You may have heard about the word inflammation and people going for anti-inflammatory diets. But do you know what inflammation is, why it occurs and what it does to our body?
Inflammation is the part of our body’s immune response that protects us from any kind of harmful stimuli like stress, infections or toxins. Then any of these factors affect the body then the immune system will signal the white blood cells and the proteins that will help to protect from any kind of damage.
Your body doesn’t heal any wound, tissue damage or any infection that can be healed without an inflammatory response of our body. Short term inflammation is important and useful but too much of it is also not good as it may have harmful effect. This short term inflammation is actually what is called acute inflammation & the inflammation that lasts for a longer period is called chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation is what people talk about and are worried about this is related to many problems that the person may go through.
Here are some ways in which inflammation can affect your body, and let’s see what kind of it is important and useful for our body:
· Fights infection: You may have noticed that whenever there is an infection you get fever this is because your body is trying to fight against infection. For this inflammation is necessary and healthy so that the body says healthy without any kind of infection.
· Helps in wound healing: Have you ever noticed whenever there is a wound or an injury that part becomes red and hot this is because the immune system sends a whole bunch of WBC’s that stimulate growth factor at that point thus helping it to heal faster without any infection.
· Once the infection is gone or the wound is healed then the inflammation should go away. So this kind of inflammation is acute and important for the wellbeing of the person.
· Fights stress: This is a response that the body gets in response to emotional stress. There are no blood cells that rush towards a particular part of the body but there is a C-reactive protein that is released by the immune system and this protein travels through the body and stays in the body till the stress is not been released. If the stress remains for a longer duration then the body may go under chronic inflammation and that may lead to chronic diseases.
· Can affect your joints: Any inflammation that is caused near any joint it can adversely affect its functioning. It can lead conditions like rheumatoid arthritis an autoimmune disease that is normally linked to genetics and can get triggered due to smoking, alcohol, etc.
· It is connected to heart disease: A fatty plaque that is formed in the arteries can trigger chronic inflame mation and attract white blood cells towards it. This will lead to an increased size of the plaque that can cause a clot that may lead to severe heart conditions.
· Creates a higher risk of cancer: any kind of inflammation that occurs in the body the immune system is working overtime thus hampering it’s functioning. This creates an optimum environment for the cancerous cells to grow.
Except these, there can be many more effects of inflammation of the body. That can be harmful and for the proper functioning of the body. Hence, leading a healthy lifestyle, eating well and remaining stress-free is important so that you stay away from any kind of inflammation. For a healthy lifestyle and healthy eating tips, you can connect me here or on my Facebook or Instagram page @healthy_souls_nutrition.