In general, inflammation is our body’s response to hazardous stimuli, including irritants, damaged cells or infections. The response is although protective in nature, which involves molecular mediators, blood vessels and immune cells. It can either external or internal.
Inflammation signifies that there is something wrong with our body, and hence it is important to prevent or reduce inflammation. In this article, Kimberly Snyder shares some tips to minimize inflammation.
She says that inflammation is a major contributor to issues like aging, illnesses, health conditions and not feeling overall great. We basically want to minimize inflammation to whatever extent we can. These tips discussed here are related to diet, lifestyle choices, habits and the environment around us.
She starts with diet. According to her, some foods are inflammatory and must be avoided. You must let go of refined sugars, suggests Snyder. Also, other foods that must be avoided include high-fructose corn syrup and junk foods. Although this fact is well known, she still reiterates and reminds keep oneself away from these foods due to their inflammatory nature.
Kimberly further says that we should avoid bad fats too. This includes foods that are fried, oily foods – junk foods containing large quantities of vegetable oils. We must also avoid foods having traces of heavy metals. One such food is fish and this is because water bodies these days are highly contaminated with all sorts of chemicals compounds. If you avoid these foods, you can certainly reduce inflammation in the body. Heavy metals are also inflammatory. Kimberly Snyder honours your wish to have fish and says if you want to have it, you can go for cilantro. This food chelates, i.e., binds with heavy metals and removes them out of the body.
Another aspect to be considered is environment. This means that the way you arrange your space and take care of your belongings can impact inflammation. You need to take care of cleaning products. If you are spraying something, then you are ultimately polluting the air inside your home. And, indoor pollution can be bad; worse than the pollution outside! You should not use products containing hazardous chemicals and should be replaced with products having natural constituents like baking soda or lemon. So, it is not only about what you eat but also what you use in the space around you that can cause inflammation by entering into the body.
Another area that needs to be focussed to reduce inflammation is lifestyle. We already know a lot about meditation and mindfulness. But, what we need to take care of is the language used by us. When we use foul language, we exude negative vibes. It causes stress and badly affects our bodies, eventually leding to inflammation. So what Kimberly Snyder is trying to say that inflammation is not only caused by foods and other tangible stuffs, but also by the mind, emotions and mood. So, you must be cautious about the kind of words that you choose to utter. Living in the moment, deep breathing and being gentle in the way we speak can help reduce stress and inflammation.
Kimberly Snyder hopes that the readers would find these tips interesting and help them minimize inflammation to live healthily, both mentally and physically.
