Introduction
It is becoming increasingly clear that chronic inflammation is the root cause of many serious illnesses - including heart disease, many cancers, and Alzheimers disease. We all understand inflammation on the surface of the body to be local redness, heat, swelling and pain. It is the cornerstone of the bodys healing response, bringing more nourishment and more immune activity to a site of injury or infection. But when inflammation persists or serves no purpose, it damages the body and causers illness. Stress, lack of exercise, genetic predisposition, and exposure to toxins (like second hand tobacco smoke) can all contribute to such chronic inflammation, but dietary choices play a big role as well. Learning how specific foods influence the inflammatory process is the best strategy for containing it and reducing long-term disease risks.
When something harmful or irritating affects a part of our body, there is a biological response to try to remove it, the signs and symptoms of inflammation, specifically acute inflammation, show that the body is trying to heal itself.
From a naturopathic perspective of treating the cause of disease, one of the first ways to address this is through an Anti-Inflammatory Diet. This upstream approach to treatment focuses on avoiding pro-inflammatory foods and eating a diet rich in anti-inflammatory foods. Additionally, since medical research is converging on inflammation as the common link in most diseases, eating an anti-inflammatory diet is a great model of dietary health for everyone.
Often, people take medications to decrease inflammation. Drugs like ibuprofen and aspirin can change the bodys chemical reactions, but they are not without side effects. Research has shown that other things can decrease inflammation too. Many things we have control over, such as our stress levels, how much we exercise, and how we eat will influence how much inflammation we have in our bodies.
How we eat can affect inflammation, and certain diets are more likely to decrease pain and other symptoms of disease. Many studies have shown that people who eat certain types of foods are less likely to have the health problems listed above.
I have personally found out that, you dont have to be at the mercy of situations and circumstances. Your life should not be a coincidence, but rather a result of a deliberate action only you take. Many people are victims of circumstance, but you can choose to be different. Everything is in the power of your choice. While some, because they are rich, can afford medications, not knowing that medications over and over again have a devastating effect on health. Nature has made all beautiful in such a way that every natural things it produce, has a healing impact on the body without any side effect or complication. All you need is just a guide on how to correctly use them.
Lets kick off while we take a look at every importance guides discussed in the invaluable book as touching the use of natural foods products in taking care of your health.
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Chapter 1
What is Inflammation?
One major thing I love to do excellently well, is to bring people through my writings to an understanding, where they have a perfect knowledge of what exactly they are dealing with before they get into combating it.
Too many people have suffered adversely from a sudden knowledge of what they are going through perhaps through doctors information or rather through their preconceived notion about it. This of course could have been made more easy by simply getting accurate and adequate information about what they are going through rather than just discovering suddenly thereby getting all worked up beyond what the diseased condition has come to do.
Inflammation
If youve ever sprained your ankle, or suffered common cold or flu, then you have encountered inflammation. Inflammation is your bodys reaction to irritation, injury, or infection. Inflammation is the way your body protects itself and begins the process of healing. Symptoms of inflammation include pain, swelling, redness, and sometimes loss of movement or function. The purpose of inflammation is to eliminate the initial cause of cell injury, clear out necrotic cells and tissues damaged from the original insult and the inflammatory process, and to initiate tissue repair.
Inflammation is tightly regulated by the body. Too little inflammation could lead to progressive tissue destruction by the harmful stimulus (e.g. bacteria) and compromise the survival of the organism. In contrast, chronic inflammation may lead to a host of diseases, such as hay fever, periodontitis, atherosclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and even cancer (e.g. gallbladder carcinoma). Inflammation is therefore normally closely regulated by the body.
Inflammation can be categorized in to two;
Acute inflammation and chronic inflammation
Acute inflammation - starts rapidly (rapid onset) and quickly becomes severe. Signs and symptoms are only present for a few days, but in some cases may persist for a few weeks.
Examples of diseases, conditions, and situations which can result in acute inflammation include:
Acute bronchitis
Infected ingrown toenail
Sore throat from a cold or flu
A scratch/cut on the skin
Exercise (especially intense training)
Acute appendicitis
Acute dermatitis
Acute tonsillitis
Acute infective meningitis
Acute sinusitis
A blow.
Chronic inflammation - this means long-term inflammation, which can last for several months and even years. It can result from:
Failure to eliminate whatever was causing an acute inflammation
An autoimmune response to a self-antigen - the immune system attacks healthy tissue, mistaking it (them) for harmful pathogens
A chronic irritant of low intensity that persists.
Examples of diseases and conditions with chronic inflammation include:
Asthma
Chronic peptic ulcer
Tuberculosis
Rheumatoid arthritis
Chronic periodontitis
Ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease
Chronic sinusitis
Chronic active hepatitis (there are many more).
Our infections, wounds and any damage to tissue would never heal without inflammation - tissue would become more and more damaged and the body, or any organism, would eventually perish.