Chronic Inflammation...The Dangers!
One of the greatest threats to our health ischronic inflammation and the damage it cancause if left unchecked.
Inflammation is one of the body's first responses to any kind of damage, and occurs in either acute or chronic form.
Acute inflammation is the swelling, redness and painaround the site of injury (when you sprain your ankle,get bruised, or break a bone). Initial treatment of inflammation includes applying ice and and taking anti-inflammatory medications like Naproxen to treat the pain and swelling. Acute inflammation does not cause any long term damage, in fact it helps your body recover from an injury more quickly.
Chronic-inflammation is a set of immune responses thatoccur over a long period of time, sometimes overmonths and years. Chronic-inflammation is really ahidden disease that can affect a person without themeven knowing it, and scientists are now discovering thatthe result of chronic-inflammation has serious long-termeffects on the rest of the body.
There is no escaping it...we are all exposed to environmental factors that produce chronic inflammation.
One main cause of inflammation is
free radical
damage.
Free radicals are a result of our bodys energy production, but are also produced by - Smoking
- Consuming processed foods
- Food additives
- Household chemicals
- Environmental toxins
- Inhaling polluted air
Chronic inflammation may be a factor in the development of many degenerative diseases.
Inflammation has been linked to both rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis, and new research also links chronic-inflammation toDigestive disorders
Chronic Inflammation Heart Disease & Alzheimers
In heart disease, the inflammatory response causes bloodlevels of certain proteins to be elevated. Elevated levels of inflammatory proteins such as CRP (C-reactiveprotein) have been found in atherosclerosis (basically plaque in the arteries) and may indicate the possibility of heart disease. Studies show that the longer CRP is present, the higher the chance a person will develop some form of chronic illness.
Inflammatory proteins may also be involved in thedevelopment of Alzheimer's disease. Normal brainmolecules are disrupted as a result of inflammation. This can cause amyloid beta proteins (located in the brain) tobecome abnormal and not function properly. Theseabnormal proteins are thought to have a critical role inthe development of Alzheimer's.
How Can We Stop Inflammation...Now?
In addition to eating a healthy diet with plenty of freshfruit and vegetables...
eat a rainbow....
and taking regular exercise, supplementing your diet with
free radical scavenging antioxidants
is extremely important.
I have found a very interesting article on the dangers of inflammation from 'Time' magazine, download and read it now by clicking the magazine cover. It is in pdf format so you will need Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. If you can't view the file it's because you don't have an up to date version of Adobe Reader installed.You can get one here for free at
www.adobe.com
So, armed with this information, you are now fully aware of the differences between acute and chronic-inflammation...and how antioxidants can help you tackle inflammation.
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