Chronic Inflammation is Linked to Many Disease States
Inflammation is an important part of your body’s immune system.
When
you cut your finger, loads of white blood cells move into action to
help protect you against infection. This causes two signs of this bodily
response—swelling and redness.
Inflammatory disease is an overreaction of your body’s immune system. It’s exaggerated beyond what is necessary and helpful.
Increasing numbers of disease states are now understood to be linked to chronic inflammation.
More bad news: it also speeds up the aging process.
Health Concerns
Here are some of the health concerns that are now understood to be induced by this reaction:
rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis, gout, lupus, psoriasis, inflammatory bowel disease, heart attack, atherosclerosis, congestive heart failure, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, chronic bronchitis, prostate disease, eye diseases, multiple sclerosis
A typical medical solution for treatment involves the use of NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs). The problem with this is that NSAIDs can cause gastric irritation and nutrient depletion.
Aside: Derrick DeSilva, Jr., M.D., has said that every drug you take depletes nutrients.
The thing with NSAIDs is that you may feel better—the pain may be gone—but because of the biochemical action in your body, the disease state continues and may lead to chronic disease.
Another common medical treatment of choice is steroids. The problems with steroids are resistance to the drug, tolerance, inhibition of the immune response, the acceleration of osteoporosis (bone starts to deteriorate immediately), an increase in the incidence of cataracts, and opportunistic infections.
Causes
Why does this normal bodily response get so out of whack? Things that can trigger the response include infections, environmental toxins and stress, and poor diet, which plays a major role.
One thing is that the typical American diet contains too many omega-6 oils. A key to the problem is bringing omega-3 and omega-6 ratios back into balance. Most Americans today eat a diet with an omega-6 to omega-3 ratio of 20:1 or as much as 50:1. Click here for more information about omega-3 fatty acids.
The cause of atherosclerosis, according to Russell Blaylock, M.D., is chronic inflammation with oxidation of blood and arterial lipids. The most common fats in blood vessel walls are omega-6s, which are found in things like margarine and safflower oil. Other sources of oxidized lipids are cooked meat and scrambled eggs.
Oxidation of blood fats can be caused by autoimmune diseases, diabetes, infections, trauma, MSG, aspartame (found in many processed foods, including diet sodas), extreme exercise, nutritional deficiencies, a high sugar diet (stay away from high-fructose corn syrup!), and a high trans-fat diet.
Healthy Alternatives
Free radicals are linked to oxidation in the body. If you are looking for a healthier way to reduce this condition or to prevent it from chronically developing, there are natural alternatives.
The ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorption Capacity) scale refers to the ability of a substance to absorb damaging free radicals. Eating foods that rank high on the scale would make sense as a strategy to getting inflammation under control.
Here is a short list of high antioxidant containing foods, starting with those with the highest ORAC scores:
• Chinese
wolfberries
• pomegranates
• blackberries
• strawberries
• spinach
• Brussels sprouts
• beets
• oranges
• onions
• carrots
Include those foods in your anti inflammation diet and watch your health improve.
Go to the
Healthy Family
page from this
Inflammation
information page.
