There are two types of inflammation that effect our bodies
Acute Inflammation is short term and can occur after an injury or as a result of a virus or bacterial infection. It can be treated with therapies like rest, antibiotics and painkillers to ease symptoms, while the body heals naturally.
Chronic Inflammation is more subtle, long term and progressive and symptoms may not be felt right away. Long term inflammation is at the heart of chronic disease and can negatively impact all parts of the body and lead to health conditions such as:
What causes chronic inflammation and disease?
1. Emotional Stress
Emotional stress is a major contributor to disease and puts us in a state of fight or flight, which effects the way our body functions and causes reactions like:
It's difficult for the body to heal when it's in this state. Therefore, a healing program should always address stress management to reduce its negative effects.
It is important to identify emotions like anger, fear, worry, anxiety, depression and irritability and learn how to manage them and reduce their impact.
2. Imbalance of gut bacteria
The trillions of bacteria in our gut help to make up 70-80% of our immune system.
A wrong balance of good and bad bacteria (dysbiosis), upsets our immune system and leads to inflammation and disease.
3. Diet
It's no surprise that diet can cause disease and we should avoid inflammatory foods like sugar, dairy, gluten, coffee, unhealthy fats, meat and alcohol. But even healthy food can cause problems, if the digestive system is damaged and can’t handle the job.
A healing diet should be low in processed and fried foods and high in low allergen, whole foods.
4. Pathogens
Pathogens like viruses, bacteria, moulds, parasites and fungus live in every one’s body, but they only cause a problem when they are out of balance and multiply too fast for the immune system to deal with.
They cause inflammation and damage, drain the body's resources and produce toxins, which causes infection and symptoms. Pathogens may include: lyme disease, giardia, blastocystis hominis, hepatitis B virus, candida albicans, helicobacter pylori, round worms, flat worms, pin worms.
5. Toxins
Toxins are poisonous to the bodies, so we should avoid them wherever possible. However, this is easier said than done, because we get exposed to them via our air, water and food, beauty care products, cleaning products, mercury fillings, medications, vaccinations, cigarette smoke and pvc containers.
They disrupt hormones, change the gut bacteria and create autoimmunity, they are neurotoxic to the brain, damage the body's tissue and organs, suppress the immune system, cause disruption and function in the body and cause inflammation.
While healing, it's important to reduce our exposure to as many toxins as possible and remove the ones that have built up over time.
Reducing inflammation
Reversing disease by targeting inflammation takes time, but with the right knowledge and strategies it becomes simple. If you would like to know more about how the Cooling Habits Anti-inflammatory Program tackles inflammation and disease, then click here to learn more.