There is always lots of talk about ‘chronic inflammation’ these days in the media and it has become a bit of a ‘buzzword’ in the health community. I’m going to walk you through some ‘science’ so you can understand what chronic inflammation means and how it affects the body, leading to getting sick all the time, hand having low energy just to name two.
Chronic inflammation is bad for your health! And guess what? STRESS and BAD FOOD can actually CAUSE this chronic inflammation. The good news is that by having a daily destress practice and making small simple changes to what you eat, you can get rid of this unhealthy inflammation!
Ok, so here’s the science:
The body produces inflammatory cytokines (read: chemicals) in response to stress. This is an adaptive process when their is an acute infection that the body must fight. However, it can also become maladaptive when the body makes these cytokines all the time–like when we are suffereing from chronic stress and eat badly.
When the body makes this ‘mistake’ and produces the cytokines every day, it causes fatigue (low energy), low mood and can keep chronic illnesses from getting better. Bad food can also produce these ‘bad chemicals’ and cause inflammation in the body, leading to FATIGUE, low immune system and getting sick all the time.
What can I do to reduce inflammation?
- eating an anti-inflammatory diet (please see my article on this website all about Anti-Inflammatory Diet)
- High Omega 3:6 ratio in the diet.
- Omega 3’s are fatty acids found naturally in fish and flaxseeds, but the best source is from fish.
- You have to eat a LOT of fatty fish to get a good dose of Omega 3’s from the diet alone, so taking a good quality omega 3 supplement is a good idea!
- regular (daily) exercise of at least 30 minutes
- a regular relaxation practice (such as specific relaxation breathing exercises, guided relaxation recordings and yoga)
ref: Rakel and Rindfleisch. Inflammation: Nutritional, Botanical, and Mind-body Influences. Southern Medical Journal . Volume 98, Number 3, March 2005