WholeLife Pharmacy & Healthfoods Reducing Inflammation

WholeLife Pharmacy & Healthfoods |Reducing Inflammation
Vince Pappalardo 
 : wholelife.com.au
Co-Founder and Pharmacist

It’s important to manage the inflammation in our bodies for many reasons. Inflammation is a natural process of the body caused by injury or infection. It helps protect the body by removing harmful stimuli such as bacteria or damaged cells. It helps initiate the healing process. However, when inflammation becomes chronic, it can lead to a host of health problems such as heart disease, diabetes, and even cancer. So it is important we keep it under control.

What we eat can help reduce inflammation in the body. And it’s not really a question of which foods are the best to eat to reduce inflammation, it’s about which foods are the best to avoid. What’s inflammatory for some people won’t be for others. So the key is to identify what’s inflammatory for an individual person, and try to remove that. In the meantime, if someone is suffering inflammation, there are supplements we can use to help them get through that inflammation while we find that inflammatory source.

In terms of supplements, there’s probiotics, there’s things like turmeric and ginger, which help with inflammatory processes. But I guess the key is to optimise the gut microbiome.

By doing that, we get the maximum nutrients from our food we eat, and we prevent leaky gut syndrome.

Leaky gut can develop over a period of chronic inflammation. This affects nutrient absorption and suboptimal health.

There’s not a one size fits all when it comes to inflammation. Some people will benefit from certain greens, fruits and vegetables – others will find them inflammatory. So, it really is finding your own journey and finding what works for you and what doesn’t.

If they’re suffering chronic inflammation, it’s a matter of narrowing down what’s causing that inflammation and that is quite a process. So talking to a health professional, a dietitian, GP, pharmacist, can definitely help you get on the right road.

Avoid certain types of foods if you suffer from inflammation. Firstly start with processed foods, those high in sugar, salt and fat. Secondly, refined carbohydrates, which hold very little nutrient value. And thirdly, your trans fats, like your polyunsaturated monounsaturated fats, which can cause chronic inflammation and should be avoided.