What’s Inflammation and How Is It Caused?
Your body has a natural repair mechanism that is triggered in response to injury, stress or infection.
Its called the ‘inflammatory response’.
An example of this is when someone or something hits you really hard on the head! You get a swelling in the site of the injury…
Your body quickly reacts by increasing blood flow to the area bringing more nutrients and important substances such as neutrophils and basophils to repair the damage.
This is called ‘Acute Inflammation’ that lasts for a few days and you quickly recover with little or no lasting damage.
However inside your body a small response to injury can also occur as a result of:
- chronic stress,
- eating too much sugar,
- drinking too much alcohol,
- taking drugs and even medications for long periods of time,
- and also from toxins and pathogens from consuming certain types of food that causes free radical damage.
If this response to injury is not managed and allowed to carry on over a period of several years it will develop into chronic inflammation which leads to chronic disease and often pain.
An example of this is chronic stress…
When you are emotionally stressed your blood pressure goes up, your normal breathing gets disrupted, your quality of sleep suffers, you produce more adrenaline and release inflammation creating hormones like cortisol.
When your blood pressure is high for prolonged periods your blood vessels narrow and this causes stress on the walls of your arteries and veins. This leads to chronic inflammation that can lead to plaques building up in your arteries called atherosclerosis. This can then cause the dreaded heart attack sending you to an early grave!
Physical stress by consuming the wrong things such as sugar, drugs and alcohol can also damage cells, leading to chronic inflammation.
Physical stress is also more likely when your body is under nourished and overworked - a common issue in our busy modern lives.
However there is a strange phenomenon known as the ‘French Paradox’. A long term study from 1992 showed that French people were significantly less likely to develop heart disease compared to the rest of Europe even though they eat much more saturated fat, smoke more often and drink more alcohol.
The real reason for this has been attributed to the fact French people are a lot more laid back in their way of life, they also eat a very nutrient and antioxidant rich ‘mediterranean diet’ and consume a lot more red wine that contains powerful antioxidants like resveratrol, polyphenols and flavonoids.
Another interesting fact is Asian, African and South Indian communities that have moved to Western countries like US and Europe have far higher rates of inflammatory diseases compared to those still living in their native countries following their traditional lifestyles.
However the younger generations in these countries who have adopted a more Western diet of fast food, alcohol and high stressed careers have far higher rates of diabetes, obesity and heart disease compared to the older generations. In places like Okinawa, Japan where people are famous for their longevity, it’s now not uncommon for grandparents to outlive their grandchildren!
So what is it about the lifestyles of these ethnic cultures that helps them stay disease free?
My grandma, from India, who had a passion for Ayurvedic cooking (the ancient Indian system of medicine with over 5000 year history) was an exceptionally strong lady, who lived well into her 80s.
However she developed a moderate form of arthritis in her 70s, that was probably triggered by the fact in the UK she ate refined sugar, wheat and cheap vegetable oils, rather than the natural sources she would have been used to back in India many decades ago.
She was put onto a variety of medications for it, in particular NSAIDs that caused her stomach to bleed and almost killed her!
As a pharmacist I saw so many younger people bedridden by the same form of arthritis as my grandma had, and getting other issues due to the side effects from all the drugs they were taking too.
Because of these side effects, my Grandma took far less medication than was prescribed, however she was still cooking delicious food in the kitchen for us till the last few weeks of her life!
I believe my grandma’s resilience came primarily from the diet she chose to consume, given the fact our household was full of stress both financial and emotional, and my grandma was certainly not going to the gym or jogging down the street.
A traditional Indian diet is super rich in essential oils, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, many times more than that of the popular ‘mediterranean diet’.
But…
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