How Exactly Does Inflammation Affect Your Wellness?

Though it doesn’t sound especially beneficial, inflammation is vital to your wellbeing as it is one of your body’s most crucial defence mechanisms for fitness and health. Without inflammation, your wellness would be susceptible to unhealed wounds and infection, so how does it work, and why has it got such a bad reputation?

When you graze your skin, the damage triggers a flurry of immune system chemicals which increase blood flow to the area, making it red and hot, and the blood vessels become leaky so that the white blood cells are allowed to flood the area, which makes it swell. Essentially, this is what inflammation is; immune system cells attacking and destroying any micro-organisms that have entered your body through the broken skin, and starting the process of healing and repair.

So that’s how inflammation is a positive force, but how does it all go wrong? Inflammation plays a part in many chronic diseases, including arthritis, heart disease, bronchitis, depression and dementia. You can also develop atherosclerosis from the swelling and splitting of inflamed coronary arteries, and cancer due to your inflammation-induced increased risk of genetic mutations. According to wellness experts, due to the increased damage and turnover of your genetic material in your cells, inflammation is at the very heart of the aging process.

Why this happens is not well-understood. There could be an initial trigger, such as an infection or chemical exposure, or else a genetic predisposition could put you more at risk to inflammation. Also, the highly irritant chemicals in cigarettes could play a part if you’re a smoker, and as fat cells churn out inflammatory chemicals, obesity has its place in inflammation-causes. Usually, you are unaware of inflammation until your body cannot mask it and you experience failing joints or breathing problems.

So how do you fight the harmful effects of inflammation without banishing its benefits? Prebiotics and probiotics have anti-inflammatory effects whilst allowing friendly levels of gut bacteria to thrive, and there are also benefits from supplementing your diet with omega-3 fatty acids, ginger, turmeric and bromelain. You can also fight the effects of inflammation by quitting smoking, losing excess weight, de-stressing and gently exercising, as well as avoiding trans and saturated fats and brushing, flossing and getting regular dental check-ups to reduce your risk of gum disease, which is another source of rumbling inflammation in your body.