Barry Sears - The Anti-Inflammation Zone

Dr. Barry Sears

Appendices

Diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and Alzheimers consume the vast bulk of our health care resources. Yet they all have a strong inflammatory component. This inflammation is relentlessly driving your body toward chronic disease. Control that inflammation, and you have gone a great distance to minimizing, if not reversing, the symptoms of these chronic diseases, moving you back to a state of wellness.

In fact, everything that is important in your life (health, longevity, physical and mental performance, and emotions) is ultimately controlled by your hormones. Keep these hormones in the appropriate balance and you will obtain the most cherished goal in lifewellness in both mind and body. Wellness is not some elusive state of mind. As I will show you, it can be measured and quantified in your blood. Thus, wellness no longer becomes a philosophical state, but a medical fact. How to get to this zone of wellness by controlling inflammation is the basis of this book.

My previous books on the Zone hormonal control technology over the last ten years have always touched on inflammation control, because the Zone is ultimately based on eicosanoid balance. When I wrote my first book on the Zone in 1995, virtually no one in the medical establishment, let alone the general public, had ever heard of eicosanoids even though the 1982 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded for understanding their role in human disease. Today, the number of people who understand the power of eicosanoids is still very limited. However, everyone knows enough about inflammation to know that its probably not a very good thing. What they dont realize is that inflammation is mediated by eicosanoids. Control your eicosanoids, and you control your levels of inflammation and thus your wellness. Its that simple, and in the process you will change your future.

The best tools you have to change that future are the combination of the Zone Diet plus high-dose, ultra-refined fish oil. Two other tools, although not nearly as powerful as diet, are smart exercise and stress reduction to reduce the collateral damage induced by inflammation. All of these approaches combined provide what I call the Zone Lifestyle Program. It will take you only thirty days to begin to master these tools that will change your future. Dont take my word for ityour blood will confirm it loud and clear. But this is only the start, because you have to use these tools on a lifetime basis to keep inflammation under control.

Keep in mind that the day you stop fighting inflammation is the day that you start accelerating the aging process, along with all the chronic diseases that come with it. Yes, losing excess body fat will be a key component in your lifelong struggle against inflammation. This is because it is excess insulin that not only makes you fat and keeps you fat, but also increases inflammation. However, as important as losing excess body fat is, it will not be nearly as important in your battle against inflammation as the use of high-dose, ultra-refined fish oil.

Another goal of this book is to alert you about the new epidemic of a type of inflammation that is below the perception of pain. This is known as silent inflammation. Thats what makes it so dangerous; you dont know its there, although it is constantly eroding your wellness until chronic disease erupts decades later. More important, this book will teach you how to bring the level of silent inflammation in your body under control with the least amount of effort on your part. I emphasize the phrase with the least amount of effort, since all change, no matter how positive, induces some stress. I promise you that within a thirty-day period, if not sooner, you will find that your life has dramatically improved. And, when you take the appropriate clinical tests, your blood will validate your movement to a new state of wellness. This is the kind of change that we all welcome.

The continuous control of inflammation is the foundation of the Zone. However, it usually takes at least a year before such habits become ingrained in your lifestyle. So, view this book as a wellness manual that you will refer to constantly to reinforce the necessary dietary and lifestyle skills. More important, you have to have some objective measurement of the benefits these hormonal changes bring. I dont want you to simply take my word for it, even though it is true that you can change your hormonal levels in just one meal, and that you feel, think, and perform better in just a few days once you are in the Zone. Thats why I want you to track your changes and ultimately quantify them. Changes in your blood chemistry determine the true extent of your new state of wellness. These blood tests give you a laserlike insight into your future as they are the most precise markers of silent inflammation known to medical science.

If you dont learn how to master your hormones to control inflammation, your future will be much more difficult than it has to be. Thats why reaching the Anti-Inflammation Zone gives you the potential to change your future and redirect it into whatever direction you wish. If your future currently looks bleak because of high levels of silent inflammation, dont worry, because you can change it within thirty days. And once youve done so, youre on the pathway to making wellness a permanent state.

Welcome to the Anti-Inflammation Zoneand the return to wellness.