The Mediterranean Diet is the most anti-inflammatory diet studied.
The inflammatory response is the body's mechanism to fight infection, repair itself and rid itself of cancer. Inflammation is a coordinated response to trauma, infection, and cancer. Without inflammation, we would be dead within twenty-four hours.
Too much inflammation results in wanton destruction of tissues, pain, fevers, and misery. It is associated with heart disease, cancer, aging. It is that delicate balance of inflammation we need.
Does diet play a role with inflammation? The answer is "sort of."
Inflammation is involved in:
The five signs of acute inflammation and their Latin names:
Medical school teaches inflammation as one of the first series of lectures.
Your finger was hit with a hammer. You have an injury to your finger. Some cells are injured. The cells send a distress signal, and immediately white blood cells begin to swarm into the area to help the injured cells. All that extra blood flowing to the area will lead to redness (rubor) and swelling (tumor). Soon, the finger will feel a bit hot (calor) and will have pain (dolor).
Some cells are so badly injured that they are no longer viable. Your inflammatory reaction breaks down these cells, removes the debris, and recycles the parts to create new tissue in the area.
I love nature walks but like to avoid Poison Ivy.
Sometimes, we want to decrease the immune response. Inflammation is the response of our skin to poison ivy. We reduce the immune response by reducing hives and itching.
Rheumatoid arthritis is another example of unwanted inflammation. Rheumatoid arthritis is an auto-immune disease. The resulting inflammation leads to pain, fever, and joint destruction. The aim of the treatment is to reduce the inflammatory response that saves joints and improves well-being.
The inflammatory response of COVID, influenza, or the common cold is reduced by the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as aspirin or Motrin.
Heart disease is partially the result of inflammation. When you have a heart attack, the coronary arteries are blocked. As a result, a part of your heart muscle is without oxygen. The cells send out inflammatory signals, and you begin to feel pain (dolor). If the blood flow is restored, your cells can heal, but if it takes too long, some of those cells will die. Then your body will get rid of those dead cells and replace them with scar tissue. The result is that your heart becomes less effective.
Plaque formation in the arteries is the result of genetics,
