Suffered from an infection recently and are worried about the inflammation caused in the body after that?
Don’t worry; we have got you covered. Here is how to reduce inflammation in the body fast.1
A. What is Inflammation?
Before jumping on to the solutions, let us try to understand what inflammation is, its causes, and its different types.
Inflammation is the body’s natural response to fight germs. The immune cells of our immune system identify harmful objects, fight them, and help the body heal.
So, “Is inflammation a friend or a foe?“. Well, the answer to it is pretty easy. It is a friend but can be a foe if not in the appropriate amounts and time. It helps our body fight off harmful substances that enter our body and try to cause harm to it.
But, when it goes on for a prolonged period and in a large quantity, it can cause more harm than good to our bodies.
So better set your boundaries with your friends before they become your foes.
B. What Are the Types of Inflammation?
Now that you have a rough idea of what inflammation is and how it helps us and might end up causing more issues if not taken care of, let us look at its types. The following are the types of inflammation.
Inflammation can be categorized into acute and chronic. Acute or short-term inflammation can be caused due to factors like drinking alcohol excessively, poor sleep patterns, chronic Stress, binge eating processed foods, and having an unhealthy lifestyle.
On the other hand, chronic inflammation or long-term inflammation can be caused due to insulin resistance, autoimmune disorders, exposure to toxins, and untreated acute inflammation.
Irrespective of the reason, let us find ways and how to reduce inflammation in the body fast. Scroll down to know more.
C. What Are the Ways To Reduce Inflammation in the Body?
The following are eight safe and easy ways how one can reduce inflammation in the body quickly without any risks:
1. Eat Anti-Inflammatory Foods
To reduce inflammation, one must include anti-inflammatory foods2 in one’s diet. Food items like berries, fatty fish, avocados, mushrooms, grapes, broccoli, peppers, turmeric, extra virgin olive oil, cherries, dark chocolates, cocoa, etc., have anti-inflammatory benefits and can be included in one’s diet. Its anti-inflammatory effects help decrease inflammation in the body.
1.1 Anti-Inflammatory Diets
An example of an anti-inflammatory diet is the Mediterranean diet3, which focuses on reducing the risks of heart disease and blood pressure-related problems in the body, thereby helping reduce inflammation.
Studies suggest that this diet reduces inflammatory markers like the C-reactive protein in the body. This protein determines the level of inflammation in the body.
1.2 Anti-Inflammatory Effects
The food items mentioned above have anti-inflammatory properties in them. These contain anti-inflammatory compounds and antioxidants that help fight inflammation in the body. Having these food items daily can help reduce the problem of chronic inflammation.
Research suggests that taking anti-inflammatory foods and an anti-inflammatory diet helps reduce inflammatory markers. It is one of the easiest ways to reduce inflammation in the body.
2. Plan an Exercise Routine
Exercising is good for the well-being of our entire body and helps reduce excess inflammation in the body. Practicing it daily can help reduce inflammation in the body fast.
One must not necessarily have to indulge in a hard-core workout routine; even a simple workout like walking for half an hour helps fight inflammation. It would also help reduce Stress, strengthen the immune system and lose weight, which would help reduce inflammation.
Planning a proper exercise routine and following it daily for 30 minutes can help decrease chronic inflammation. It is an ideal way one can pick to reduce chronic inflammation.
2.1 Chronic Inflammation:
2.1.1 What is Chronic Inflammation?
Also known as long-term or slow inflammation, it lasts for prolonged periods, which may be for a few months or even years.
This condition requires more attention than acute inflammation, as if not treated on time, it may adversely affect the body’s internal organs.
2.1.2 What Are the Types of Chronic Inflammation:
The following are the types of chronic inflammation:
- Nonspecific proliferative: It is detected by the presence of nonspecific granulation tissues. For example, lung abscesses, nasal polyps, etc.
- The presence of distinct nodular lesions or granulomas detect Granulomatous. It can be sub-divided into two types:
- Foreign body granuloma: When the granuloma is formed due to a foreign body or the T-cell-activated immune response.
- Infectious granuloma: When the granuloma is formed due to a chronic infection.
2.1.3 What Causes Chronic Inflammation?
Many factors can lead to chronic inflammation in the body. Some are listed below:
- Untreated acute inflammation: Not treating the inflammation caused by minor injuries or other causes like Stress and an unhealthy lifestyle may develop into an even more serious condition.
- Autoimmune diseases: These diseases are caused by the natural defence mechanism, which cannot differentiate between the body’s cells and the foreign cells, causing the body to target and attack the normal cells. Such conditions lead to chronic inflammation.
- Exposure to toxins: When a toxic substance is subjected to our body for a prolonged period, which cannot be eliminated or broken down by the body, causing the substance to stay in the body. Over time, the body’s defence mechanism against the substance may lead to inflammation.
- Repeated episodes of acute inflammation
2.1.4 What Are the Impacts of Chronic Inflammation?
Chronic inflammation may result in health conditions like increased risk of heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, high blood sugar levels, weight gain, arthritis, cancer, and other chronic diseases.
Planning an easy exercise routine and sticking to it daily is a healthy way to reduce inflammation in the body fast.
3. Reduce Stress
To treat chronic inflammation, managing physical and psychological stress levels is important. Extreme Stress is a chronic disease that aggravates inflammation in the body and increases the chances of developing heart disease.
3.1 How To Reduce Stress?
Relaxation practices like meditation, deep breathing, and grounding can help fight Stress and anxiety. Apart from this, picking a hobby and giving it some time is also an effective way to decrease Stress. Exercising gently is another way of busting Stress. Here are a few ways:
It might require a lot of attention and commitment, but it is a mindful way to reduce inflammation in the body quickly.
