5 Lifestyle Changes That Will Help Prevent Inflammation

If you’ve been injured, suffer from gout or arthritis, or have other auto-inflammatory diseases, you may want to keep a close eye on your daily diet.

Inflammation is our body’s natural response to something it considers an invader or an injury. A healthy body’s immune system triggers inflammation to repair damage in the body, but someone with an inflammatory disease like arthritis will have an overactive immune system, which promotes too much inflammation and thus inflammatory conditions.

Often diseases that you wouldn’t think have a connection to inflammation, actually do! Minor, bodily inflammation is thought to contribute toward the development of heart disease, Alzheimer’s diabetes, and some cancers.

Many of the lifestyle changes that prevent inflammation are not terribly drastic! You don’t need a lot of effort to have an anti-inflammatory diet and lifestyle, so today I’m sharing my 5 all time favorite anti-inflammatory lifestyle tips.

Foods to Prevent Inflammation

Incorporate these 5 foods into your weekly diet, to help prevent inflammation!

1. Eat More Salmon (and other omega-3 fatty acids)

Omega-3 fatty acids are believed to halt the inflammation process in your body when your immune system is calling for inflammation. At times, this can be beneficial for people who require a reduced amount of inflammation.

Salmon in particular has the highest omega-3 content and it’s a delicious and versatile cooking staple. Other foods that have omega-3 fatty acids are avocado, nuts and seeds, Brussels sprouts and cauliflower.

2. Reduce Refined Sugars

So much of the food we’re exposed to right now has high sugar content, so anything with less sugar seems dull and tasteless! Once you become accustomed to a natural amount of sugar in your diet, your taste buds and your body will be more than happy about the adjustment.

When you reduce your refined sugar intake your body will work properly and won’t be hypersensitive to invaders, which can help decrease inflammatory responses. Remember, when you can, use fruit, honey or maple syrup instead of sugar

3. Experiment with Cutting Gluten or Dairy

I highly recommend experimenting with both gluten and dairy (one at a time). Eliminating these foods from your diet for a couple of months will allow you to experience the direct impact these foods have on your life and health.

Make sure you eliminate only one at a time or you won’t be able to tell if dairy or gluten is guilty of increasing your inflammation. You don’t have to have a lactose allergy or celiac disease to experience the negative impacts of gluten and dairy.

4. Good Bacteria

Bacteria may sound like something your body will try to fend off, but what a lot of people don’t understand is that there are also GOOD bacterium! Our body requires these bacterium to function, and without them we can suffer from heightened inflammation.

Do probiotics right a bell? Well these are good bacteria! An imbalance of good and bad bacteria can lead to many health problems and bodily pain. This is one of the reason I discourage the use of antibiotics! They are effective at killing bad antibiotics but they also kill our good antibiotics in the process, leaving our bodies totally out of synch.

In clinical studies, probiotic supplements proved to decrease inflammation more than a placebo.

5. Get Enough Sleep!

Your weeks productivity does not depend on your lack of sleep! I know sleep can feel unproductive and lazy at times (especially when you have things to do) but believe me, lack of sleep will catch up with you and have you bed ridden at a later date!

Stay ahead of your health and don’t play catch up! Getting an 8-hour sleep every night can reduce and prevent chronic inflammation!