Systemic Chronic Inflammation

Inflammation, in its broadest sense, is the body’s response to tissue injury. The four cardinal signs of inflammation are redness, heat, swelling, and pain. However, did you know there are different kinds of inflammation? You’re probably familiar with the kind we can see but what if there is a kind that we can’t see that’s causing much worse damage?

Acute Inflammation—this is your body’s response to an injury such as a cut, tooth extraction, bug bite, stubbed toe, etc. (Easily healed and most of the time not too serious.)

Systemic Chronic Inflammation—this kind of inflammation is the kind that we can’t necessarily see. It begins with a slow onset and persists for months or years (sometimes asymptomatically). When we say “systemic” we are referring to inflammation that affects the entire body. Systemic chronic inflammation causes damage to our tissues and often times results in diseases such as heart disease, lupus, celiac disease, arthritis, irritable bowel disease, and much more. (Very serious.)

Common causes of systemic chronic
inflammation include the following: obesity (specifically belly fat), infections, periodontal disease, environmental toxins, drugs and tobacco, autoimmune diseases, lack of exercise, sleep deficiency, stress, low intake of antioxidants, and high intake of foods which contribute to inflammation.

With evidence that chronic inflammation is involved in the cause of fibromyalgia, Alzheimer’s and cancer, I’d say it needs to be tackled. The common denominator of these uncontrolled (and often undetected) age-related diseases is systemic chronic inflammation.

The good news: Chronic systemic inflammation can be significantly affected by one’s daily lifestyle choices. Diet, exercise, antioxidants, stress reduction, and sleep are ALL included in our tool box at Banister Nutrition to help you move from chronic inflammation to a happier, healthier life. -SY

CHANGING HABITS. CHANGING HEALTH. CHANGING LIVES. –Banister Nutrition