Most processes in your body are there for a reason. When you get a fright and your head says, “Run away!” your heart pumps faster so your legs can do the job. An infection can trigger fever, your body’s way of fighting bacteria and viruses with heat. In the same way, inflammation is a localised ‘fever’ that responds to pain, toxins, tissue damage or an infection.
It’s a process that helps your body repair itself. It increases the blood flow to a particular area, prompted by chemicals released from white blood cells. Stub your toe, hammer your thumb instead of a nail, get microbes in a cut and you’ll see this process in action. That’s called ‘acute’ inflammation – it’s the good stuff.
What does inflammation have to do with joint health?
Inflammation response doesn’t always ‘turn off’ when the healing job is done, and sometimes it’s triggered throughout the body without any injury or infection to set it off. In that case, it’s called ‘chronic’ inflammation, which is the subject of increasing research. Findings show that chronic inflammation may contribute to rheumatoid arthritis, gout and many other joint problems and health issues.
Inflammation may speed aging and make people more vulnerable to disease. It happens so slowly that we hardly notice it (until we get sick), and it can really only be diagnosed by a blood test to identify a protein called cytokine, which is believed to be evidence of measurable chronic inflammation. This is a new field of research – but scientists do know that managing your inflammation with diet, exercise and supplements can help with joint health.
Change your lifestyle, reduce your inflammation
You might be taking prescription medication for your arthritis or joint pain, but there are other ways you can help yourself as well. Or you may not be suffering right now, but if arthritis or other diseases run in your family, taking charge today can mean you’ll reduce the pain and disability later
A change of lifestyle – regular exercise, weight loss, healthy eating – can lower your inflammation, reduce your pain, improve your mobility and give you a better, healthier future. Better mobility means exercise stops being an agonising chore and becomes a pleasure. That, and reducing processed starches and fatty meat in your meals, and eating a whole lot more vegetables and fruit, will take you a long way toward weight loss, too. Some food supplements can help chronic inflammation, so it pays to ask your doctor what’s best for your situation.