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Inflammation - What it Means For Your Health.
ShareInflammation - What it Means For Your Health.
Inflammation gets a lot of hype in the media, but do you really know what it is or what it means in relation to your health? Inflammation is actually the body’s natural response to outside threats including stress, infection, or toxic chemicals. When your immune system detects these invaders, it goes into auto pilot and it fights back by triggering proteins the at are protective to your cells and tissue.Mansour Mohamadzadeh, PhD, director of the Centre for Inflammation and Mucosal Immunology at the University of Florida says that ‘in a healthy situation, inflammation serves as a good friend to our body, but if immune cells start to overreact, that inflammation can be totally directed against us."
Chronic inflammation can be caused by:
- a virus or bacteria,
- an autoimmune disorder,
- sugary and fatty foods,
- excess stress.
In some diseases such as arthritis, the body's defence system, which is the immune system, will trigger an inflammatory response when there are no invaders to fight off. These diseases are called autoimmune diseases and is where the body's normally protective immune system causes damage to its own tissues. In other words, body responds as if normal tissues are infected or somehow abnormal.
What to Eat
Anti-inflammatory foods are to be encouraged if there is chronic inflammation. These include lots of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, plant-based proteins (such legumes, beans and nuts), fatty fish, and fresh herbs and spices. Red meat is inflammatory, so it is best to limit your intake of this food to 2-3 times per week.
What Not to Eat
Anything highly processed, high in unhealthy fats and high in sugar aren’t a good choice for you if you have inflammation.
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