Here is a Basic Guide to Inflammation. What is inflammation? Many of us go are unaware of inflammation until it hits us. Inflammation is a buzzword in medicine these days. Finally doctors know what is causing diabetes, heart attacks, strokes, arthritis and a host of painful autoimmune diseases.
Unfortunately, as usual, many doctors want to treat the symptom not the problem. The symptom is like the eruption of a volcano, that is just where the problem has surfaced. It has been boiling away, day by day, being fed by our poor eating habits, and stresses until it breaks out into what doctors call a disease.
Once labeled they can treat it. Notice I did not say cure it. If you come back to the doctor again with the same inflammation problem, suddenly you have what they label chronic inflammation.
So what is inflammation, what are the causes of inflammation, how do we stop it?
What Is Inflammation?
Inflammation is the bodies immune response to injury or infection. There is pain, redness, heat, and swelling in the affected area. We have all experienced inflammation at one time or another. We get stung by a bee, or other insect, and the area swells and gets red. We injure a finger, elbow or knee and it swells and turns red.
Where Inflammation Happens:
Inflammation or Inflamation, as it is mispelled, happens at the individual cellular level. Right where our cells gather in the energy to run our bodies.
Inflammation can also be caused by toxic foods. America's diet today has an excess of toxic food additives and fast foods If you haven't seen the dvd, Supersize me then I recommend you rent it. Our food today, (especially breakfast cereals) are full of sugars, high fructose corn syrup, flours stripped of their beneficial contents, toxic food chemicals, food dyes and synthetic vitamins.
This might explain why there is an epidemic of people with pain that doctors cannot even diagnose. Is it any wonder people are searching out whole food products, today?
What are the Causes of Inflammation?
It is a natural response of the body to what it perceives as an invader or an attack. When the injury occurs our immune system immediately bombards the area of injury or attack with Free Radicals to kill off the invader. The problem is, that while killing the invader, these free radicals also start to damage healthy cells.
If we are healthy with a good level of antioxidants in our system, they will stop the free radicals from damaging healthy cells. We get these antioxidants from eating whole foods like apples, broccoli, green veggies, dried beans, berries, sprouts, nuts and so on. When we eat these foods raw they could be described as living foods. Now, we are in the age of processed fast foods with synthetic (fake, that is) vitamins. We're not getting all the antioxidants we need in our diet.
To get the proper amount of these antioxidants the U.S. Dept. of Health says that women need to eat 7 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Men need to eat 9 servings a day. I guess that burger, fries and coke every day isn't going to work anymore, if you want to remain healthy or regain your health.
How Can We Stop Inflammation?
The Drug companies had doctors convinced that all you had to do was prescribe a Anti Inflammatory synthetic pill and you could fix inflammation. After a few years these drugs started to be pulled off the market due to the harm coming from their awful side effects.
There is a better way. There is no miracle pill cure for inflammation. If you give the body the raw natural building blocks it needs then this complex body God has made for us will heal itself. To me the way our body heals itself is miracle enough.
Get back to eating a diet of whole foods, as much as possible. Stop eating so many fatty, acid producing french fries and fast food burgers. Replace them with more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, raw nuts and healthy oils. Replace that acid producing diet soft drink with a glass of alkaline water. Find a way to eat the 7-9 fruits & veggies a day whether in whole form or liquid.