John Arts Abundant Living www.johnarts.co.nz

Almost every long-term disease will be either caused or affected by inflammation.

Fortunately, modern medicine has at its disposal a wide array of anti-inflammatory medications; ranging from the humble aspirin to more powerful non-steroid drugs such as brufen and diclofenac, through to the very powerful steroids such as prednisone.
All these medicines and their many derivatives have real benefits and they also have risks. For some, the side effects mean they can no longer be used. I have many people who ask me about alternatives to traditional anti-inflammatory therapy. Some because they can not tolerate the medications and for others they prefer not to use them.

Before we look at other options, it is important to understand what we are dealing with. The source of inflammation is our immune system. One of its main roles is to create and release a wide variety of inflammatory chemicals as part of the body's repair mechanism. Anti-inflammatory medications temporarily block these inflammatory chemicals and offer significant reduction of inflammation.

There are also many naturally occurring compounds in foods that have anti-inflammatory properties. These properties are very different from those of medicines. Medications act as a temporary immune system block. These natural compounds, if included daily from diet and supplements, work in two ways. Firstly they help the body to produce its own potent anti-inflammatory compounds which act directly to lower local and systemic inflammation; and secondly, other compounds help restrict the unnecessary production of pro-inflammatory chemicals such as prostaglandins, cytokines and histamine.

There are two main groups of these natural compounds. The most important are the Omega 3 fats from oily fish, but also include monounsaturated fats in olives, avocados and almonds and surprising, some saturated fats especially short chain fats found in tropical foods especially coconuts.
The second group are a wide range of biologically-active food compounds. This diverse group includes many antioxidants and compounds in spices such as turmeric and tropical fruit including pineapples and papaya. Whenever I am asked to help people with inflammation I will build this around an anti-inflammatory diet and supplements that can help lower painful inflammation. If you would like help , phone 0800 423 559 or 07 578 9051, email john@johnarts.co.nz or visit www.johnarts.co.nz or www.abundant.co.nz to register for John's online newsletter.