Does this sound Familiar?
Are you Juggling kids, your job, your marriage, the dog, the house, a hobby and a (somewhat struggling) social life? You could be suffering from inflammation caused by stress.
Pretty much every ailment causes inflammation somewhere in your body, even if you can’t see it. For example, a cold will cause inflammation of your nasal passage which gives you that bunged up feeling, followed by inflammatory histamines which produce mucus. Inflammation is our body’s mechanism to protect damaged areas and stimulate blood flow, and therefore recovery… But are these inflammatory responses becoming too frequent in our ever more stressful lives?
Common problems like obesity, stress, pollution, bad diet and ageing can put us in a low-level state of inflammation that, rather than being confined to a specific area, keeps the entire body in a perpetual state of readiness for a threat that never comes, which is now known as ‘para-inflammation’.
Whilst we might not feel the effects of this inflammation now, new research is suggesting that this constant stress on the body could contribute to diabetes and heart disease later in life.
So how can we reduce our body’s state of stress and therefore decrease our risk of long-term illness in later life?
1. Lose excess weight
2. Eat your omega-3s – which the body uses them to make resolvins, which help switch off inflammation
3. Exercise – not only does it help you lose weight, it also releases anti-inflammatory chemicals and reduces stress
4. Stretch after exercise
5. Take low-dose aspirin – the only currently available drug that reduces this type of inflammation (but make sure to check with your doctor first)
Yours in health,
The YBFIT Training Team
