As someone who lives with a few different chronic illnesses, inflammation is not a new concept to me. Having Lyme disease means I often have inflammation in my body, and while I do a few things to keep the levels at bay, I recently found out my body is beyond inflamed, which is not exactly wonderful news.
I use supplements like Omega-3 fish oil capsules, turmeric and curcumin, and I have an infrared sauna I use daily, all of which are helpful in the context of reducing inflammation in the body. But, seeing as these tactics still aren’t working to the extent I hoped they would, I’ve been doing some research to see what else can be done to lower inflammation in the body, and I was quite surprised to read that caffeine is an irritant. I did not know this, hence my surprise at finding this out, but another perpetrator of high inflammation in the body is smoking, which I was not surprised to learn by any means.
Lifestyle factors like sleep and diet also have a tremendous influence on inflammation levels in the body. Poor sleep equates to higher inflammation, and a diet lacking key nutrients and vitamins from fruits, vegetables and proteins also increase inflammation.
As for what specifically inflammation is, check out the following information from myclevelandclinic.org.
“Inflammation is your body’s response to an illness, injury or something that doesn’t belong in your body (like germs or toxic chemicals). Inflammation is a normal and important process that allows your body to heal. Fever, for example, is how you know your body’s inflammatory system is working correctly when you’re ill. But inflammation can harm you if it occurs in healthy tissues or goes on for too long.
“When an invader (like a virus) tries to enter your body, or you get injured, your immune system sends out its first responders. These are inflammatory cells and cytokines (substances that stimulate more inflammatory cells). These cells begin an inflammatory response to trap germs or toxins and start healing injured tissue. Inflammation can cause pain, swelling or discoloration. These are signs your body is healing itself. Normal inflammation should be mild, and pain shouldn’t be extreme.
“But inflammation can also affect parts of your body you can’t see. Inflammatory responses that occur behind the scenes can help you heal, but other times, they can harm your health,” the web page explains.
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