Inflammation: What it does to you and how can your diet help
The inflammatory response that is triggered in our bodies is necessary to help fight infection and is useful in the short term as it is part of the immune response. When the inflammatory reaction continues after an infection is gone it can cause many health problems. Chronic inflammation may be the common factor in many diseases such as diabetes, coronary artery disease and some autoimmune diseases (rheumatoid arthritis, Lupus and Hashimoto’s). It can also be associated with some reproductive conditions such as PCOS, fibroids, endometriosis and poor egg quality. If you do not have any of these conditions but are still having reproductive challenges then it’s possible that inflammation is disrupting your natural hormone balance which can be impacting ovulation. Reducing inflammation can also improve PMS, painful, heavy periods and irregular bleeding.
Can inflammation be improved?
Yes! The good news is that inflammation can be corrected by utilizing some lifestyle changes.
Always best to look at your diet first:
Making some basic dietary modifications is a good place to start. Include more fish (especially wild fish), nuts and seeds, beans and lentils, green leafy vegetables, berries and coconut oil. Avoid red meat, shellfish, refined sugars, corn products, alcohol, coffee and dairy. These foods produce arachidonic acid in our bodies which promote prostaglandins fueling inflammation. For more information on the anti-inflammatory diet click here.
Helpful Herbs:
These are some excellent herbs that can help to reduce inflammation. Some can be added to your food (in soups, curry dishes or smoothies) and others can be taken as supplement: Turmeric (Curcumin), Boswellia, Resveratrol, Capsaicin and Bromelain.
At Yinstill, we carry an excellent anti-inflammatory product called “Relieve” and it contains many of these beneficial herbs.
Consider doing a food allergy test:
This could tell us which foods you might be eating that are causing an immune reaction specific to your body. Avoiding these foods could drastically reduce inflammation. When you eat something that your body is reacting to it can create what’s called an “antibody-antigen complex”. Normally these complexes are removed by special cells called macrophages but if there are too many of them circulating then these cells are not able to remove them. This leads to an accumulation of these complexes which are then deposited in the tissues creating the inflammatory reaction.
The food allergy test is a simple blood test that can test for 220 foods and can be done through our naturopathic physician, Dr. Marni Ross.
If you would like to discuss your potential inflammation and ways to decrease it, book an initial consult with Dr. Ross today.
