2024-02-13 21:43:51
Health and Wellbeing: Why are we always inflamed?
By: Leticia Trejo
Leticia Trejo is a Yoga teacher and personal trainer. Photo: Archive.
According to the World Health Organization, WHO, inflammation is a process in which our immune cells attack invading bacteria or viruses, eliminate the tissue destruction they cause, and initiate the repair process. . Outside the body, inflammation can cause skin redness, swelling, heat, and pain.
But there are different degrees and forms of inflammation, each with different triggers that cause various discomforts from mild to severe.
As an example, the Spanish medical publication, Elsevier, explains to us that low-grade systemic inflammation has a close relationship with the development of cardio-metabolic diseases, especially in patients with obesity, which is why this state of immune alteration also receives the meta-inflammation name (diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia and obesity are some of the cardiometabolic diseases).
According to Harvard University, inflammation is an important part of the body’s defensive system. It is a response to control infections or tissue damage and is activated every time the body recognizes something as foreign or invasive.
So is inflammation good or bad? The inflammatory response is completely necessary to restore health, the problem is that it becomes chronic and extends in the long term, which is recognized as acute or high-grade inflammation.
One of the most deadly enemies (it kills thousands of cells) that we have is the continuous and prolonged stress response, the relentless deployment of adrenaline, norepinephrine and cortisol (among others) since it does not give the body any respite.
A brief activation of stress response systems, followed by a return to balance, develops resilience, for example, when a baby hears a sudden loud noise, or when he realizes that he has been left alone he has this response of naturally, but then order is restored after a short period.
We are inflamed by pollution in the air, prolonged exposure to UV rays, radiation, electromagnetic waves generated by electronic devices, cigarettes, alcohol, irritating and excessive food, poor quality of sleep, free radicals such as cortisol, and persistent negative thoughts, catastrophic interpretation of natural life events (drama), low self-esteem (in which the person feels that others attack him, or despise him, or are against him). It is better not to continue with the list because it can be overwhelming.
What regulates inflammation? The breathing exercises that are mainly practiced are Yoga, mindfulness and meditation. With ten minutes a day of meditation you can train a less biased or personalized perspective on the natural events of life, reducing fear, anguish and anxiety. But as always, taking care of our diet, sleeping well and doing physical activity are the other pillars of controlling inflammation.
1707862124
#inflamed