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August 2014 | Read this issue and more at www.healthandwellnessmagazine.net |
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Inflammation
By Angela S. Hoover,
Staff Writer
figuring out how to manipulate and
cut off chronic inflammation.
Many food and beauty products
tout anti-inflammatory properties.
Inflammation is a process that happens during healing – like from an
insect bite for example – so why
would we want to stop inflammation?
Because sometimes the body can go
on an inflammation spree, known as
chronic inflammation. Under these
conditions, the immune cells never
ease back but cause damage to various body systems, which make them
more vulnerable. It ultimately causes
degeneration of our tissues and leads
to disease. Chronic inflammation is
an autoimmune disease where the
body turns on itself with a hyperactive defense mechanism.
Common examples of autoimmune diseases are hay fever,
rheumatoid arthritis, gout, pelvic
inflammatory disease, colitis and
bursitis. However, medical researchers now include Alzheimer’s, type
2 diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, Parkinson’s, osteoporosis and
depression and more on to the list.
It’s believed that inflammation isn’t
just a result of osteoarthritis, but that
it may very well be a contributing
cause. Generally speaking, inflammation is the basic mechanism that
maintains the well-being of our cells,
but nearly every disease is connected
with inflammation. Whether inflammation is the root cause or whether
these diseases are made worse by
the inflammatory process is not yet
clearly known, but inflammation is
nearly always a factor. While different diseases manifest themselves in
different ways, they seem to share
many commonalities in the cellular
level. Scientists believe that the key
to extending healthy lifespans lies in
Causes
Inflammatory agents, things that
set off our immune system, are all
around us: in the air we breathe,
the UV rays we absorb, the cleaning
agents we use, the makeup we wear,
the candles we light, the germs we
encounter and environmental pollution. And some individuals are more
genetically predisposed to inflammation.
Obesity is linked with many diseases and conditions from diabetes
to Alzheimer’s, butresearchers have
discovered that being overweight is a
huge cause of inflammation. Body fat
is not an inert object in the body; it
is a metabolically active tissue that is
a source of the compounds that trigger inflammation. Having too many
extra fat cells can amp up the inflammatory process because fat cells are
producers of hormones like estrogen
and leptin, as well as other molecules
that signal the immune system. In
other words, excess fat creates excess
inflammation. Fat around the abdomen may be especially dangerous as
compared to fat in the hips or rear
because midsection fat tends to produce even more estrogens and inflammatory compounds called cytokines.
Chronic stress is also a source of
chronic inflammation. In concentrated doses, emotional stress is no big
deal. But when the stress is constant,
like during an ongoing personal crisis,
it triggers a constant inflammatory
response. Try to curb emotional stress
and be sure to not scrimp on sleep.
Another source of chronic inflammation is unknown and unidentified
allergies. An undiagnosed food sensitivity can upset the balance of bacteria in the gut, leading to a variety
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of other symptoms, such as inflammatory bowel disease, migraines or
chronic headaches and/or chronic
fatigue syndrome. This is why it’s
important to get to the underlying
root cause of any ailment or co