Ways to Decrease Inflammation Naturally

Introduction:

When You think of inflammation what do you think of? Generally, we think of swelling, headaches, all of which are surface level, when all inflammation starts on the inside. Inflammation is the beginning to all disease and chronic illness. Eating toxic foods, breathing in environmental toxins, & stress all cause endless amounts of internal inflammation that can go undetected and lead to many of the world’s deadliest illnesses. So in this article I am going to teach you all about inflammation and how you can decrease inflammation naturally.

What is Inflammation?

Inflammation is when our body has become damaged either acutely or greatly depending on the circumstances. Then our body sends an immune response to try and recover the damage that has been done. Inflammation can happen anywhere in the body, from our cells to our skin. When inflammation becomes a normal part of our daily lives it slowly leads to chronic and even auto immune disorders such as arthritis, obesity, diabetes, & cancer.

How do we know if we have inflammation?

Inflammation is very sneaky, you can accumulate a lot of inflammation over time and not even realize that you are inflamed. For example eating a very unbalanced diet each day, not getting enough sleep, and stressing out all the time all accumulate inflammation. We go years with doing these same habits every day and not even realize the damage that has been done. When we have too much inflammation built up it can cause numerous issues, like immune system crashes, autoimmune diseases, neurological disorders and so much more. Inflammation can store in so many areas of the body such as the gut, joints, kidney, liver, even cells. So how do we know if we are inflamed, if you have any of the following symptoms you could be suffering from inflammation;

- Aches and pains

- Fatigue/ loss of energy

- Headaches

- Mood swings, depression

- Muscle stiffness

- Insomnia

From an article written by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) wrote an article discussing the statistics of how much inflammation effects our society today.

Cardiovascular diseases: In line with 2017 updated report from the American Heart Association, cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) accounts for 1 out of every three deaths or approximately 800,000 deaths in the United States. Globally, CVD accounts for 31% of all deaths, and coronary heart disease (CHD) accounts for most deaths due to CVD, followed by stroke (1 of 20 deaths in the United States) and heart failure.

Arthritis and Joint Diseases: These affect approximately 350 million people worldwide and nearly 43 million people in the United States or almost 20% of the population. This number is expected to exceed 60 million by 2020. Nearly, 2.1 million Americans suffer from rheumatoid arthritis.

6 ways to decrease inflammation

When it comes to eliminating and even preventing inflammation can be a long process, but there are some very powerful ways that you can speed up the process of recovery.

1. Elimination: Our diets consist of a lot of inflammatory and highly processed foods, so when you eliminate those foods you can begin to decrease the amount of inflammation you have. The foods you should eliminate are the following:

a. Processed foods: all boxed or canned foods, fast foods, gluten.

b. Added sugars, preservatives

c. Soy

d. Processed dairy

2. Have a colorful diet: A colorful diet consists of eating a wide variety of organic colorful vegetables and fruits. What this does is give your body the antioxidants, pre/pro biotic it needs to help rebuild the guts lining and feed your body the nutrients it needs so it can begin to detox all the inflammation.

3. Exercise: A huge part of ridding of inflammation is exercise, and you can do any kind of movement to help with inflammation, but some of the best ways are listed below;

a. HIIT: because of its short and intense bursts of energy can help to get your heart rate up which will help push out some deep areas of inflammation through your sweat.

b. Hot yoga: a great way to stretch and release some tension in some tight areas where inflammation can be hiding away. The hotter the better, the sweat will help with getting rid of inflammatory toxins.

4. De-stress: beginning a meditation routine, or a gratitude practice can help you to create a positive and relaxed mindset to help prevent stress.

5. Heat: Now there is a lot of science that has come up in the recent years about infrared saunas. They have shown to help with detoxification, lowering of inflammation, relaxation, and even longevity. Its optimal to sit in a sauna at around 150 degrees for 10-20 minutes 2-3 times a week.

6. Fasting: incorporating some sort of fasting in your diet is great for lowering and even eliminating inflammation, if you want to learn more, click here to read the full article on fasting.

Summary

Inflammation is the beginning to all disease, so it’s very important for your overall health that we keep inflammation as low as possible. By evaluating if you have any symptoms, starting from the inside out, eliminate bad foods, have a colorful diet, exercise, de-stress, get hot, and fast every so often you will be able to optimize your health and live a long and healthy life.