Attempting to stay healthy can be a bit tricky these days. It seems as though the majority of certain foods, products and other environmental factors cause health problems. But why exactly are they causing illnesses? They’re causing inflammation.
Acute vs Chronic Inflammation
Inflammation is your body’s first defense against pathogens and harmful toxins from the outside world. Acute inflammation occurs when the body faces trauma like tissue injury or harmful bacteria. The body’s immune system removes harmful stimuli and begins to heal the infected area.
Chronic inflammation is when the body takes months or years to heal/rid the infected area from harmful stimuli. The heightened inflammation for extended periods of time can be harmful to your body and your biological processes.
What Causes Chronic Inflammation?
We are exposed to hidden causes of inflammation every day. These include toxins in our beauty and cleaning products, chemicals/pollutants in the air, and different kinds of food we eat.
Long-Term Exposure to Chemicals or Pollutants
When your cells are exposed to toxic chemicals consistently, it’s hard for your body to get rid of them. They can play a role in disrupting normal processes by increasing inflammatory markers. One study demonstrated that individuals who lived near busy traffic streets had higher inflammatory markers than those who lived on more residential streets. You may not be able to avoid air pollution depending where you live, but you can control other factors that cause inflammation.
Pro-inflammatory Foods
health or weaken it. I listed the foods that you should avoid to lessen the amount of inflammation throughout your body.
- Sugar and High Fructose Corn Syrup
- Refined Carbohydrates
- Excessive Alcohol
- Processed Meats
- Soybean oil and Vegetable oil
Most, if not all, processed foods have at least one of the ingredients listed above. Reading the ingredients on your food labels is vitally important if you want to stay away from these pro-inflammatory foods. Once you start becoming aware of all the unnatural and unwanted ingredients (many that can hardly be pronounced), you’ll be more willing to increase the amount of simple, whole foods into your diet.
Negative Side Effects
During chronic inflammation, your immune system is on all time alert mode, causing constant stress. This can lead to tissue damage or negative effects on organs which causes pain or long term damage. It can damage healthy cells and even harm your DNA. Overtime chronic inflammation is known to cause a number of diseases including Heart Disease, Alzheimer’s, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Cancers.
How to Keep Inflammation Low
To avoid long term health consequences due to inflammation, there are a couple practices you can start incorporating into your daily routine. If possible, try to limit your exposure to highly polluted areas. This may mean relocating to an area that isn’t as traffic heavy. However, other more doable changes are just as effective.
Eating more anti-inflammatory whole foods is extremely important. You consume food every single day, powering your body with fuel. Make sure that fuel is made up of good natural plants. Specific anti-inflammatory foods include turmeric, ginger, berries, tomatoes and green tea.
Taking daily supplements can help fight inflammation. It’s hard to eat well 100% of the time. Giving your body a extra nutrients can be vital in maintaining good health. North America Nutra offers a number of natural supplements to address inflammation including Ceremin and Pomera.