Indholdsfortegnelse for Learn to Beat Inflammation i Learn to Beat Inflammation

Inflammation is necessary for the body to heal and defend itself against illness. The inflammatory response, however, can occasionally go too far, activating when there is no threat and leading to pain and discomfort instead. In Learn to Beat Inflammation, you’ll learn about the science behind the body’s inflammatory response and how making small changes to your lifestyle, such as taking care of your gut health and reducing stress, can help you prevent, control, and reduce chronic inflammation.…

Before you start to learn how to beat inflammation, it’s important to know what can cause it in the first place. For many people, there may be more than one cause and it can be beneficial to take a whole-body approach to have the greatest impact. In this feature, we will look at some of the main known causes, and throughout this book we’ll explore some of these in much more detail, as well as offer tips on how to reduce inflammation for each cause. Lifestyle factors There are some things in the way you live your life that can contribute to inflammation in the body. Many of these are preventable causes, but it’s not always easy to make the necessary changes. Don’t feel you have to alter everything at…

Relaxation is an essential addition to our wellbeing toolkit, but it’s not always easy to accomplish, especially in challenging circumstances. But learning to do it right could help reduce stress and inflammation in our bodies. ‘Relaxation is vital to our health and wellbeing, as well as our immune function,’ says natural health and wellness expert Dr Tim Bond. ‘Researchers at Harvard Medical School discovered that in people practising relaxation methods, such as yoga and meditation, far more “disease-fighting genes” were active, compared to those who didn’t practise. In particular, they found genes were switched on that help to protect from disorders such as pain, infertility, high blood pressure and even rheumatoid arthritis.’ And that’s not all. The art of relaxation also drives higher levels of feel-good chemicals, such as serotonin…

Although sleep is undoubtedly good for health in general and reducing inflammation in particular, it’s not always easy to get to sleep. A third of adults find it difficult to fall or stay asleep at least once a week, with between six and ten percent suffering from clinical insomnia. Sleep difficulties are also strongly correlated with many of the disorders linked to chronic inflammation, including heart disease and obesity. So being able to get to sleep – and stay asleep – will help on many different levels. Meditation is one way of achieving this. A huge range of research has confirmed that meditation produces general benefits to health, so even if it doesn’t help you sleep it will help in other ways. But in most cases it will help, so…

The phrase ‘you are what you eat’ is well known. But, for many, the extent of the influence your diet holds over specific elements of your health is far less known. You are frequently told which foods should be labelled as healthy or junk food, but which micronutrients make different foods healthy? By analysing the nutritional biochemistry of each food type, you will discover the best food combinations for your body. Diet is one of the leading factors in the likelihood of experiencing inflammation and, for sufferers of chronic inflammation, food choices become as vital as taking medication. Mostly, this means consuming a range of foods to ensure that your body is exposed to a multitude of antioxidants and other nutrients. When considering the impact of consumed food on inflammatory…

Nothing gives off the stereotypical depiction of healthy food more than a plate of dark green, leafy vegetables. And, when studying the impact on chronic inflammation, this is definitely an accurate view. Some of the food products that are classed as leafy greens are kale, spinach, chard, rocket/arugula, endive, turnip greens, beet greens, and collard greens. The main vitamins in these greens that elevate their importance are the vitamins A, D, E and K. Vitamin A helps the body’s immune response to work more efficiently. This means that beneficial inflammation will keep the body safe, without prolonging inflammation for too long and causing chronic pain. Meanwhile, vitamin D controls the production of inflammatory cytokines and immune cells. Cytokines are proteins that are released in an immune response to trigger a…

Want some good news about inflammation? You can eat your way to improved health and make your food taste better at the same time. Studies are slowly confirming what our ancestors believed: herbs and spices are good for you. While research is continuing, the results so far are impressive. Let’s look at some of the herbs and spices known to boost health, but if your favourite isn’t on this list, go ahead and use it: they all seem to have some benefit! BLACK PEPPER Pepper, and the vast profits the Venetians were making through their monopoly on its trade, was what drove the Portuguese and the Spanish west, into the Atlantic Ocean, searching for new routes to the places where pepper grows. As well as spicing food, pepper was traditionally…

