Inflammation is a natural response triggered by your immune system to help protect it against injury, infection, or disease. While some occasional inflammation is good, too much of it can be detrimental to your health.
Having severe inflammation for long periods of time can lead to adverse side effects, such as pain, fatigue, depression, and weight gain. So how can you control it and make sure that your body only uses it when it needs to?
Keep reading to learn about five tips for reducing inflammation and getting your health back on track.
1. Be Mindful of Your Diet
While medications and supplements can help you get inflammation levels under control, the right foods can help prevent inflammation in the future.
Fruits, vegetables, and omega-3 fatty acids are some of the best foods to help prevent chronic inflammation from developing. This includes everything from grapes and celery to salmon and walnuts.
2. Eliminate Inflammatory Foods
Just like the right foods can help reduce your inflammation levels, poor nutrition increases them. Make a point to eliminate, or at the very least, reduce your intake of foods that cause inflammation.
Fried foods and red meat are some of the biggest culprits when it comes to increasing inflammation levels in your body. The same goes for anything with refined sugars or trans fat.
3. Make Time to Exercise
No matter how busy you are, try to find time in the week to exercise. Even if it’s something as simple as taking a walk around the neighborhood, exercising and getting your blood flowing is a great way to reduce inflammation.
Aside from reducing inflammation in your body, exercising helps you feel happier, get stronger, and lowers your risk of certain diseases.
4. Lose Weight
Obesity, poor nutrition, and lack of exercise often go hand in hand. If you are overweight, be aware that your body might not have what it needs to bring down inflammation levels on its own.
Practicing proper nutrition and exercising from time to time should be enough to lose weight, thereby reducing your body’s inflammation levels in the process. If you can’t seem to lose weight, try asking your doctor for any recommendations.
5. Manage Your Stress
Are you always stressed or anxious? It’s never easy to lower your stress levels, but try your best, as chronic stress can often lead to chronic inflammation.
Find some time to relax each day, no matter how hectic your schedule is. Meditation and deep breathing exercises are two tactics that many people find useful when it comes to unwinding. For others, an episode of Netflix is all it takes.
Get Started Reducing Inflammation With These Tips
While some inflammation is normal, chronic or long-term inflammation can be damaging. If you’re wondering how to go about reducing inflammation, following the tips laid out in this guide should help you get it under control.
Do you have a better idea of how to reduce inflammation? If you do, take a moment to check out some of our other blog posts for more health-related guides and tips.
