Understanding Inflammation and Minimizing Its Impact on Your Well-Being

Inflammation is a natural part of your body’s healing process, and it’s important for resolving certain issues and injuries. At the same time, living with pain and discomfort is no fun, and chronic inflammation has ramifications beyond achy joints and muscles. Read on for important information on inflammation, how it could be affecting your health, and what you can do about it.

What Is Inflammation?

Inflammation is your body’s response to a perceived threat, and there are two types of inflammation: acute and chronic. Acute inflammation results when something short-term happens to you, such as getting cut or catching the flu, and it resolves relatively quickly. Systemic inflammation, also referred to as chronic inflammation, occurs when something in your body is perceived as toxic. Just as the word choices imply, it is throughout your body and ongoing. As a result, it can cause your body to start attacking itself. As Parsley Health explains, this form of inflammation is felt to be a root cause of several major medical issues.

The Impact of Inflammation

Chronic inflammation might not be what you think it is. While it can be felt in achy joints, because the way your body responds, there are symptoms you might not readily associate with inflammation. For instance, fatigue, skin rashes, and digestive issues could all relate to chronic inflammation. Some experts link issues like heart attacks and strokes with chronic inflammation, and even types of cancer is a potential result.

Reducing Inflammation

Thankfully, there are several natural methods that can help reduce inflammation, and sometimes supplements help by giving you a jumpstart. One way to get things under control quickly is to take CBD oil, a hemp derivative that has been shown to support the body's natural response to inflammation. However, always talk to your doctor before taking any kind of supplement.


Probiotics also appear to help reduce inflammation, which can be taken as a supplement or found in foods like yogurt, miso, sauerkraut, or probiotic-enhanced snacks. Another idea is to try certain vitamins, such as A, D, and K, which also have the potential to lower inflammation.

Lifestyle Changes

Addressing chronic inflammation with supplements is a great first step toward giving your body a boost. However, adjusting your lifestyle is optimal for ensuring that you ward off chronic inflammation and any ongoing ill-effects from inflammation. Diet changes are a terrific next step. Healthline recommends an anti-inflammatory diet based on nutrient-dense foods, low in carbohydrates, and rich in antioxidants; this would include diets like the ketogenic diet, Mediterranean diet, or a vegetarian diet. Each of these diets includes a broad range of vegetables and fruits, healthy fats, and healthy, low-fat protein sources. There are also certain foods to avoid, such as refined sugar, saturated fats, trans fats, and MSG.

Add More Activity

It might seem as if you should rest to help your body heal, but being too sedentary can contribute to chronic inflammation. According to some experts, simply adding 20 minutes per day of exercise can help lower your body’s inflammation levels. This simple addition can improve your health in other important ways as well. Not only can you offset the health concerns associated with inflammation, but you can also better maintain a healthy weight, lower risk for heart disease, reduce stress, and lower your risk for type 2 diabetes.

Do a Detox

To make the most of your new lifestyle, it’s important to pull the toxins out of your body. You might think a detox must be something drastic, but you can achieve this with your diet, loading up on the right vegetables, whole grains, and proteins. Well-chosen smoothies, fruit salad, oatmeal with fruit, and green salads are a few meal suggestions. Daily Burn offers several delicious recipes to help you get started.


Living with inflammation is more than uncomfortable, it’s damaging to your health. Thankfully, some simple strategies can get things under control. Pay attention to the message your body is sending, and make some healthy changes.

Guest Author Bio

Dylan Foster is a writer at healthwellwise.com. He enjoys writing about topics related to how our homes affect our health and happiness. When he isn’t writing for the website, he works as an office assistant and enjoys hiking local trails with his dog, Samson.