4 Easy Ways to Fight Inflammation
By itself inflammation is actually good. It’s your body’s immune system protecting you from viruses and infections. Basically, it works like this, your white blood cells attack the cut, bruise or sickness in your body. They destroy the damaged tissue and surrounding tissue. The problem is, they don’t always know when to stop. And that’s when you have chronic inflammation.
It may seem a little ironic that something so important to our well-being and good health can also ruin our health, and even cause death, but it’s true. Chronic inflammation is something you definitely want to avoid. It’s attracted a lot of attention lately because scientists have now shown that in one way or another it is associated with most major diseases. Heart disease and cancer have both been linked to problems with inflammation. In relation to heart disease, it’s the main cause of coronary blockage, and a heart attack.
Here are 4 ways to fight inflammation
#1 (I’ve talked about many times) Omega-3 Fatty Acids found in fish oil and certain plant and nut oils. Fish oil helps to lower triglycerides and reduces your risk for heart disease.
#2 Fruits and Vegetables. Fruits and Vegetables contain protective, inflammation stopping phyto-nutrients. Berries are rich in flavonoids, powerful antioxidants; zucchini contains an aspirin-like compound; and red grapes inhibits the flow of histamines, the chemicals that causes tissue to become inflamed.
#3 Orange juice. Now, as you know, I’m not big on drinking lots of juice because of the high sugar content without the fiber, and its effect on insulin. But it’s been proven that drinking orange juice when eating a high-fat or high-carbohydrate meal, can actually neutralize the inflammatory stress and help prevent blood vessel damage.
And finally, #4 Exercise. Immediately after even moderate physical activity, the body makes and uses more antioxidants, which cut levels of inflammation. Additionally, exercise lowers levels of C-reactive protein, a marker for inflammation.
