Reducing Inflammation

Inflammation is a helpful, acute (short-term) bodily response to foreign stimuli. But when this protective response becomes altered or chronic, the body suffers and becomes more susceptible to aging and disease. So what causes this normal protective response to run amuck?Stress.Inflammation is your body's response to stress—whether that stress is from your diet, lifestyle, or environment. When stress becomes chronic, the immune system responds by keeping inflammation in overdrive, leaving us feeling fat and frazzled! Taming chronic inflammation thus requires reducing dietary, lifestyle and environmental stressors.Dietary Stressors To Avoid:

• Poor nutrition
• Dehydration
• Vitamin deficiency

In addition, these eight foods account for 90% of all food allergies in the United States:

• Peanuts
• Tree Nuts
• Milk
• Eggs
• Shellfish
• Wheat
• Soy
• Fish

Lifestyle Stressors To Avoid:

• Smoking
• Abusing drugs or alcohol
• Lack of physical activity
• Poor sleeping habits
• Rumination - the compulsively focused attention on the symptoms of one's distress, and on its possible causes and consequences, as opposed to its solutions

Environmental Stressors To Avoid“Environmental toxicity from our air, water, food pollutants and toxic metals like mercury and lead all contribute to inflammation and have been linked to diseases as varied as endometriosis and cancer.”-Donna Gates