Inflammation & Herbs

By now, most of us know that chronic inflammation is the largest culprit when it comes to the onset of chronic health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, cognitive decline, etc. Inflammation is the body’s response system to injury or disease. It acts as a protective element, rushing blood, white blood cells, pain, and heat to the element of injury or disease in an effort to eliminate it. Acute inflammation would be a sprain, cut, or cold. In these situations, inflammation often causes painful or frustrating symptoms (like a stuffy nose or fever in the case of a cold), but it’s these symptoms that help eliminate the injury or disease from your body. However, inflammation can also stick around and bring with it more chronic health conditions, which can linger in the body for years, leading to a decline in overall quality of life. With our ever-present on the go lifestyles, we’ve experienced increases in consistently high cortisol levels like never before. High cortisol, along with poor diet, decreased physical activity, and poor sleep lead to high levels of chronic inflammation. It’s for this reason, and many others, that we should add anti-inflammatory foods and beverages wherever we can. In addition, there are also many anti-inflammatory medicinal herbs we can look at.