Inflammation is a process that our bodies undergo owing to various factors. It manifests in various ways, some of which are mild enough to be ignored until the situation gets out of hand. If these signs are piling up, make sure to not ignore them as they’re giving you clues about your body’s deteriorating condition. Aim to make changes in your life as your current lifestyle is negatively impacting your health – you’ll start to reduce inflammation.
Before I move on to ways to improve it’s important to understand what exactly inflammation is and how it impacts our lives. My hope for you is once you have all the information, you will be able to make a conscious effort to reduce inflammation in your body.
Inflammation is our body’s response to a foreign attack or an injury of some kind. It’s an indication our immune system is busy fighting something that would otherwise cause harm to the body. Though inflammation is designed to save the body from the worst, its effects can prove to be debilitating.
Types of inflammation
There are two types of inflammation the human body can suffer from – acute and chronic.
- Acute inflammation occurs in the initial stages of disease or insult such as a viral infection. The severity of the reaction varies depending on the cause. Fortunately, the symptoms often die down by themselves in a few days.
- Chronic inflammation, on the other hand, is an ongoing process that never stops. After the initial insult, your body can’t fight back effectively, leading to more serious symptoms. These symptoms can range from mild to severe and tackling them as soon as the signs become visible is essential.
Causes of inflammation
As I mentioned earlier, inflammation is your body’s way of fighting back against anything that it thinks is harmful or foreign. It does this through various mechanisms, all of which result in the physical symptoms we feel.
Our body releases substances known as free radicals which are toxic to foreign bodies such as viruses or bacteria. This results in symptoms of inflammation such as swelling and redness.
There are a wide variety of contributors to inflammation, some of which include:
- Bacterial, viral, or fungal infection
- Lack of exercise
- Increased stress
- Autoimmune diseases such as SLE
- Environmental factors
Knowing what steps you can take to reduce inflammation is vital to maintaining a healthy, stress-free lifestyle.
Prevention of inflammation
The common saying, ‘prevention is better than cure,’ applies quite literally to this situation. By making certain changes to your lifestyle, you can ensure your body doesn’t suffer from inflammation and its effects.
Alter your diet
Incorporating whole foods such as leafy vegetables in your diet and omitting or minimizing your meat intake is one thing that can significantly improve your body’s condition.It is also advised to try and lessen your sugar intake -the sugar we consume, especially that which is present in fizzy drinks or candies, is mostly processed and is harmful to us.
In addition, reducing your oil intake isn’t always possible but you can always make the switch to the right kind of oil to maintain the correct levels of fat in your body. Decreasing your intake of dairy products also helps reduce inflammation in the body.
Exercise sufficiently
The benefits of exercise are too many to discuss – it is common knowledge that we all need to engage in physical activity. Also, try to make it a habit to work out in the open instead of in closed gyms as this will allow your body access to fresh air and sunlight.
Additionally, be extremely careful about over-exertion. The new trend of extreme physical exercise may be engaging, but it is harmful to your body and can bring about inflammation instead of preventing it.
Relieve stress
When we talk about stress, we don’t just mean physical stress, but mental and emotional pressure as well. While it is understandable that with our fast-paced lifestyles today, it is difficult to stay entirely content and stress-free, you should put in serious effort to relieve yourself of worry by indulging in activities such as yoga or taking a vacation.
Omit processed food from your diet
This is the age of processed food, without a doubt. Since its advent, its consumption has increased over the years, with most individuals ignoring the threat it poses to their health.
You should try to completely remove or significantly reduce your processed food intake as this will result in far-reaching advantages for you.
Get an adequate amount of sleep
This is something which can’t be stressed enough. Sleeping for at least eight hours, at night-time not during the day, is essential. Sleeping during the day or at odd hours lessens the effectiveness of your sleep, leaving you highly fatigued and your body suffering in more ways than one.
Ending Note
Modifying your lifestyle to incorporate the ideology of self-care can play a major role in strengthening your body, in more ways than one. When it comes to reducing inflammation in your body, try out some of the tips we have discussed in this blog post, also listen to Body Gratitude Visualisation, and see the difference for yourself. If all else fails, the issue may be more severe than you initially thought and you shouldn’t delay taking a trip to the doctor to help you find the problem and how you can help fix it.