Our body is pretty clever. It has a number of built-in systems and processes to cope with everything that is thrown at it. One of these processes is inflammation, which is a natural bodily response to the presence of an unwanted intrusion from a virus, bacteria or other toxic element, or as the result of an injury. Inflammation is part of the immune system. When something happens to you, such as catching a virus or suffering a fall, the immune system responds by sending out its first line of defence. This includes inflammatory cells and cytokines. The inflammatory cells’ job is to attack any bacteria or viruses it finds, and to heal damaged tissue in the case of an injury. Cytokines are incredibly important proteins that act as messengers to…

The body is designed to remain stable. Human beings have lived everywhere, from the tropics to the Arctic, but wherever we live, the conditions inside the body remain the same: the same temperature, the same fluid balance, the same blood pressure. When these conditions change – a high temperature, for instance – we know at once that something is wrong. But in the normal course of events, the body responds to changing conditions without us even noticing. This is known as homeostasis. It is the body’s dynamic equilibrium with its environment. It is a dynamic rather than a static equilibrium because it is maintained by the body changing its response to the environment. Stress and homeostasis Stress is by no means always bad. Indeed, quite the opposite: it is vital.…

Sleep is good for you. Scientists have done the research to prove that Shakespeare was quite right when Macbeth says that sleep “knits up the ravell’d sleeve of care,” and proclaim it “balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course, chief nourisher in life’s feast”. Those eight or so hours when we lie abed are vital to our health and wellbeing. Lack of sleep has been linked to a whole panorama of diseases and disorders, ranging from heart disease and diabetes to obesity and depression. What is notable is that some of these disorders, such as obesity, are independently associated with chronic inflammation. As we know that chronic inflammation often results from chronic stress, conditions that contribute to chronic stress, such as lack of sleep, will also further inflame the…

Protein is essential for all of your body’s cells. Without a good variation of proteins in your diet, cells can’t repair themselves or generate new ones that well. However, unless you have entered into a protein deficiency, in which case any protein will help to reduce the swelling this causes in the body, it is only certain types of protein that are actively anti-inflammatory. By depriving your body of proteinous foods, you are more likely to encounter a severe infection. Yet, you can also consume too much protein – especially if they come from animal sources. To make sure you don’t eat protein in excess, you should follow the recommended daily amount (46 grams for women and 56 grams for men). The most anti-inflammatory proteins are lean proteins, such as…

So, there are many foods to choose from when it comes to providing your body with biological, anti-inflammatory weapons. But, are there any drinks with similar results? One concoction you can make at home should only be used in an attempt to eliminate inflammation as a one-off drink, with expectations of short-term effects. This is a combination of baking soda and water. Creating and consuming this drink as a regular occurrence can result in liver damage and bone loss, and so can be harmful when not taken in moderation. However, baking soda can also reduce inflammation by altering the actions of white blood cells in the body. Macrophages are the white blood cells of the immune system that release signals in the body to cause inflammation. When in the presence…

There’s considerable evidence that some foods increase the risk of inflammation. Of course, as with all dietary matters, moderation is the key. No one will suddenly develop arthritis from eating a McDonalds burger after a night out. Problems only arise when these inflammatory foods become major and ongoing parts of our diets. It’s worth remembering that we evolved as hunter-gatherers, eating a huge variety of plants, seeds, nuts, grains, fish, birds and animals. The good news is that our bodies evolved to deal with variety. The more you mix up what you eat, the more new and unfamiliar foods you try, the better. Even the worst foods won’t kill you: they’re food, not poison, although some of the more strident advocates can make it sound as if they are. It’s…

Trap your finger in a door and, after screaming and shouting for a while, you will see the finger starting to swell. The swelling is the visible indicator of the body’s response to harm. It’s a dangerous world out there – the body can suffer damage from physical injuries, bacteria, viruses, poisons and toxins. As such, the body has developed many strategies for dealing with injuries. The first to respond are the body’s emergency services, inflammatory cells and cytokines, which produce more inflammatory cells. The aim is to keep the damage local, trapping bacteria or stopping the trauma from injury spreading further. Within the inflamed area, the body sets about repairing damaged tissue and hunting for invading pathogens, targetting them with white blood cells. This is a perfectly normal response…

Homeostasis is the key to how our bodies function. It could be raining or freezing, we might be relaxing by reading a book or running for a train but on the inside, the body will be maintaining an astonishingly constant environment. If you took the temperature of a polar explorer and that of a desert Bedouin it would be, within a tiny margin, the same. One of the body’s jobs is to maintain a constant environment on the inside while dealing with a huge range of conditions on the outside. To achieve this stable state, the body employs a huge range of strategies, from shivering to sweating. Having started on the plains of Africa, our bodies had to be ready to deal with emergencies: no good keeping the body stable…

