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By David Blyweiss, Advanced Natural Medicine
If you suffer from joint pain, you know how bad inflammation can make you feel. But what about the chronic inflammation inside your blood vessels and arteries? This silent inflammation, while painless, can significantly damage your arteries, reducing your odds of a long and healthy life.
Why is chronic inflammation so dangerous? Imagine that you have two factories inside your body. One produces inflammatory chemicals and another produces anti-inflammatory chemicals. We're fueling the first factory quite well with many of our unhealthy habits. But we aren’t fueling the second factory nearly as well. Until recently, the health effects of this inflammatory imbalance wasn’t even on the radar screen of most doctors. But a growing amount of evidence clearly shows that chronic, low-level inflammation is a major part of every single degenerative disease from obesity to diabetes to cancer to Alzheimer's.
Inflammatory chemicals are everywhere. Nearly everything that's an irritant to the body—especially the air pollution we breathe or the 80,000 chemicals produced since WWII that we are exposed to in our environment—have the potential to produce inflammation. The food we eat can also produce an inflammatory reaction. The standard American diet, ironically referred to as SAD, causes inflammation due to high levels of sugars, refined grains, omega-6 fatty acids and low levels of omega-3 fatty acids.
The Omega Trigger
Our bodies make both inflammatory and anti-inflammatory compounds—which are called eicosanoids—from raw materials that come from one source only: essential fatty acids. The type of fat you consume has a profound effect on eicosanoid production. Omega-6 fatty acids (found in vegetable oils such as corn, safflower and sunflower oils) are the precursors for the inflammatory chemicals in the body, while omega-3 fatty acids (found in flax, fish and fish oil) are the exact opposite. They're the fuel for our bodies’ inner anti-inflammatory factory.
Most researchers agree that the ideal relationship of omega-6s to omega-3s should be between 1:1 and 4:1—the exact ratio you find in the diets of hunter-gatherer societies which were remarkably free of the diseases of aging. This ratio keeps the eicosanoid production factories in harmony, with the body producing a nice balance of inflammatory and anti-inflammatory chemicals. But that ratio is wildly out-of-balance in the typical Western diet. In fact, if you eat a SAD diet, your ratio is probably an unhealthy 14:1 to 20:1.
Think it doesn't matter? Think again. The importance of this balance can’t be overstated. A high omega-6/omega-3 ratio promotes many devastating diseases, including heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis and autoimmune diseases. In other words, inflammation is killing us. It’s also the most significant engine driving premature aging.
Extinguish The Fire Within
Fortunately, you can exert some control over this unwanted inflammation. The best place to start is with your diet. Trade a diet rich in pro-inflammatory red meat, sugar and refined grains for one containing an array of fruits, vegetables, nuts, herbs and spices. Onions, garlic, leafy greens, tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, berries and apples are especially adept at tamping down inflammation. What you drink can also keep inflammation levels low. Tea contains potent anti-inflammatory compounds, as does hot chocolate and red wine.
But the best foods for inflammation are those rich in omega-3 fatty acids. Cold water fish are among the best. For instance, wild salmon is a great source of the most important omega-3s found in food, as well the superstar antioxidant astaxanthin. Try to put cold water fish on the menu at least two to three times per week. Just make sure you choose wild fish versus farm raised whenever possible. Farm raised fish don’t have anywhere near the omega-3 levels we need for good health. But fish in the wild develop a higher concentration. This helps them maintain flexibility in the frigid conditions they inhabit. Another option is to take a high quality fish oil supplement. I recommend 3,000 to 4,000 mg. daily.
Flaxseed, a vegetarian omega-3 source, contains this beneficial fat in the form of alpha-linolenic acid, which helps reduce serum cholesterol, arterial plaque buildup and inflammation. A flaxseed-rich diet also has a positive impact on diabetes, a disorder related to sustained inflammation. Try consuming 30 to 40 grams from flax oil or seeds every day.
Daily exercise can also reduce inflammation by helping to shed excess pounds. Meditation, yoga and other stress busters serve as important components of an anti-inflammatory lifestyle too because stress can trigger the production of the hormone cortisol, which can promote silent and potentially deadly inflammation.
References:
Geraldo JM. Role of diet on chronic inflammation prevention and control - current evidences. Arq Bras Endocrinol Metabol. 2008;52:951-967.
Simopoulos AP. The importance of the omega-6/omega-3 fatty acid ratio in cardiovascular disease and other chronic diseases. Experimental Biology and Medicine (Maywood). 2008;233:674-688. |
