Seven Ways to Reduce Inflammation

Inflammation is a natural way for your body to fight infection and speed up the healing process, but too much inflammation can end up being damaging. Things like poor diet, lack of exercise, or unhealthy habits can spark too much inflammation in the body. When inflammation goes into overdrive too often or for too long, it can push your immune system to start attacking healthy organs and tissue. If not addressed, prolonged inflammation can lead to health problems, such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer, arthritis, and irritable bowel syndrome. Fortunately, there are numerous ways you can easily reduce inflammation in order to boost your health and proactively prevent certain diseases.

Common signs that might alert to unwanted inflammation in the body include chronic pain, fatigue, headaches, memory problems, weight gain, and getting sick more often than normal. Of course, if symptoms persist, you’ll want to check in with your doctor. However, it’s always a good idea to take whatever preventative measures you can in your day-to-day life to reduce inflammation, even if there are no symptoms present.

Below, we’ll discuss seven ways to reduce inflammation that you can easily add to your daily life. 

Try cryotherapy

Cryotherapy is a treatment were a person is fully submerged in freezing cold temperatures of -100°F to -250°F. Think of it as a dry ice bath. Researchers have done full blown scientific studies, confirming it’s benefits. A 2020 study published by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) says:

cryotherapy accelerates tissue regeneration, relieves pain, and SUPPRESSES inflammation

– _{^{Cryotherapy Study by U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) – Published 2020 Sep 7}}

To learn more about cryotherapy or book an appointment. Visit our cryotherapy services page.

Eat Anti-Inflammatory Foods

One of the leading causes of excess inflammation that can lead to problems is a consistently poor diet. Before rushing to find the right medication or supplement to help reduce inflammation, consider evaluating and adjusting your diet first. Making healthy food choices makes a big difference in how you feel, your immune system, and overall inflammation reduction. 

You can start by eating more fruits and vegetables and foods containing omega-3 fatty acids, such as salmon, tuna, walnuts, flaxseeds, and soybeans. You can also include more spices in your foods that help reduce inflammation, like ginger, turmeric, and rosemary. 

When adding anti-inflammatory foods into your diet, it’s also essential to take away any foods in your diet that might promote inflammation. Foods to limit when reducing inflammation include red meat, egg yolks, butter, processed and fried foods, and processedprocesed sugar and carbs. 

Get More Exercise

Lack of exercise and increasing weight gain are other triggers for inflammation that can lead to other health problems. However, you can reduce and prevent inflammation by implementing more physical activity into your daily routine. Physical activity doesn’t have to be an hour of high-intensity workouts daily either. Finding ways to be more active in your day-to-day life, such as yard work, household chores, and standing more, helps reduce inflammation. Small increases in physical activity make a big difference in flare-ups.

Start by adding 20-30 minutes of physical activity to your day at least five times a week to kick start the anti-inflammatory response in your body and keep inflammation and its uncomfortable symptoms at bay.

Manage Your Stress

Frequent stress can add to your inflammation issues. If you get easily frazzled in stressful situations or have a go-to stress response instead of handling stress in stride, you might be more prone to experiencing increased inflammation. 

To keep your stress levels down and reduce inflammation, find healthy, mindful ways to cope with stressful situations or tasks so you stay cool, calm, and collected. Some people find it helpful to manage their stress with meditation, yoga, biofeedback, and therapy. If stress is one of your contributing factors to inflammation, consider which methods may be helpful for you to lower your stress and ultimately reduce inflammation.

Catch More Zzzs

When you’re not getting enough sleep on a regular basis, your body can react by triggering inflammation. It’s not just the lack of sleep that causes increased inflammation; it’s the way a lack of sleep affects you throughout the day that really can lead to unhealthy inflammation. When you’re running on low sleep, you don’t function at your best. You may feel more stressed, fatigued, and slack off on your other healthy habits, and if it becomes a consistent pattern, you may begin to experience chronic inflammation. 

Try to get 7-9 hours of sleep each night and aim to get good quality sleep as well. You can help promote better quality and longer sleep by sticking to a consistent sleep schedule, keeping screen time to a minimum before bed, and sleeping in a comfortable, cool, dark, quiet room.

Try Getting Regular Massages

When it comes to reducing inflammation, getting a massage isn’t just considered a luxury treat. Regular massages are a great way to reduce inflammation and also reduce some of the leading causes of inflammation. 

Getting a massage helps with lymphatic drainage and boosts the immune system, which helps keep inflammation low. Massages also help lower stress hormones, another cause of inflammation. Regardless of whether regular massages are anare the an option for you, you’ll be able to experience the benefits and reduce inflammation after just one massage. 

Minimize Smoking and Alcohol

Regular smoking and alcohol consumption come with a list of damaging health effects, and increased inflammation is one of them. If you’re a smoker, the best thing to do to reduce inflammation is to quit smoking altogether. You can speak with your doctor to help come up with a plan that will help you kick the habit and quit for good. 

If you regularly drink alcohol, it may be a good idea to cut back if you’re trying to reduce inflammation. A glass of wine at dinner isn’t harmful, but too much alcohol consumption regularly can raise toxin levels in your body, spike inflammation, and damage your tissues and organs. If you drink, make sure you do so in moderation. The CDC recommends limiting alcohol intake to 2 drinks or less a day for men and one drink or less a day for women. 

Drink Green Tea

Even if coffee is your morning drink of choice, consider switching to, or at least trying, green tea if inflammation reduction is one of your current concerns. Green tea is full of antioxidants that help reduce and prevent inflammation. Green tea leaves contain compounds known as polyphenols that help fight off free radicals. This can reduce your stress levels and other inflammation causes, significantly reducing your inflammation.

You don’t have to completely give up your morning cup of coffee every day to reap the benefits of green tea either. You can add a cup of green tea to your day or switch out your morning coffee a couple times a week for a cup of green tea to start receiving its anti-inflammatory benefits. 

The Bottom Line

While inflammation is a natural occurrence in your body to help promote healing, too much of it is a leading cause of many chronic and deadly diseases. Focusing on reducing inflammation is a great preventative health measure you can take in the comfort of your home and easily incorporate into your daily routine. 

Start by incorporating a couple of these tips. If you’d like more help reducing inflammation and making healthy lifestyle changes, it’s always good to speak with your physician in order to create a plan based on your health and concerns.