflammatory responses.

2. Don't Cook Your Foods at HIGH Temperatures:

• Foods cooked at high temperatures can produce a browning effect in which glycotoxins are formed - from the reaction of sugars and fats with proteins. Glycotoxins are a contributing factor to low-grade chronic inflammation.
  

3. Keep your circulating insulin levels LOW!

• Too much insulin causes increased inflammation.
• Foods that spike blood sugar spur inflammation. You double your inflammatory rates by eating lots of white potatoes, white rice, white bread, sugar, and highly processed cereals.
• If you are overweight, you are producing too much insulin, and therefore have chronic low-level inflammation in your body. Extra fat around your mid-section is a good indicator that you are producing excess insulin. Increased insulin levels eventually lead to Type-Two Diabetes and increased risk of heart attacks.
  

4. Eat more anti-inflammatory foods! Food such as ginger, olive oil, curry powder, grapes, garlic, celery, blueberries, and green tea are known to reduce inflammatory responses.

5. Avoid foods that cause inflammatory responses! Avoid refined carbohydrates such as white pasta, white breads, bagels, cookies, white rice, cake, crackers, and potatoes.

• Get rid of all those bad fats including butter, lard, crisco, corn oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil, and soybean oil. They all cause increased levels of inflammation.

6. Lose that excess weight - obesity and inflammation parallel each other!

• North Americans are the most overweight people on Earth, which in turn makes them the most prone to suffer from inflammation.
• Overweight people usually have high inflammation. As the pounds disappear, the level of inflammation subsides.
  

7. Avoid foods that are high in Arachidonic Acid (AA).

• Arachidonic Acid is is a polyunsaturated fatty acid that is present in the phospolipids of cell membranes. While some Arachidonic Acid is essential for your health, too much Arachidonic Acid in the diet will make your inflammation worse.Limit foods that are high in Arachidonic Acid to decrease inflammation. These include egg yolks, organ meats, beef, lamb, and pork.
  

• Use Turmeric in your cooking if you are going to eat red meat. This bright yellow Indian spice inhibits the production of Arachidonic Acid by your body.

8. Avoid Omega 6 Oils. Although Omega 6 oils are essential to your health, the typical western diet contains far too much, with a resulting increase in inflammatory responses.

Avoid the following oils, especially if you are over-weight or suspect that you have high levels of circulating insulin in your body: Safflower oil, Sunflower oil, Corn oil, and Soybean oil.

Instead of the above oils, use Extra-Virgin Olive Oil which contains the chemical Oleocanthal. Oleocanthal acts as natural pain killer, and inhibits the activity of enzymes involved in inflammation. Oleocanthal may be largely responsible for many of the benefits of a Mediterranean Diet.

TIP: Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar makes a great salad dressing....and its even GOOD for you!

9. Do Take Fish Oils! Unless you are vegetarian or allergic, this is a great source of Omega-3 Fatty Oils. A common problem with today's diets is the overproduction of pro-inflammatory hormone-like "messengers" (such as prostaglandin E2) and underproduction of anti-inflammatory "messengers" (such as prostaglandin E1 and E3).

The good news is that omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil help to suppress the formation of undesirable prostaglandin E2 and promote synthesis of beneficial prostaglandin E3 (Kelley et al. 1985; Watanabe et al. 2000).

10. Take lots of Vitamin C and Vitamin E. These antioxidants suppress inflammation. In Belgian research, people who took the least amount of Vitamin C level always had the greatest amount of inflammation and peripheral (leg) artery disease. When you select your Vitamin C, you may want to take at "buffered" version since it is non-irritating to the stomach and intenstinal lining.

When you select a Vitamin E, make sure that the tablets are stored in light-proof bottles.
Vitamin E is extremely light-sensitive, and breaks down quickly when exposed to light.
Cold-water dispersible vitamin E is more efficiently absorbed than some other forms.