The research is abundant now showing that what is being called silent inflammation is what is responsible for a multitude of the chronic conditions people are experiencing from arthritis to depression.
Most of us are aware of the kind of inflammation we experience when we sprain an ankle for instance. We get swelling, reddness and heat at the area of injury. This is the body’s way of dealing with and ultimately beginning the repair for the acute incident that just happened. At the same time there are powerful chemicals called cytokines that are release at the area that signal the brain that we have inflammation some where and these chemicals tell us we feel bad.
Scientists now understand that just like the inflammation that occurs with an acute injury, many of us have silent inflammation going on in our bodies every day that we can not feel or see.
According to Dwight Lundell M.D. some of the signs that you may have some silent inflammation going on in your body are:
- being overweight
- waist over 40 inches
- high blood pressure meds
- high cholesterol meds
- craving carbohydrates
- fatigue
- poor dental hygiene
- aches and pains
- elevated CRP in the blood
It is important to understand the significance of silent inflammation because it is the culprit for causing many of our chronic ailments. A partial list of the things that silent inflammation can cause are:
- strokes
- elevated blood pressure
- Alzheimers
- arthritis
- depression
- cancer
- heart disease
So if we know what signs to look for and we definitely want to avoid the list of problems that it can cause, we must next look at the things we are doing that are contributing or causing this problem. In his book, The Cure for Heart Disease, Dr Lundell explains three things that we now know are contributing to this silent or chronic inflammation.
- Consuming excess simple carbohydrates – this is all of our processed foods and sugary beverages and it is the resulting high blood sugar that is the problem here.
- Over use of vegetable oils – which causes on excess of Omega 6 oils in our system causing oxidative stress. (Our ratio of Omega 3 to Omega 6 used to be 1:1 – now it is 1:6. Omega 6 oils are high pro – inflammatory agents.
- Deficiency of fish oil in the diet – from which we get Omega 3 oils and is natures safest and most effective anti-inflammatory agent.
Knowing this we can control the amount of inflammation going on in our bodies. Dr. Lundell’s recommendations are:
- Consume adequate amounts of Omega 3′s (both EPA and DHA)
- Take antioxidants – to reduce the oxidative stress from free radicals
- Get plenty of exercise – because exercise produces many anti-inflammatory cytocines
- Reduce our weight – because fat cells store so many toxins and when overloaded pour out inflammatory chemicals
- Avoid vegetable oils
- Get plenty of plant polyphenols