There are very few animals capable of running a marathon and even fewer capable of beating human beings over that distance. That is because we were made to move – and to keep moving – over long distances for long periods of time. To make that possible, we sweat (which also explains why we aren’t covered in fur). Sweating enables us to keep cool when running. Indeed, in hot climates there’s no other mammal that matches us as long-distance runners (although in temperate climates horses, which also sweat, can outrun us and in cold climates, wolves can pip us to the post). Considering we were made to move, it’s not surprising that today’s sedentary lifestyles cause health issues. Researchers state that the simplest and most cost-effective prophylactic is exercise. And…

Pilates is very similar to yoga in that it is not only an exercise that sculpts your body, but it also helps to clear your mind, gives you energy and a sense of inner balance. When you are practising Pilates (and yoga) you will be concentrating on one thing: your body, and because Pilates in particular can be more strenuous and require more concentration, you will have to clear your mind to focus. Pilates is a great way of meditating without sitting still and feeling like you might be wasting time, plus the feeling of having accomplished something for your body will boost your mood, and the endorphins from the work will leave you feeling amazing. Much like yoga, Pilates also works to relieve stress and tension built up in…

When we think of walking as exercise, it’s usually more of a leisurely stroll or aiming for those coveted 10,000 steps a day. But walking is so much more than going from A to B, and when you do it properly, incorporating different paces, speeds and even elements such as lunges and squats, it can be a way to exercise that you hadn’t thought of and helps the pounds fall away. Walking is free, easy and good for our health. The UK even has a National Walking Month in May, organised by the British Heart Foundation (bhf.org.uk). Just 30 minutes of exercise, including walking, five times a week reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer and type 2 diabetes, and could help relieve symptoms of depression. Plus, walking boosts circulation,…

AFTER-HOURS When it comes to having better, healthier sleep, the first step can simply be going to bed earlier. According to research by The Sleep Council, 19% of Brits aren’t in bed before midnight, with nearly a third of us hitting the hay between 11pm and 12am. However, studies show that people with an early-to-bed, early-to-rise routine are less likely to develop mental-health problems than night owls. Scientists say it takes just two weeks to tweak your body clock so that you fall sleep earlier. BREW UP We already love the sleep-inducing benefits of chamomile, lavender or valerian herbal tea before bed, but according to a study by the Journal of Medicinal Food in 2010, drinking about 500ml (16oz) of tart cherry juice throughout the day can also help you…

As a primary energy source, carbohydrates tend to make up a significant proportion of most meals. Your body needs more calories from carbohydrates than from any other food type, and this is especially true for the brain and muscles. This makes carbohydrate choices even more significant when adapting your diet to an anti-inflammatory one. Some people might take the route of completely avoiding carbohydrates, but that comes at a cost, because this food type is essential for aiding beneficial inflammation and many crucial biological functions. Carbohydrates are neither solely good or bad at preventing chronic inflammation. They can be both. Some carbohydrates play their role in providing great amounts of energy to the body, but can be highly processed and therefore detrimental. Meanwhile, others are packed full of antioxidants, which…

All fruit has some health-boosting properties as they are natural whole foods and some of the best sources of vitamins and minerals. Not only do they provide a sweet range of snacks with their healthy sugars, but they produce anti-inflammatory compounds. Each type of fruit has its own mixture of antioxidants and by incorporating a variety of fruit into your diet, you can maximise their health impacts. The impressive range of nutrients allocated to different fruits means that they are all capable of preventing disease in some capacity. However, there are some specific fruits you can choose to target inflammation. Berries generally contain a higher concentration of the pigment-inducing phytochemicals, anthocyanins and ellagic acid. Anthocyanins are the phytochemicals that give berries their red, blue or purple colouring. And, when in…

A Mediterranean diet is one way to reduce inflammation There are many individual foods that can help to combat inflammation, but how can you keep track of them all and know that you are incorporating enough into your daily diet? One of the best ways to achieve this, without creating an in-depth checklist, is to follow an existing dietary model that incorporates many of the food types that will benefit you. In general, these are foods that are low in saturated fats, added sugars, refined carbohydrates and sodium. Following a Mediterranean diet is one way to reduce inflammation in the longterm, as research has shown that food from Mediterranean countries like Italy, Greece, southern France and Lebanon share similar anti-inflammatory ingredients. This includes a diverse selection of fruits, vegetables and…