The Root Cause of Most Modern Diseases and Illnesses

By: Paige Welsh, Clinical Nutritionist & Naturopathic Practitioner

Inflammation is a huge buzzword right now in the health and nutrition field, and for good reason! It is now well known that inflammation is a root cause to most modern day diseases and illnesses, and by understanding how you become inflamed and the implications of such, you can take back your health, and prevent dreaded diseases such as obesity, heart disease, Alzheimer’s and even cancer. Read on to learn more about what is inflammation, how you become inflamed, why addressing inflammation is important for your health and how nutrition can combat inflammation.

What is Inflammation?

Let me first begin by stating that inflammation is not always bad! We need inflammatory reactions to help defend our body from viruses, bacteria, toxins, damaged cells, foreign invaders, etc. If we didn’t have inflammation, then our wounds would never heal and infections could kill us. When inflammation is acute, it’s quite beneficial to our bodies; however, when inflammation becomes chronic, or starts occurring on your cellular membrane, that’s when you start to see problems.

The actual definition of inflammation is, “a local response to cellular injury that is marked by capillary dilatation, leukocytic infiltration, redness, heat and pain, and that serves as a mechanism initiating the elimination of noxious agents and of damaged tissue.” So basically, your body releases chemicals into the bloodstream or to the affected tissue to help defend against any foreign substance. This process increases blood flow to the affected area, which causes pain, swelling, warmth and/or redness on the skin, and is most notably associated with acute inflammation.

When acute inflammation turns into chronic inflammation, the site of injury isn’t the only thing that becomes affected; all of your cellular membranes become affected, leading to major health issues. On every single cell in your body, you have a bi-layer fatty membrane. This membrane serves as a passage gate for all of your hormones, vitamins and minerals to get into your cell, and for toxins to be able to get out of your cell. On every cell membrane, there are receptor sites that allow for a specific hormone, vitamin or mineral to enter into the cell. Think of this like a lock and key system. When chronic inflammation is occurring, your cell membrane starts to become affected, and this lowers the ability for your hormones, vitamins and minerals to be recognized by your cell, and prevents toxins from being able to exit the cell, which can then lead to more rapid aging and mutation. This in turn can lead to a whole host of health issues such as hormonal issues, nutritional deficiencies, an inability to lose weight, insulin resistance and cancer.

How Does a Person Become Chronically Inflamed?

When inflammation turns from acute to chronic, it is usually due to a person’s environment and lifestyle. When a person has chronic inflammation, their body and their cells are always facing a foreign invader, and the inflammatory processes don’t turn off. These foreign invaders are more than just an exposure to a virus or bacteria, these invaders may be stress from your boss, the fragrance you spray on your body every morning, or that fourth cup of your sugar-laden cappuccino. Chronic inflammation is 100% tied into your lifestyle and environment. Your diet, your levels of stress, and the number of environmental toxins you are exposed to each day all affect

What

Happens When We Become Chronically Inflamed?

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