Finding ways to lower inflammation naturally in our toxic modern world can be a trial. Learning what inflammation is, what pushes this bodily function out of normal ranges, and how to make choices that lower it effectively are critical to your health now and for decades into your future.
Some Inflammation is a Good Thing
Inflammation is a natural part of your biological process. Your immune system uses this critical tool to fight infection. Without the inflammatory response, you would never be able to heal from wounds and bacteria would rampage through your body unchecked.
Some inflammation, at normal levels, is a good thing. You need it to remain healthy!
All of us have felt the symptoms and side effects of inflammation. A cut or wound becomes red and swollen as it heals. There’s pain and even actual heat that radiates from the affected part of your body during the healing process.
When Inflammation Goes Wild
However, when inflammation gets out of hand, the results can be catastrophic to every part of you. Inside, affecting delicate organs, tissue, and basic functions. Outside, affecting your skin and speeding up the signs of aging. Chronic inflammation has very real effects on your physical, mental, and emotional health. It can directly impact every part of your life as you try to cope.
If you don’t decrease inflammation, these symptoms will worsen over time. The problems will grow larger and there will come a point where the damage left behind by chronic inflammation results in a higher risk of disease and premature mortality.
The mainstream medical complex is finally recognizing what holistic healers have known for centuries. Chronic inflammation is very often a root cause of ailments ranging from arthritis to depression to heart disease and even cancer.
The Fireball Effect
Like a snowball rolling down a mountain, the fireball of inflammation gradually gets worse and worse until it is completely out of control. You need to know where it starts and, as it turns out, the primary reason for chronic inflammation is easy to identify.
Your modern lifestyle and eating habits.
These days, it’s rather easy to develop horrible habits that permit, even encourage, chronic inflammation inside you. Most citizens of developed nations are dealing with incredible levels of mental and emotional stress, are sleep deficient, consume more chemicals in food and beverages than ever in history, are more sedentary than past generations, and are inundated with brutal toxins in every area of the environment.
The soil, water, air, and food supply are riddled with heavy metals, pesticides, antibiotics, chemical additives, pollution, and so much more that weaken your body and raise the inflammatory response. Much of this exposure is out of your control.
Certainly, there are things you can do to lower the impact of these foreign invaders to your cells but if you live in a city with high pollution, your options are limited. If organically grown produce is not available to you, your exposure to pesticides and antibiotics in animal products are unavoidable.
As the exhausted, frustrated, and sick residents of Flint, Michigan can attest: exposure to lead and other toxins through main water pipes isn’t something easily avoided or resolved by average people in their everyday lives.
The painful truth is there will always be some things you can’t eliminate.
That’s why your choices in other areas that are within your control are so critical. There are several ways you can effectively lower inflammation naturally.
Working too many hours, remaining in toxic relationships, drinking too much alcohol, depriving yourself of necessary sleep, and filling your body with garbage food that offers your cells nothing useful in terms of fuel…all of these can result in chronic inflammation.
I know what you’re going to say. It’s not easy to work fewer hours and sleep can be hard to come by if you’re a night shift employee, new parent, or caring for a loved one. There’s too much to do and not nearly enough time to do it…and you’re already behind.
Much like environmental pollution that you have little (to no) control over, there may be extenuating circumstances in your personal life that make new, healthier habits harder to implement.
My response is this…
If there are 6 things causing health problems in your life and 3 of them are unavoidable or unchangeable for one reason or another…you certainly need to make drastic changes to the remaining 3 if you hope to protect your body from disease and early death.
In other words, if you literally cannot get more sleep, avoid your toxic in-laws, or move away from a polluted area…then improving your diet, getting more exercise, and getting rid of bad habits like smoking are truly life or death.
Lowering inflammation naturally is not a difficult thing to accomplish if you’re committed and willing to put in the work.
I cannot stress firmly enough that your DIET is the most important aspect of your health now and well into your future. What you feed your body is what fuels your body. If you throw nothing but sugar and chemicals into yourself, then you’re not going to get very productive fuel.
You need to know the truth behind this chronic condition and how to lower inflammation naturally – right now, in your normal life.
The biggest thing to remember is that inflammation damage occurs bit by bit, year after year, and might not make you feel bad for a decade. However, once systemic inflammation reaches a certain point – you won’t be able to ignore it.
Read my book “Fire in the Belly” right now for more information about inflammation and how you can stop it and live your remaining years happier and healthier than you have ever been.