Whether you realize it or not, you’ve dealt with the symptoms and side effects of inflammation before. Perhaps you’ve had a cut or wound that’s become red and swollen as it heals. You can probably remember the pain as well as the heat given off by your afflicted body part.
That is a classic sign of inflammation.
While an injury to the outside of your body may be easily treated, what do you do when the inflammation is on the inside?
Modern medicine is finally beginning to come around to what many holistic healers have known for centuries. Chronic inflammation can be the cause of a mind-numbing variety of ailments ranging from arthritis to depression to heart disease and even cancer.
Before we can begin treating this inflammation, it helps if we have an idea of where it begins. For something that can be the root of a myriad of diseases, its causes can be traced down to a simple beginning. 
Our modern lifestyles.
Do you work long hours at the office or job site but never quite seem to get your needed sleep? You could be causing inflammation inside of your body.
Do you have trouble finding the time to eat right, instead opting for a burger on the run or, if you’re lucky, a box dinner filled with carbs and sugars? You could be causing inflammation inside of your body.
Even after work drinks – something designed to relieve the tension of the day and you’re your blood pressure a few points – can be causing inflammation.
Years of repeating the same habits can result in inflammation. Worse, it can become chronic.
Unfortunately, most of us can’t request lighter work hours, even for our own health, and sleep is a commodity that proves hard to come by in our fast-paced daily lives filled with more tasks than time to complete them.
You are part of a society of people who are over scheduled and under-rested.
Another of the little known side effects of chronic inflammation – possibly the main reason you’re reading this article – is that it can lead to weight gain. Inflamed tissues swell up, filling with fluid.
Ladies, you deal with this during the course of your menstrual cycle. It is referred to as “water weight” gain and alters the way you feel and even how your clothing fits.
Extra water weight tends to make you feel bloated and sluggish.
Reducing inflammation can diminish this fluid buildup and help you lose weight. Along with the corresponding changes in diet, you will end up with a far healthier and fitter you.
What Sort of Diet Changes Are We Talking About Here Anyway?
For most of us, when we hear the word “diet,” we immediately think of eating less food. To the contrary, a great portion of the problem with our modern diets is nutrition deficiency.
We eat plenty of food, but too much of the wrong kinds. Foods rich in Omega-3 fatty
acids such as salmon, beef, and flax seed are wonderful natural anti-inflammatory.
Then there are food allergies. If you don’t have food allergies yourself, you probably have a friend or family member that can’t eat peanuts, wheat, or shellfish. New research is discovering that far more of us may have allergies to foods than was previously thought.
These Aren’t Allergies in the Well-Known Sense.
If you’re sensitive to apples, you won’t go into anaphylactic shock and need to be rushed into the nearest emergency room if you eat them.
Most food allergies are mild enough that you may not connect the resulting symptoms to the food you’re eating. You continue to eat them because you think you’re fine.
Meanwhile, your body may trigger internal inflammation every time you consume these foods, slowly damaging your body over time.
There are blood tests that your doctor can perform to check for chronic inflammation and fortunately, there are many things that you can do for yourself to keep and stay healthy.
I recommend my book “Diet Wise,” in which I explain the truth behind chronic inflammation as one of the causes of sudden weight gain, food allergies, and what you need to do to keep your youth far into your golden years.
Chronic inflammation is a condition that can cause terrible damage to your body – not all at once but slowly year after year.
You do not have to be a victim of inflammation or the symptoms it leads to – you can take action to stop it before it causes sudden weight gain.