Chronic Inflammation

 

When you have your next physical with your doctor, and get a blood work-up done, by all means make sure to have a C – reactive protein test done.  That is a measure of inflammation in your body.

Now our inflammatory response is part of our immune system. If we get an infection in our throat or a scratch or cut for example, we’re used to experiencing redness, swelling and heat at the sight. In this case, inflammation is a good thing because it is part of the healing process.

However, there is something called chronic inflammation, when the inflammation doesn’t stop, and there’s no reason for it. Then it’s NOT a good thing! It unleashes major problems.

Some of the diseases predicated by chronic inflammation are:

• Heart disease
• Many cancers
• Alzheimer’s disease
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Psoriatic arthritis
• Gouty arthritis
• Systemic lupus erythematosus

Regular osteoarthritis doesn’t appear to be affected by chronic inflammation, but the really mean forms of arthritis are definitely affected.

And that’s just SOME diseases caused by it! We would all do well to avoid any of those.

The good news is that diet can lower or eliminate chronic inflammation. You don’t need drugs with their debilitating side effects (that usually don’t work anyway)!

Just go to Google, Bing or any of the search engines, and type in chronic inflammation or even just inflammation, and you’ll see several sites with recommended foods and beverages to combat inflammation.

And it shouldn’t surprise you that most of the foods listed as good are the same ones good for you for other reasons: nuts, avocadoes, fresh organic vegetables and fruits, green tea and more.

I don’t know about you, but I’d do ANYTHING to avoid Alzheimer’s disease! I don’t want the others either, but to lose my mind would be the absolute worst thing to happen.

So check out the search engines and adjust your diet to cut back or eliminate chronic inflammation. And don’t forget the C – reactive protein blood test! Your doctor will know if chronic inflammation is present by that test.

Stay healthy!