A stress-free body and mind would help in reducing inflammation.
4. Replace Your Beverage With Green Tea
Individuals who experience inflammation, signs of inflammation, or low-grade inflammation may consider switching their regular cup of tea to green tea. It has anti-inflammatory properties and several other health benefits, like improving the immune system. It is rich in polyphenols and antioxidants that play a major role in reducing chronic inflammation.
4.1 What Is Low-Grade Inflammation?
Low-grade inflammation 4is a chronic response of our body to infections, diseases, foreign substances, toxins, and injuries which produces a constant low level of inflammation in the body.
Although not that tasty yet, a refreshing way to reduce inflammation in the body fast.
5. Rework Your Eating Habits
I believe in the saying, “We are what we have.” Having a healthy diet is an important step in the journey of reduction of inflammation. If our food habits our unhealthy, we invite more diseases into our bodies. Hence, Reworking our eating habits and teaching healthy eating practices is a must.
To reduce inflammation in our bodies, we must reduce just a few foods from our lives, namely junk food, processed foods, processed meat, and sugary beverages, and limit our dairy intake. In the next point, let us have a detailed discussion of what foods must be avoided.
It has been found that a moderate amount of vitamin c helps treat and reduce inflammation significantly. Including more vitamin C-rich items in our diets may help us solve the problem.
Including olive oil in our diets is another way to help reduce the condition. Olive oil is known to contain several compounds with anti-inflammatory effects. It possesses similar anti-inflammatory properties to ibuprofen.
It is a pretty demanding task, but it is a promising solution to reduce inflammation in the body fast.
6. Avoid Inflammatory Foods
When suffering from the problem of inflammation, one must avoid the consumption of inflammatory foods. Foods like fried foods, processed meats, sugar-sweetened beverages, foods rich in fats etc. These may feel good to our palettes but not do well with our bodies.
Hot dogs are one of the most famous and delicious fast-food items. These feel appetizing to our mouths, but do they help our bodies in any way? The answer to it is a NO. These contain huge amounts of trans fats and refined carbs, which can adversely affect our bodies. These may trigger the body’s inflammatory response, promoting inflammation instead of reducing it.
Weight and inflammation are closely related. To control inflammation, one must maintain a healthy weight. Having inflammatory foods may also lead to health conditions like obesity.
It might seem a tad challenging but, another safe way to reduce inflammation in the body fast.
7. Get Enough Sleep
Not getting enough sleep affects the overall health and the body’s ability to function properly. Not getting enough rest activates the inflammatory response of the inflammatory cells.
Having a disturbed sleep cycle may cause chronic inflammation over the years. Fixing your sleep cycle, which includes a minimum of seven hours of sleep, is a must. Sleeping for sufficient amounts decreases inflammation.
This is probably the most painless way to solve the problem. Something that the sleep-lovers would enjoy doing. But, for those of you who have trouble sleeping soundly and have problems like insomnia, disturbed sleep, or nightmares. Here is a list of solutions you could consider trying:
- Using essential oils: Spraying a few drops of essential oils over the cushion or the bed before sleeping helps calm anxiety and Stress, thereby helping improve sleep quality.
- Journalling: Journalling your thoughts right before you sleep can help you get rid of the thoughts, which would make your mind calmer and help you sleep better.
- Listening to calm music: Music is known to have a soothing effect on the human brain. Listening to calming music before sleeping has proved to help eliminate negative thoughts and promote quality sleep.
- Meditating: Meditation is one of the best practices to eliminate running thoughts, confusion, Stress, anxiety, and negativity. It helps bring focus and positivity. Practicing meditation right before going to bed helps increase positive thoughts and improves the quality of sleep.
- Deep breathing: Focusing on your breath and practicing deep breathing right before sleeping is a good practice. As it helps one calm down and focuses on the present. It stops the mind from wandering and helps grow positive thoughts. Sleeping with positivity is the key to having a sound sleep.
- Chamomile Tea: The tea is known for its tranquilizing effects. Apart from this, it is also known for its richness in antioxidants, which help reduce inflammation. One can always sip a cup of chamomile tea before going to bed to have a calm sleep.
Again, an absolutely easy way how to reduce inflammation in the body fast. So, sleep it off!
8. Drink Water
Water is the simplest way one can help address and solve the problem. It is an easily available and extremely important medicine for humans, called “family medicine.” More than half of our problems get solved if we stay hydrated.
Drinking water helps remove toxins from our bodies. The toxins our body cannot break down can easily get flushed out from our body through Water. It would not only help reduce inflammation but also help us lose weight, make us feel more energized, make our skin glow and help us feel better in terms of mental health.
A health coach always advises the patient to increase the amount of water intake in a day as most of our physical and mental health-related problems reduce considerably when we drink adequate amounts of Water daily.
It is not as easy as it may seem, but another simple and achievable way to reduce inflammation in the body fast.
These were a few simple ways to reduce inflammation fast. Hope you found the article helpful.
Also check out,
- Fleming, Richard. Stop Inflammation Now!: A Step-by-step Plan to Prevent, Treat, and Reverse Inflammation–the Leading Cause of Heart Disease and Related Conditions. Penguin, 2005. ↩︎
- Lu, Chi-Cheng, and Gow-Chin Yen. “Antioxidative and anti-inflammatory activity of functional foods.” Current Opinion in Food Science 2 (2015): 1-8. ↩︎
- Davis, Courtney, et al. “Definition of the Mediterranean diet: a literature review.” Nutrients 7.11 (2015): 9139-9153. ↩︎
- Pereira, Solange S., and Jacqueline I. Alvarez-Leite. “Low-grade inflammation, obesity, and diabetes.” Current obesity reports 3 (2014): 422-431. ↩︎
Last Updated on by Sathi
