subject: Omega-3 And Fighting Arthritis – Anti-Inflammation Benefits [print this page] It's a disease that affects more than 45 million people in the United States alone and the cause is unknown. Arthritis is a disease that causes joints to become inflamed sometimes to the point of immobility and seems to affect women far more than men. There is no cure for arthritis but there is evidence that anti-inflammation drugs or supplements such as anti-inflammatory fish oil capsules can ease or slow down its progression.
Since it attacks the joints, arthritis can have a serious impact on every movement that you make in your daily life. Beside afflicting the joints, arthritis can affect many different parts of the body and usually comes on slowly over many years. After a period of time serious damage can be done to the bones and cartilage.
Under normal conditions, your immune system reacts to bacteria or injuries by rushing defensive resources to the afflicted area to kill the invading cells or to help repair the area that has been injured. This causes inflammation in the affected area that goes away when the battle is over. In some forms of arthritis, the inflammation remains and continues after the problem has been fixed which then begins to damage the good tissue instead of attacking the bad. Diseases such as arthritis or lupus are known as auto-immune diseases because they are characterized by malfunctions of the bodys immune system.
If inflammation is the root of the problem for diseases like arthritis the best way to deal with the problem is to find ways to reduce the inflammation. There are some common anti-inflammatory activities that help such as maintaining a healthy weight, exercise (in particular stretching activities such as yoga) and medications that reduce the inflammation and ease the pain.
Another powerful way is to avoid foods that cause inflammation. Some foods have a direct effect on increasing the inflammation in your body.
Basically, any food that that contains a high level of unheathy fat will increase inflammation and your risk of a chronic disease. Any kind of junk food, foods high in sugar and fast food increase inflammation. Most meat, eggs and dairy products all contain saturated fats that are also pro-inflammation. Processed meats are particularly bad because they contain arachidonic acid. Too much of this in your diet will make inflammation even worse.
Some types of food can actually decrease inflammation. Foods that contain omega-3 fatty acids are among the most powerful anti-inflammatory agents. Found in abundance in cold water fish such as salmon, sardines, herring, tuna and mackerel, these fatty acids reduce inflammation and are believed to have a wide variety of health benefits ranging from keeping your heart healthy to fighting depression, schizophrenia and even bipolar disorder. Supplementing your diet with pharmaceutical grade fish oil capsules is an easy and effortless way to make sure that you're getting enough of the omega-3 fatty acids that your body needs to fight inflammation.
Omega-3 And Fighting Arthritis Anti-Inflammation Benefits
