Inflammation

What is inflammation?

Inflammation is created by your immune system, as a mechanism of protecting the body from injury or infection. Inflamation is a critical part of the healing process and is clasified into two main types — acute inflamation and chronic inflamation. Acute inflamation occures quite quickly and severly, but genereally resolves itself within a fortnight or less once your body has had a chance to heal. Chronic inflamation on the other hand, typically lasts months and can occur without a trigger from injury or illness.

What can cause inflammation?

Many different things can lead to inflammation. The most common include:

• Pathogens — Germs like bacteria, viruses or fungi can cause inflammation

• Injuries — External injuries like scrapes or damage from foreign objects such as a cut in your finger

• Environmental toxins — Exposure to chemicals or radiation can cause inflammation

Signs and symptoms of acute inflammation

Acute inflammation is a protective response by body tissue in response to damage or injury; symptoms include:

• Pain — During inflammation, local tissue is irritated and gives out pain signals. These pain signals lead you to protect the affected part of the body.

• Heat & Redness — Small blood vessels in the tissue to become wider (dilate), allowing more blood to reach the injured tissue, turning the affected area red and creating heat.

• Swelling — Dilated blood vessels make it easier for immune cells to reach the affected tissue, causing more fluid to enter the area leading to swelling. The swelling will go down again when this fluid moves out of the tissue.

• Loss of function — Loss of function can include the inability to move an inflamed joint, having a poor sense of smell during a cold, or finding it harder to breathe when you have bronchitis.

Inflammation doesn’t always cause all five symptoms. Inflammation can also occur ‘silently’, not causing any symptoms.

Which lifestyle factors can cause inflammation?

Several lifestyle factors promote an inflammatory response. These include:

• Age —Several inflammatory molecules increase as you age this may be due to:

• Mitochondrial dysfunction — Mitochondrial dysfunction is where your mitochondria (the powerhouse of your cells) don’t work as well as they should.

• Free radicals — Free radical accumulation increases as you age leading to oxidative stress.

• Weight gain (see below)

• Obesity —Visceral fat or ‘tummy’ fat has been shown to function as an endocrine organ, secreting multiple inflammatory mediators.

• Diet — A diet rich in saturated fat, trans-fats, or refined sugar is associated with a higher production of pro-inflammatory compounds, especially in people with blood sugar or weight issues.

• Smoking —Cigarette smoking reduces the production of anti-inflammatory compounds and inducing inflammation.

• Low Hormones —Studies show low testosterone and low estrogen can contribute to inflammatory issues.

• Stress and Sleep Issues —Both physical and emotional stress is associated with the release of inflammatory compounds. People with irregular sleep schedules are also more likely to have chronic inflammation.

How to reduce inflammation in the body

1. Eat a low-glycemic diet — Foods that increase your blood sugar quickly, such as soft drinks and sweets are known as high-glycemic foods. High-glycemic foods can increase inflammatory markers in the body and your risk of lifestyle-related diseases. Low-glycemic foods include whole foods such as wholegrain foods, legumes and fibrous vegetables and fruit are nutrient-rich and help reduce inflammation and protect you from disease.

2. Increase your good fats —  Some saturated fats and trans-fats used in processed foods, aggravate inflammation, while omega-3 fatty acids reduce inflammation. Fish Oil, is a rich source of the omega-3 fatty acids and a higher intake of omega-3 fatty acids is associated with decreased levels of several inflammatory markers.

3. Get your 2 & 5 serves a day—Increase your fruit and vegetables. Blueberries, apples, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower are high in natural antioxidants and polyphenols and other anti-inflammatory compounds and may protect you against inflammation. Get your 2 serves of fruit and 5 serves of vegetables every day to help reduce inflammation.

4. Boost the fibre in your diet —A high intake of soluble and insoluble fibre has been shown to lower inflammatory markers in the body. Good sources of soluble fibre include fruits, vegetables, oat bran, barley, flaxseed, psyllium and legumes. Insoluble fibre makes up the structural parts of plant cell walls; good sources include wheat bran, rice bran, the skins of fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds, dried beans and wholegrains.

5. Matcha, chai or green? — Polyphenols in green and black tea are associated with a reduction in CRP, an inflammatory marker, in human clinical studies.

6. Curcumin —Curcumin, a constituent of turmeric, reduces mild joint inflammation.

7. Sesame Oil —Sesame oil consumption reduces the synthesis of inflammatory prostaglandins.

8. Physical Exercise— Human clinical trials have shown that exercise lowers multiple pro-inflammatory molecules independently of weight loss.

Understanding the influence of diet and lifestyle on inflammation can help you reduce your inflammatory load and improve your overall health and wellbeing. Eating a balanced diet, rich in vegetables, good fats and antioxidants — and low in sugars and bad fats — can help reduce inflammatory markers.

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