Your insides may be on fire; and not in a good way!

You may have read or heard about inflammation before, but you may not fully grasp exactly what it is or how it impacts you. But if you suffer from any of these symptoms, it’s likely inflammation is playing a role:

• Digestive issues like IBS, Crohn’s or Ulcerative Colitis
• Weight gain
• Autism, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease
• Lupus and other autoimmune diseases like Graves and Hashimoto’s
• Depression, arthritis, and asthma
• Cancer

Let’s define inflammation!

The word itself comes from the Latin verb “inflammare” which means “to kindle” or “to set on fire.”

So when I refer to you as having inflammation what I’m basically saying is that internally your body is in flames! For context, let’s consider instances when you may sprain an ankle or cut yourself . Having inflammation during the healing process is expected; it’s necessary and we expect it. Without it, our immune system isn’t working properly, and we don’t heal.

The problem arises when you have chronic and systemic inflammation.  Inflammation that is being driven by poor food choices, toxins and a breakdown in the way our body is supposed to function.

Sugar is a major driving force of this type of inflammation. Sugar kills the good bacteria in our body which in turn sets off an immune response that never ends leading to inflammation and illness.

Often, chronic inflammation doesn’t display outward symptoms like you have when you sprain your ankle.  You can’t see that your brain is inflamed (Alzheimer’s and other brain-related disorders), and you can’t feel when your small and large intestines are inflamed. But, there are blood tests that look for certain markers and proteins that indicate an inflamed body.

Understand that big Pharmaceutical companies already know about inflammation and the seriousness of it. Instead of supporting changes to diet and lifestyle, they’ve created a $20-billion-dollar annual market for drugs like TNF inhibitors, one of the markers of inflammation that artificially and poorly turn “off” the inflammation switch.

As a Health Coach, my #1 goal is to address the root cause and skip the medications if at all possible. And how I do this is by changing diet and lifestyle. Removing foods that are pro-inflammatory like:

• Refined sugar
• Dairy
• Gluten
• Refined vegetable oils
• Processed foods
• Environmental toxins (e.g. canned foods)

At the same time, we are adding in foods, herbs and supplements that are anti-inflammatory.  We’re also cleaning up our home environment by changing the products we cook with, clean with and put on our bodies.

It may seem daunting, but it need not be that way; and, once you experience life with more energy, mind clarity,and confidence it becomes a no-brainer! You may slip sometimes, but hardly anyone goes back to exactly the way they were before! ☺

Now you have a clear picture of inflammation and all the damage it can cause unbeknownst to you! Who the heck would want to have cells and organs “set on fire”?   The only thing that mattered to me when I found out I had this going on in my body was fixing it!

I want to be clear – tamping down inflammation and keeping it that way is not a one-time event. We are exposed to environmental toxins via the water, air and other substances we encounter, every day. Keeping a lid on inflammation is an everyday job. Just like brushing and flossing teeth to prevent them from falling out! Luckily, many of the foods and herbs you’ll need to keep it under wraps are things you likely already eat.  So it’s just about making sure you are getting them often, and you’re getting the best quality you can afford.

Look out for the next installment in this series – we dive all the way into Diabetes next week!

In the meantime enjoy your free copy of the Ditch Your Sugar Cravings guide, click here to download.