One of my patient asked me, what should be done for a healthy and long life. I just told him one basic principle of healthy and long life and that is to keep body inflammation under control. Inflammation or swelling is part of the body’s natural healing system, it helps fight injury and infection. But it doesn’t just happen in response to injury and illness. An inflammatory response can also occur when the immune system goes into action without an injury or infection to fight. Since there’s nothing to heal, the immune system cells that normally protect us begin to destroy healthy arteries, organs and joints.
When you eat unhealthy, don’t exercise, or have excessive stress, the body respond by triggering inflammation and when this inflammation becomes chronic, it can have bad effect on your body. One of the major reason for all chronic diseases is chronic inflammation. So, an active lifestyle is must if you wish to keep inflammation under control.
Chronic inflammation may contribute to autoimmune diseases and other chronic diseases such as CAD and other heart diseases, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, inflammation of the joints.
How to keep chronic inflammation under check?
You can reduce chronic inflammation and chronic diseases. You can control and even reverse inflammation through a healthy anti-inflammatory diet and life style. Tips to check inflammation:
- Eat more fruits and vegetables and foods containing omega-3 fatty acids like walnuts, flax seeds and soybeans.
- Other anti-inflammatory foods include grapes, celery, blueberries, garlic, olive oil, tea and some spices (ginger, rosemary and turmeric).
- In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Ginger is one of the best medicines for countering inflammation.
- The Mediterranean, Ayurvedic and TCM diets are the best source of anti-inflammatory diet as all of them focus on fruits, vegetables, fish and whole grains, and limits on unhealthy fats, such as red meat, butter and egg yolks as well as processed and refined sugars and carbs. If you are diabetic, keeping a strict control on blood sugar level is very important.
One strict rule to follow is to replace white foods, such as white bread, rice and pasta, as well as foods made with white sugar and refined flour with healthy food like whole foods high in fiber, such as vegetables, fruits and whole grains, brown rice and millets . Check the labels before purchasing packaged food.
Regular Exercise is a must to reduce chronic inflammation.
Yog and Pranayam is a proven Indian way to prevent inflammation. Regular exercise is also an excellent way to prevent inflammation. Make time for 30 minutes yog, 20 minutes pranayam or 30 to 45 minutes of aerobic exercise and 10 to 25 minutes of weight or resistance training five times per week. Twenty minutes of brisk walk is really good for your heart health.
Stress Management.
We may not be able to change many of the stressful situations we encounter in life, but we can change our response and perception by learning to manage stress better. Yoga, Meditation, Taichi, and exercises help in reducing stress.
Weight Management is Important.
Obesity increases inflammation. People who are overweight have more inflammation. Losing weight may decrease inflammation.