Chronic inflammation is said to be the root cause of most diseases.
Beneath the surface of your skin and throughout every system and organ in your body, inflammation is lurking, often without noticeable symptoms. And then, as it increases, it begins to speak to you in various ways as your body does it’s best to maintain homeostasis (a medical name for balance). Just because you cannot see or feel the inflammation, does not mean it is not a serious concern.
Perhaps a recent greenhouse experience my husband and encountered will illustrate the insidious way inflammation can creep up on you.
One morning as we left for our usual two to three mile walk with our dog, Bella, we were shocked to find our greenhouse completely burned down. As you can see, the only thing left standing was part of the metal frame. How did this happen? Arson? Nope. An electrical fire? Nope. As best we can figure, it was was caused by “spontaneous combustion”.
We use the greenhouse in the winter to protect some of our potted plants from freezing. In the spring, we nurture some of our herbs and tomatoes. However, summers in San Antonio are often in the high 90’s and low 100’s. The temperature within a greenhouse can easily exceed 130 degrees as evidenced by our thermometer exploding last year.
So, in hot months we use it for storage and place plants we bought from Home Depot that did not survive (despite regular watering) until we have time to return them for credit. (Did you know you can do that?) We also were storing some mulch and potting soil. We usually leave the upper vents and door propped open for ventilation. However, we close them when a storm is coming and being of a “certain age” – we forgot to reopen them after the storm passed.
With San Antonio temps pushing over 100 degrees this past week, we’re guessing the inside temperature combined with the mulch and plenty of dry plant fuel created the “perfect” conditions to spontaneously combust. Oy vey.
It was clear that the fire was contained within the walls of the green house by the way the wood floor and inside burned to ash except for the metal. You can see that the heat was so high that it melted the hard plastic shed doors about eight feet away. There is big oak tree to the right that had several branches that were totally dried out, but did catch on fire and burn. We are so thankful as our tree filled property could have easily ignited and potentially spread to our detached garage and perhaps our house.
Awareness and prevention are necessary to avoid disasters!
A burned down greenhouse is not the end of the world. But a “burning body” on fire with chronic inflammation could greatly diminish the quality of your life and your longevity.
Some inflammation is good. Inflammation is your body’s natural defense mechanism to aid your recovery from pathogens, allergens, toxins, injuries, and other harm. It usually lasts for a few days or a few weeks. In the case of some injuries or surgeries, it may last for a few months.
Chronic inflammation is another story. Chronic inflammation is systemic and can last for months or years. If not addressed, it may last for a lifetime. It doesn’t have one specific cause, but is generally a result of a consistent unhealthy choices. It is often called the “Silent Killer” because it contributes to serious diseases without showing symptoms for 20–30 years. It can affect every cell in the body and can be caused by a number of factors such as: stress, lack of sleep, sedentary living, and an unhealthy diet.
If your diet and overall lifestyle is not consistently controlling inflammation, chances are you may have a “perfect” storm brewing that could be cultivating any number of diseases.
According to Dr. Jockers, there are 5 key elements to decreasing inflammation in your body:
#1: Hydration
#2: Movement
#3: Anti-Inflammatory Nutrition
#4: Decrease Stress and Get Sufficient Sleep
#5: Key Nutrient Support
#1 HYDRATION: When it comes to hydration, it’s important to drink 4-6 ounces of quality water every hour you are awake. Make sure at least 60 ounces of your water intake is plain water. Try to avoid drinking most of your water from disposable plastic water bottles because they are very unstable and can release xenoestrogens and other toxins. Ideally, get your water from a home filtration system and “restructure” it with minerals since they are stripped from filtered water. By adding minerals, your body is able to better hydrate at the cellular level. We like Concentrace Minerals for this purpose.
#2 MOVEMENT: Did you notice, he said movement and not exercise specifically? While there are many benefits to exercise to improve fitness, health, and maintain a healthy weight, just being intentionally active and getting out of our chairs throughout the day will go a long way to decrease inflammation. So, no matter how old you are and how many limitations you may have, move as much as you can. Lower body movement like walking is great for pumping the lymph fluid and improving circulation.
#3 ANTI-INFLAMMATORY NUTRITION: For most people, an unhealthy diet is the biggest culprit causing inflammation throughout their bodies. We agree with Dr. Jockers that a clean diet is one of the fastest routes to reverse inflammation. His top three nutritional tips are:
- Reduce sugar and grains significantly. This works wonders. We’ve seen thousands of women lose weight and improve their health by simply following our Eat Live Thrive “Level One” Elimination Diet which eliminates both for 7-14 days. Many women choose this to become the foundation of their lifestyle eating plan and only indulge in grains once or twice a week.
- Toss unhealthy fats! We totally agree. Most vegetable oils are wreaking havoc in our bodies. We recommend only using, extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, and butter or ghee.
- Choose cleaner proteins. We understand that budgets are already challenged by high food prices. However, managing chronic disease is even more expensive both financially and in your quality of life. Whenever you can, choose pasture raised chicken, grass fed beef, and wild fish. One of our favorite and affordable choices is the canned wild salmon at Costco. Quality protein powders are a great staple for adding protein into your diet. They may seem expensive at first glance, but are way less expensive than beef, lamb, and even organic chicken. DESIGNER EGG is one of my favorite egg proteins. It comes in both vanilla and chocolate and is lightly sweetened with Stevia. It averages about $2 per serving.
#4 DECREASE STRESS AND GET SUFFICIENT SLEEP: Easier said than done, right? Getting sufficient sleep is especially hard in peri-menopause years as our hormones seem to be bouncing all over the place. From the right bedtime routine to prayer and scripture memorization…from melatonin to sleep machines…there are hundreds of suggestions for improving your zzzz’s. Melatonin Time Release works amazing well for me and it is easy for me to get back to sleep if I need to use the bathroom in the middle of the night.
Here are a few more non-supplement suggestions that many sleep experts recommend:
- Sleep in a cool, dark room. Wear a sleep mask if necessary.
- Avoid bright lights in the evening and turn off TV or devices at least an hour before bedtime.
- Eliminate all caffeine at least 8 hours before bedtime.
- Stop eating 3 hours before bedtime.
- Get daily activity.
- Begin to wind down by 9 pm.
And when you cannot sleep, my favorite and most productive remedy: PRAISE and PRAY until you fall asleep! I figure that I may as well do something productive so even if I’m awake for hours, I’m storming the gates of Heaven for those I love!
#5 KEY NUTRIENT SUPPORT: Supplements cannot take the place of a healthy diet, but they can accelerate and intensify your quest to decrease systemic inflammation. We agree with Dr. Jockers on his top four supplements for decreasing inflammation. I take all four daily and have included a link to the products we’ve researched and take on our store. If you’ve never used the discount code: SUPP15, you can apply it at checkout and save 15%!
WE HELP MATURE WOMEN FIND SOLUTIONS TO THEIR HEALTH & WEIGHT LOSS ISSUES!
Discovering Key Food Culprits in Your Diet
In our recent 10-Day Change Your Body Challenge, women were blown away with how quickly they not only lost weight but diminished many chronic symptoms like stiff, achy joints, GERD, lethargy, blood sugar instability, insomnia, and more. With daily Zoom coaching and great recipes and support, we led them through an elimination diet that produced amazing results!
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