{"id":24929,"date":"2014-02-18T07:15:48","date_gmt":"2014-02-18T12:15:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/?p=24929"},"modified":"2021-08-26T13:54:42","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T17:54:42","slug":"how-to-fight-inflammation-diet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/health\/how-to-fight-inflammation-diet\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Inflammation Hurting Your Health?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Anti-Inflammatory
Photo: Pond5<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Inflammation gets a pretty bad rap \u2014 and for a laundry list of reasons. Some doctors very firmly connect it to heart disease \u2014 like Dwight Lundell, MD, whose essay<\/a>, Making the Connection,<\/i><\/a> has been shared on Facebook more than 432,000 times. Danish researchers<\/a> found that inflammation could be to blame for depression and mood disorders, while other research<\/a> has linked it to cancer. Some would even go as far as to say that inflammation is the root cause of all <\/i><\/a>disease<\/a>. So what is inflammation is, what causes it, and how you can prevent it? Hint: What\u2019s at the end of your fork \u2014\u00a0and<\/i> on your exercise agenda \u2014 matters.<\/p>\n

An Inflammatory Process<\/h3>\n

Inflammation is the body\u2019s protective response to injury or infection. When your ankle gets red and swollen after rolling it in a soccer game, that\u2019s acute inflammation. But it\u2019s chronic inflammation, the kind that happens within your body in an attempt to remove harmful pathogens or damaged cells, that is a cause for concern.<\/p>\n

\u201cInflammation means to ignite or set afire,\u201d says Steven Masley<\/a>, MD, author of The 30-Day Heart Tune-Up<\/i><\/a>. And this can manifest in the body \u2014 and the brain \u2014 in numerous ways. \u201cIf your joints are inflamed, they\u2019re hot and painful. If your brain is inflamed, it shrinks and you could get Alzheimer\u2019s. If your arteries are inflamed, they grow plaque and you could have a heart attack,\u201d Masley says. While the more extreme outcomes involve countless factors, inflammation is almost always a part of the equation. But how?<\/p>\n

Recognizing the Causes<\/h3>\n

Many lifestyle factors including the way you eat, smoking and alcohol consumption can cause inflammation, says Richard Diana<\/a>, MD, an orthopedic surgeon and author of Healthy Joints for Life<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n

Research shows that stress<\/a> can also be a major cause of inflammation, by preparing the immune cells to fight off infection, even when there isn\u2019t an infection present. Even feeling unsupported in a relationship<\/a> can cause inflammation, increasing your risk of heart disease.<\/p>\n

According to Diana, one thing you might be surprised to learn that causes inflammation is having too much insulin in the body, which, he describes as a very inflammatory hormone. \u201cIf you eat certain types of foods, you\u2019ll have high spikes in insulin,\u201d he says. \u201cIf those spikes are there, you\u2019ll have inflammation.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s worse, the damage doesn\u2019t end there. Mix insulin with sugar, and you\u2019ve got a lethal combination. Why? When insulin interacts with your cells, they make cytokine molecules that create (you guessed it) more inflammation. By adding sugar to the mix, your body creates an \u201cexponential amount of cytokines,\u201d which Diana equates to dripping battery acid on your insides.<\/p>\n

The trouble is, there are so many different pathways to inflammation, that protecting yourself isn\u2019t easy. \u201cIf you have three doors that lead into your house and you lock two, a burglar can still get in,\u201d says Diana. \u201cIt\u2019s the same with inflammation.\u201d<\/p>\n

How to Fight It: Diet and Exercise<\/h3>\n

While this might seem overwhelming, there is a bright side to the story. Good old-fashioned diet and exercise can improve your chances of fighting inflammation, and the slew of health problems that could come with it. Here are just a few ways to maintain the balance.<\/p>\n

Sweat more.<\/b> Researchers from University College London found that even 2.5 hours of moderate exercise<\/a> per week can lower markers of inflammation by 12 percent. And a recent Ohio State University study<\/a> found that 12 weeks of a regular yoga practice<\/a> reduced inflammation by 20 percent among breast cancer survivors.<\/p>\n

Get low<\/i>.<\/b> A healthy diet can also help fight inflammation, and some foods are better than others at doing so. Generally, foods low on the glycemic index<\/a> will have an anti-inflammatory effect, says Diana. That\u2019s because they eliminate those spikes in insulin that create inflammatory cells.<\/p>\n

Choose wisely.<\/b> Berries, especially cherries, and cruciferous vegetables, like broccoli, are great anti-inflammatory options, says Diana. He also recommends salmon<\/a>,\u00a0high in omega-3 fatty acids, which the body turns into anti-inflammatory molecules. And foods high in antioxidants can be helpful by fighting free radicals that cause inflammation. Spices, like cinnamon, are also valuable because of they way they interact with a family of molecules specific to inflammation, called NF-\u03baB, explains Diana. \u201cNF-\u03baB is the conductor of the inflammatory orchestra,\u201d he says. \u201cCinnamon helps stop the conductor.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bottom line: There are many pathways that cause inflammation, but you can<\/i> protect yourself. Simple lifestyle shifts, like knowing which foods have anti-inflammatory effects and making exercise a priority, can reduce the likelihood of suffering from it and its nasty effects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Suffering from the effects of inflammation and don\u2019t even know it? Exercise and an anti-inflammatory diet could help. Read on for the need-to-know on inflammation. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":24934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,7],"tags":[29,41,217,289,71,341,364],"class_list":["post-24929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diet-nutrition","category-health","tag-antioxidants","tag-diets","tag-disease","tag-exercise","tag-nutrition","tag-tax1living-well","tag-tax2alternative-treatments"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}