When was the last time you felt really good?
When was the last time:
- You awakened in the morning feeling rested, had energy and looked forward to the day?
- Your thinking was clear and not foggy?
- Your joints didn’t ache or feel stiff?
- You didn’t feel bloated, constipated or crampy?
- You didn’t crave cake, cookies, or chocolate?
- You lost weight?
- You didn’t have headaches?
- You didn’t have skin rashes?
INFLAMMATION
Inflammation is your body’s immune system protecting you. We can all remember skinning our knee and the knee becoming painful, red, swollen, warm and difficult to move. You may have experienced sinusitis, pneumonia, tonsilitis, or appendicitis. Those were probably painful, warm and swollen. This acute inflammation is good because the immune system gets rid of the offending agent and heals the affected area of the body.
However, difficulties arise when the inflammation becomes chronic, when it doesn’t go away. The immune system may not be able to get rid of the offending agent. Or the immune system mistakes healthy tissue for an offending agent and attacks it leading to an autoimmune illness. Or there is continual exposure to an offending agent like mercury from old fillings. Asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, peptic ulcer disease, ulcerative colitis or periodontitis are all examples of chronic conditions with chronic inflammation.
Chronic Inflammation fuels all chronic diseases. Offending agents can include bacteria, viruses, foreign bodies and immune system dysfunction (over-reactive or suppressed).
Fatigue, depressed mood, foggy thinking, difficulty in losing weight, and joint and muscular pains are all manifestations of chronic inflammation. Minimizing inflammation by supporting your immune system, minimizing exposure to offending agents and eliminating the offending agents from your body will greatly minimize these symptoms.
Can you believe Foods are the most familiar supporting or offending agents?
Coming in future blogs:
- More about ways to minimize inflammation
- More about inflammatory and anti-inflammatory foods
- More about non-food toxins
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Dr. Laurie Goldman is a medical doctor, psychiatrist, and functional medicine practitioner who’s been in private practice since 1999. She founded Clear Path Wellness to help her patients reach their maximum state of mental and physical health using a personalized, comprehensive approach powered by the principles of functional medicine, which treats the whole person, not just symptoms.