A miracl e of design, the body has the ability and the intelligence to heal itself. If the body isn't healing, it's because we are stressing the immune system to the point of overload.
Inflammation is a good thing--usually Inflammation is an amazing tool that the body has to fight disease. When a bee stings or a mosquito bites, the area around the wound turns red and a little bump appears as the immune system sends extra fluids with special blood cells to help control the foreign matter that was injected into the wound. After a few minutes or hours the skin returns to normal, the swelling goes down, and hopefully the itch has stopped. This was an inflammatory response that worked well. Sometimes the inflammatory response lasts longer because the injury takes more time to heal. Tennis elbow is an example. While this may seem like disease, here the body may actually be working correctly; it may be that the body’s intelligence is telling the athlete to rest the elbow until the internal injury has fully healed--until the pain and swelling goes away. Anti-inflammatory Drugs If the athlete doesn’t want to wait for the injury to heal, he may go to the doctor and get an anti-inflammatory—an NSAID, a non-steroid anti-inflammatory drug. These drugs interfere with beneficial natural processes and have side-effects, the most important of which are the interference with fat digestion and blood clotting. Using anti-inflammatory drugs is therefore a judgment call. If the pain is bad enough or the interference with daily activities is great enough, taking an NSAID may be the best choice. Most people can easily make that choice but what if the pain never goes away? What if the underlying injury never heals? In those cases the inflammatory response doesn’t seem to work so well. The area becomes inflamed and it just stays that way. Arthritis is an example of an inflammatory response that seems to be permanent; the joint always hurts. What’s the right approach? Most people choose to take aspirin or some other NSAID for arthritis. Sometimes they even feel the need for Celebrex® or some other prescription anti-inflammatory. But is there a more natural approach to chronic inflammation? Supplements for Inflammation There are important natural approaches to improving chronic inflammation. One is supplementing with essential fatty acids (EFAs). This is even more important if the patient is taking NSAIDs because the drugs interfere with fatty acid metabolism. The second approach is getting more anti-oxidants into the diet. A third is using a new form of supplement that improves the ways the cells of the body regenerate themselves. EFAs:
Supplementing with EFAs is very cost effective. They are available at any health food store for 30 to 50 cents per day. They will provide the raw material for many body processes, including cell maintenance in every organ system of the body. Antioxidants: Eating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables is a good way to get more anti-oxidants. Drinking white and green teas is another source. Many supplements are now on the market but get a brand that has a high ORAC number. ORAC is the Oxygen Radical Absorption Capacity—basically a measure of the strength of the antioxidant. Tonics: The third form of supplement is the herbal tonics that are available from a number of reputable companies. An internet search for "herbal tonics" will find several that are usually specialized for a particular body system. Eating the right diet for inflammation A separate approach to arthritis or other chronic inflammation works if there are subtle allergies. Using the “Eat Right For Your Type” diet may remove slight allergies to foods that, while they aren’t causing an obvious allergic reaction, are causing a load on the immune system that is keeping the healing process from being completely effective. Summary Each human body has the ability and the intelligence to heal itself. If a body isn't healing, it's because we are overloading the immune system with stress and toxins. It makes sense to either give the body a few more resources or remove some of the stresses.
