I’m going to start your Monday with some not-so-pleasant statistics.
According to the CDC, currently about half of all adult Americans, and 54 percent of our children, have at least one chronic condition. In addition, chronic disease is responsible for at least seven out of 10 deaths.
In other words, it is more “normal” to be sick than well, and that doesn’t sit very well with me!
The time has come for us to stop ignoring the elephants in the room and start looking at why in the name of heaven the majority of us are sick.
And one of the biggest, most common, wide-ranging factors behind our skyrocketing rates of disease is CHRONIC INFLAMMATION.
Let’s talk about inflammation, how it can destroy your health, where it comes from and most importantly, how to keep it under control!
Acute vs. chronic inflammation
Inflammation is part of your body’s inherent immune response. Something alerts or triggers your immune system and it springs into action to protect you.
Now, it’s important to understand that all inflammation is not created equal--it can be acute or chronic.
Acute inflammation is your immune system’s response to challenges like infections, injuries or bug bites. It's a sign that your body's "repairmen" (including immune cells and cholesterol) have come to your rescue and are doing their job to "fix" the problem and get you back to normal.
Signs of acute inflammation include swelling, redness and mucus production.
So, when you get a bump at the site of a bug bite or you get stuffed up with a cold, that’s acute inflammation in action.
Once the healing process is underway, acute inflammation subsides.
But chronic inflammation is a whole different animal.
This is when inflammation is NOT directly related to an isolated, temporary health challenge, but instead is caused by other underlying factors, and the inflammation becomes more constant and long-term.
It can affect you from head to toe
Since your immune system is literally everywhere in your body, it follows that chronic inflammation is associated with a wide variety of conditions from head to toe including:
- Autoimmune diseases (Crohn’s disease, colitis, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, etc.)
- Heart disease
- Cancer
- Accelerated aging
- Type 2 diabetes
- Degenerative joint disease
- Asthma and allergies
- Eczema
- Worsening infections, including COVID-19
Why in the world?
You may be wondering why your immune system may start to “go haywire” and crank out chronic inflammation.
Well, because it gets taunted into doing so.
When your immune system is repeatedly “aggravated” and exposed to things that are or could be perceived as a dangerous threat, it can be triggered into going overboard and launching a chronic inflammatory response.
Here are four of the most common factors that could be stirring up your immune system:
1) Crippled natural barriers
Your body has natural barriers that prevent dangerous substances from seeping into your bloodstream. These barriers include your saliva, stomach acid, bile and gut microbiome.
Lacking in any of these can open the door for invaders to sneak through, get into your bloodstream and aggravate your immune system.
Considering the staggering number of people who suppress their stomach acid with acid reducing medications, as well as people who are missing the bile-concentration efforts of their gallbladders, we certainly appear to be crippling our bodies’ natural barriers left and right.
2) Leaky gut
Having a gut wall that’s too porous (known as leaky gut or intestinal hyper-permeability) can allow harmful substances to enter your bloodstream and provoke your immune system.
Leaky gut is commonly the result of poor digestion, but it can also be caused by medication use (especially NSAIDs), stress, aging, and yeast and harmful bacterial overgrowth in the gut.
3) Vaccines
The theory behind vaccines is to give you a dose of a virus to “fool” your immune system into thinking you’re sick, and trick it into developing antibodies to that virus.
But everyone’s system is different, and it’s not out of the realm of possibility that certain people’s immune systems might not react as expected, and/or may overreact.
Plus, with vaccines, the viruses are injected into muscle tissue and make their way to the bloodstream—nowhere in Nature does this ever occur. Instead viruses are naturally contracted through the eyes, skin, nose, mouth and bodily fluids, and the body develops immunity through a multi-step process of which antibodies are but one component.
It’s not unreasonable to think that something could go wrong when we try to fool Nature.
4) Vitamin D deficiency
Vitamin D deficiency has now reached epidemic proportions, thanks to our exaggerated fears of the sun and slathering on sunscreen whenever we walk out the door.
Plus, the lockdowns haven’t helped that cause either!
Vitamin D helps calm excessive inflammatory actions of your immune system, so without its protective efforts, your immune system is more likely to “misbehave.”
Tame those inflammatory responses!
The good news is, you can naturally curb inflammation and help reduce your risk of chronic disease!
Here’s how:
Take advantage of Nature’s anti-inflammatories
Omega-3 essential fatty acids and turmeric are two of Nature’s best anti-inflammatories!
Unfortunately, the average person gets very few of these in their diets. Our food supply contains merely a fraction of the Omega-3 fats that it used to, and the amount of turmeric you would get from occasionally eating Indian cuisine is far below what your body needs to effectively control inflammation.
To make sure your body maintains a health-supporting level of Omega-3 EFAs, supplementation with a pure pharmaceutical-grade fish oil formula like VitalMega-3 is crucial.
VitalMega-3 provides a soothing 1,200 mg of anti-inflammatory Omega-3 fats in every 2-capsule dose, including the Superstars EPA and DHA—that are critical for your brain and cardiovascular health.
And Optimal Turmeric Blend provides a soothing, therapeutic 750 mg of pure, organic turmeric in every 2-capsule dose, plus an additional 5 mg of BioPerine™ (black pepper fruit extract) to support maximum absorbency.
Turmeric has been shown to be extremely effective at fighting inflammation! As a matter of fact, some studies have shown it to be MORE effective at reducing joint swelling and tenderness than diclofenac sodium—a common arthritis medication!
Eat an anti-inflammatory diet
Foods can stir up inflammation too!
So, strive to minimize or avoid these 10 foods, which are the WORST inflammation triggers:
- Sugar (including HFCS)
- Refined carbs (anything made with white flour and/or sugar)
- Vegetable oils
- MSG (monosodium glutamate)
- Factory farmed meats
- Margarine
- Soda
- Processed foods
- Gluten (check out Great Taste No Gluten if you need help eliminating gluten from your diet)
- Artificial sweeteners
On the flip side, be sure to get lots of fresh vegetables, clean proteins and healthy fats, and drink plenty of water each day.
Ensure a healthy Vitamin D level
Vitamin D is a widespread deficiency, especially this time of year when sunlight is limited.
The best way to make sure your body has a health-supporting, inflammation-fighting level of Vitamin D is to supplement with a top-notch formula like Optimum DK Formula with FruiteX-B.
Each daily dose provides a therapeutic 5,000 IUs of Vitamin D3, plus its partners Vitamins K1, K2 and the mineral boron, which all work together to support strong immune, brain, bone and cardiovascular health.
And here’s something really impressive--some experts are calling Vitamin D “a designer drug” for helping your body to handle viral respiratory infections. It boosts the ability of your cells to kill viruses and tames harmful inflammation, both of which are big challenges with COVID-19!
Don’t let yourself become a disease statistic like I mentioned above. Help keep inflammation low and your level of health high!
To your health,
Sherry Brescia
The information in our articles are NOT intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and are not intended as medical advice.
