How to prevent unhealthy inflammation

By Robert H. Shmerling, M.D.

Although inflammation serves a vital role in the body’s defense and repair systems, chronic inflammation can cause more harm than good. What can we do about it?

In fact, there’s a lot you can do. And you may already be doing it. That’s because some of the most important ways to fight inflammation are measures you should be taking routinely.

Let’s take a look at key elements of fighting chronic inflammation: prevention, detection and treatment. Here are six of the most effective ways to ward off inflammation: Choose a healthy diet. Individual foods have a rather small impact on bodywide inflammation, so no, eating more kale isn’t likely to help much. But making sure you eat lots of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, healthy fats and legumes — sometimes called an anti-inflammatory diet — may reduce inflammation and lower risk for chronic illnesses like diabetes and heart disease.

Not only can these diets help reduce inflammation on their own, but replacing foods that increase inflammation (such as sugary drinks and highly processed foods) benefits your body, too.

Exercise regularly. Physical activity may help counter some types of inflammation through regulation of the immune system. For example, exercise has anti-inflammatory effects on white blood cells and chemical messengers called cytokines.

Maintain a healthy weight. Because excess fat in cells stimulates body-wide inflammation, avoiding excess weight is key.

Keeping your weight in check also reduces the risk of Type 2 diabetes, a condition that itself causes chronic inflammation.

Manage stress. Repeatedly triggered stress hormones contribute to chronic inflammation. Yoga, deep breathing and mindfulness practices can help calm your nervous system.

Do not smoke. Toxins inhaled in cigarette smoke trigger inflammation in the airways, damage lung tissue, and increase the risk of lung cancer and other health problems.

Other prevention steps. It’s important to prevent inflammatory conditions, such as:

• Infection: Take measures to avoid in- fections that may cause chronic inflammation. HIV, hepatitis C and COVID-19 are examples. Getting routine vaccinations are examples of effective preventive measures.

• Cancer: Get cancer screening on the schedule recommended by your doctors. For example, a colonoscopy can detect and remove polyps that could later become cancerous.

• Allergies: By avoiding triggers of asthma, eczema or allergic reactions you can reduce the burden of inflammation in your body.

Do you need tests to detect inflammation?

While testing for inflammation is not