Innocent Inflammation

Almost every doctor I have been to says that I am 'inflamed'. This seems simple enough, like I have a little itch and I just need to take some Tylenol to keep the inflammation down. Looking for info on the web, it seems like inflammation is actually just the start of an escalating health problem...like inflammation grows into ulcerative colities, arthritis, diarrhea, even cancer. From Scientific American: "So far the clearest evidence of a link between cancer and inflammation is the data demonstrating that inflammation encourages the conversion of precancerous tissue to full malignancy for many cancers."

All my health problems can basically be expained as gradually increasing inflammation. It started out with a little bit of joint pain and now I have autoimmune issues, a dying thyroid, a crazy gut. The arthritis was described to me as not rheumatoid, not osteo-arthritis, but just...inflammation of the joints. Really, Einstein?! Inflammation is just my body's normal immune response, but taken to sadistic levels. (Masochistic? I think sadistic is the right one...) Autoimmune problems are basically ramped up immune reactions-inflammation.

This is my favorite link that I've found because it's about eating to reduce inflammation: http://www.womentowomen.com/inflammation/naturalantiinflammatories.aspx. None of the information is new--eat fruits, veggies, and fish, don't eat processed crap. :) Some anti-inflammatory diets even say that safflower and sunflower oil (which are in a lot of chips, etc.) are inflammatory. This bums me out. :(

One site says this: "Interestingly, growing evidence indicates a role of diet in preventing, delaying or reversing the expression of genetically determined auto-immune diseases...As the gut is a major site of many complex interactions, which control immunity, it is the largest interface between an individual and his environment and, therefore, provides the largest exposure for immune building micro-organisms and exposure to toxins and allergens. Strengthening the age-old adage, we are what we eat."
(http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Autoimmunity-versus-nutrition/827831/)

And, if you didn't believe me about cancer: "Inflammation...has gained recognition as an underlying contributor to virtually every chronic disease—a list that, besides obvious culprits such as rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn’s disease, includes diabetes and depression, along with major killers such as heart disease and stroke. The possibility of a link with a third major killer—cancer—has received intensive scrutiny in this decade. “The connection between inflammation and cancer has moved to center stage in the research arena,” notes Robert A. Weinberg of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research...As some researchers have described the malignant state: genetic damage is the match that lights the fire, and inflammation is the fuel that feeds it."
(http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=chronic-inflammation-cancer)

And even more: "Cancer, diabetes, depression, heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer's—these seemingly diverse diseases are increasingly thought to have a common denominator: inflammation. While our genetic predisposition for disease can't be changed, we can do something about this other major player."
"http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/articles/2009/11/02/chronic-inflammation-reduce-it-to-protect-your-health"

I guess I want to prevent inflammation in my own body, but my DH said that most people don't realize that a little bit of inflammation from always eating, say, cow milk, could lead to bigger problems over time. So I'm writing about it. :)

The hard part is that in some ways it seems like something the 'inflames' you, doesn't inflame me, and vice versa. So we really just have to get to know our bodies better so that we can avoid inflammation...