Inflammation: What it is, Why it Happens, and What You Can Do About it

March 9, 2016   |   6 Comments   |   4

You know inflammation is bad. But do you know just how bad it is and that it affects every single aspect of your health?

Inflammation is at the root cause of nearly all pain and disease. It is responsible for arthritis pain and stiffness, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, thyroid issues, cancer and more. Most of us, at one time or another in our lives, will suffer from the effects of inflammation. Even sadder, most will turn to traditional medicine and be prescribed pills that will only mask the symptoms of the disease instead of getting to the root cause of it.

This article will help you understand how and why inflammation begins and what you can do to naturally get rid of it.

Inflammation and the Gut Connection

Over 2,500 years ago, Hippocrates, the father of medicine, exclaimed that:

all disease starts in the gut.

How right he was, and how wrong that it took modern medicine thousands of years to listen and finally make the connection between gut health, inflammation, and disease.

Your gut is incredible. 80% of your immune system is located there, and this system needs the right balance of good and bad bacteria to do its job properly. Beyond this, the gut is made of an intricate and semi-permeable lining. When your gut becomes unhealthy, this permeability can fluctuate and cause “leaky gut syndrome.”

When your gut leaks, partially undigested food, toxins, yeast and bacteria leak into your blood stream, your immune system recognizes these as foreign invaders and launches an all-out attack, resulting in inflammation, allergic reactions, and other symptoms that we associate with numerous diseases.

(Editor’s note: even joint pain can be traced back to your gut. It may start with a slight back ache… but soon, you’ll start dealing with a whole host of joint-related problems. And it all starts in your gut. My recommendation: deal with it NOW before it’s too late… Click Here to discover new information on joint pain.)

What Causes a Gut to Become Unhealthy in the First Place?

In one word: life.

Modern life, it seems, does its best to make us unhealthy. More and more people are working longer hours, eating processed foods, taking prescription medications (like antibiotics), and under an unhealthy amount of daily, chronic stress. All of these can trigger an unhealthy amount of bad bacteria in the gut, which can create a situation where the lining become more permeable, toxins enter the bloodstream, and inflammation results.

5 Foods to Fight Inflammation

Now that you know where inflammation begins and why, you can take the necessary steps to alleviate it. One of the best things you can do is to turn to food to heal your inflammation instead of to prescription medications, which helped cause your unhealthy gut in the first place.

It was Hippocrates who also said, “Let food be thy medicine.” In an effort to listen to him this time, here are 5 beneficial foods that will help heal your gut by restoring the beneficial bacteria, which will in turn alleviate inflammation.

Sauerkraut

Okay, this food may have made some of your noses twitch, but for those of you who actually like sauerkraut, rejoice and eat plenty of it. Made from fermented cabbage, sauerkraut is chock full of healthy, live cultures.

Yogurt

You probably know that yogurt is one of the best probiotic foods you can eat because it is rich in live cultures. It’s best to find brands that are made from goat’s milk because goat’s milk contains extra forms of beneficial probiotics like lactobacillus, acidophilus, thermophillus, bifudus, and bulgaricus. As with any yogurt, you should be sure to look at the ingredients and stay away from brands that contain artificial sweeteners or high fructose corn syrup.

Miso Soup

You may have had miso soup before at a Japanese restaurant and thought it was quite tasty, but did you know this delicious and soothing broth also happens to be an excellent source of probiotics? Miso paste, which is made from fermented soybeans, rice or barley, is full of lactobacilli and bifidus bacteria. When using the paste, you want to be sure to add it to foods that have been taken off direct heat so the live cultures remain live.

Pickles

Who knew a crunchy dill pickle was an excellent food source of probiotics? Don’t just eat them out at a diner, keep a jar in your refrigerator and eat them daily.

Kimchi

Kimchi is Asian-style pickled sauerkraut. Also sour and tangy, this version is usually quite spicy as well. It is made from fermented cabbage (and sometimes other vegetables), and is an excellent source of beta-carotene, calcium, and iron as well.

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Steps to a Happy and Healthy Gut

In order to alleviate inflammation, you’ve first got to get your gut heathy, and in order to do that, there are some key things you need to do.

Exercise

A sedentary lifestyle has been proven to be unhealthy for our immune system and can result in chronic illness. In order for your gut to function optimally, you need to move your body. But no need to overexert yourself. Studies have actually found low to moderate physical activity can be very beneficial to the GI tract, reducing the risk of autoimmune diseases… so consider walking, gardening, or swimming.

Start an Elimination Diet 

You can’t truly have a healthy gut when you are eating foods that your body may be sensitive to or outright allergic to.

First of all, everyone should remove sugar from their diet. I know, I know, sugar is so gosh-darn delicious. But it is also so bad for you and can help to cause an imbalance in your gut bacteria, allowing the bad bacteria to proliferate. So, avoid any processed foods that contain high fructose corn syrup and try and use a sweetener like stevia in your coffee instead.

You may be someone who is also allergic to dairy, soy, or gluten. By removing these ingredients completely from your diet for two to three weeks, and then slowly adding one back in at a time with 72 hours in between each will help you determine how your body reacts. If your body clearly lets you know it does not like something, get rid of it for good.

Add Some Probiotics into Your Diet

I’ve already listed some of the foods that are rich sources of good bacteria to help get your gut back in balance. Try different foods to see how your body reacts, and don’t consume too much too quickly. Like trying to lose weight, you must remember that it took years for your gut to become as unhealthy as it is, and it will take some time to get it healthy again. So go slow and eat a little bit of yogurt one day, maybe some miso the next, and slowly add a bit more after a week or so. Also, it does not take bowlfuls of kimchi or sauerkraut to heal your gut, just a little bit each day.

Get Some Help

No matter what you’re trying to do in life, it is always smart to seek guidance from someone who has done what you want to do – in this case – healed their gut and alleviated their inflammation.

Thanks to the Joint Pain Solution, you can follow the exact same steps one doctor used to alleviate inflammation from his body and the pain and stiffness of arthritis.

Here’s to kicking inflammation right out of our lives!

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6 Comments

  1. Zi Newton

    March 10, 2016 Reply

    There is a Chinese pickled vegetable you can get in the Chinese supermarket. It is called suan-cai, that means sour vegetable, usually made from a kind of vegetable called gai-cuai (Cantonese pronunciation.) or jie cai (Mandarine pronunciation) It is mostly packaged in small sealed plastic package. It is not meant to be eaten eaten without cooking it with some meat, although I suppose you can eat it as it too. I loved it but didn't eat it often because I thought it absolutely had no nutrition value. Well, what I am interested in finding out is whether it is a food to fight inflammation like sauerkraut and pickles.

  2. T D Suresh

    March 10, 2016 Reply

    Hi Jim.
    I am regularly receiving your mails regarding health information and their products.
    It is really helping me to lead a good healthy life.I thank you all for the effort you are doing for sending health related information.
    I thank you now and for ever
    T D suresh

  3. Tammy

    March 9, 2016 Reply

    Thank you for this informative article. I will definitely be adding these foods to my diet. Fortunately I love sauerkraut.

    • Hamza

      March 9, 2016 Reply

      Brilliant! Well done Tammy :)

  4. Irene Hartman

    March 9, 2016 Reply

    Hi Jim Gray, thanks fro all the health articles you been sending to me very good information.

    Thanks.

    Irene Hartman

    • Hamza

      March 9, 2016 Reply

      On behalf of Jim... you're very welcome Irene :)

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