Fight Inflammation

Now that you know how inflammation can effect the body, let's go over what causes this inflammation and what we can do about it. Like so many other things, it all comes back to diet and exercise. Our society is surrounded by inflammatory foods. Processed foods, sugars, soda, white flour (bread, pasta), hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, vegetable oils, etc. These can all have a direct effect on increasing our blood sugar and insulin levels as well as creating free radicals in the system which can damage healthy tissue. If we looked back at our ancestors, we would see the women out gathering fruits and vegetables, while the men were hunting and fishing for the meat. Their diets consisted of fresh fruits and vegetables and meat and fish. Is it a coincidence that the incidence of heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and other diseases has drastically increased over the years with poorer nutrition?

I'm sure you have heard it a hundred times before, but so many health issues can be helped through a better diet and some regular exercise. Well, the same holds true for helping to avoid inflammation in your body. The closer you can eat to how our ancestors once ate, the better off you will be. One of the best ways to combat the inflammatory and free radical damage in your body is through phytonutrients and anti-oxidants which are found primarily in fruits and vegetables. Eat as much fruits and vegetables as you would like throughout the day. Just remember that fruit contains a lot of sugar and vegetables tend to have more beneficial phytonutrients, so try to eat more veggies than fruit. As far as meat, lean meats such as chicken and fish are much better than the pro-inflammatory red meats. The omega-3 fats found in fish are also very anti-inflammatory in nature.

Here are some more anti-inflammatory tips:

• Use herbs such as tumeric (found in curry), ginger, and cayenne pepper
• Use olive oil instead of vegetable or canola oil
• Avoid processed and commercially processed foods which usually contain hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup
• Eat other omega-3 rich foods such as walnuts, flax seeds, almonds, green leafy vegetables
• Get 4-5 days of 30 minutes of cardio exercise each week (easy as taking your dog on a walk)
• Eat fresh food

Live Well.

Are you inflamed?!

What comes to mind when you think about inflammation? Hot and red swelling? Maybe a sprained ankle, or a hurt knee, or possibly even the swollen ankles you pregnant ladies might have had? What you might not realize is that inflammation is involved with most if not all of the disease processes. Some inflammation related to local injury can be good for the general healing process. However, most of the inflammation in the body is problematic.

The suffix "-itis" denotes inflammation, so any condition or disease ending in "-itis" is specifically related to inflammation. i.e. bronchitis (inflammation of the air passages in the lungs), sinusitis (inflammation of the sinuses), arthritis (inflammation of the joints), diverticulitis (inflammation within the digestive tract), prostatitis (inflammation of the prostate). However, if a condition does not end with this suffix it does not mean that inflammation is not involved. Here is a list of just a few diseases and conditions that are or can be caused or promoted by inflammation...

acne
allergies
asthma
cancer
chronic pain
diabetes
endometriosis
fibromyalgia
headaches
heart disease
high blood pressure
injury

...and this is just a small sample of the conditions related to inflammation.

After seeing this list, don't you think it would be a good idea to try to avoid things that promote inflammation in the body? The good news is that there are some simple changes you can make with your diet and lifestyle that can help decrease overall inflammation. Whether or not you already suffer from one of the conditions above, your current and future health will benefit from less inflammation.

Next time, we will review some things that you can do to help decrease inflammation.

I hope you are all having a wonderful summer!

http://www.acucaretotalhealth.com/

Live Well.

Now that's just COLD!

Happy Wednesday!

Whenever someone comes into the office with an injury or pain, I ask if they have already been using any ice or heat on the area. The most common response is "I haven't used anything because I didn't know which was better." The simple answer to this is that if you are in doubt, always use cold. Most injuries will have some type of swelling and cold therapy is the best to help decrease the inflammation. Yes, heat does feel better. However, heat over a specific area brings blood to the area, so although it can help to relax the muscles, it can actually create more swelling. On the other hand, using general heat with a hot shower, bath or hot tub is great because it heats and relaxes the whole body and doesn't just bring attention to a specific area.

You might have heard that cold is good for acute (within the first 72 hours) injuries and heat is good for chronic (after 72 hours) injuries. Although this can be helpful, I still believe and have seen the best results are by using cold on the area regardless of how long it has been since the injury. The only time I really ever recommend heat is with arthritic conditions or really long-term, chronic conditions.

The best way to use cold therapy is to put cold on the injured area for 15-20 minutes and then take it off for 15-20 minutes and then repeat. Especially with a new injury, this should be done several times throughout the day and most importantly a few times before going to bed. In general, swelling in our body gets worse throughout the day, so you want to make sure you calm it down before you go to sleep with it. By alternating the cold and no cold, you are taking the swelling away with the cold and bringing new blood to the area when taking the cold away. Some people alternate cold and heat, which is fine, but is just more work and gets similar results as just alternating the cold with no cold. The cold could be a baggie with a few ice cubes and some cold tap water, a reusable ice pack, or even a bag of frozen vegetables (you can make some good vegetable soup after using it ;). All should be wrapped in a paper towel. The goal isn't to FREEZE the area, just to cool it down and numb it a little.

So, hopefully you don't get hurt, but if something does happen to you or someone else, remember that if you are in doubt, use cold!

Please leave a comment if you have any questions.

Live Well.