subject: Body Inflammation and How You Can Fight it and Win! [print this page] Whole body inflammation might sound like some kind of rare disease. In actuality, it is very common, and one of the three main causes of cellular aging.
Research suggests that people who strive to keep the inflammatory response to a minimum will have a reduced risk of some types of cancer and age-related heart diseases. They go on to say that anti-inflammatory drugs do not provide the same benefits as natural anti-inflammatories.
Many natural anti-inflammatories are found in the plant world; most are antioxidants. It is safe to say that the most potent anti-inflammatory is omega-3 rich fish oil, because it has a number of different effects in the body.
Anti-inflammatories work in different ways. The popular but hazardous Cox-2 inhibitors, for example, work by interfering with a biological pathway that causes the inflammatory response.
Some of the natural anti-inflammatories are poorly understood. No one really knows how they work. But, a great deal of research has been conducted about omega-3 fish oil.
At first, researchers said that it had no "real" anti-inflammatory activity. Omega-3s were simply less inflammatory than the related omega-6 fatty acids. As it turns out, that is only part of the story.
Increasing omega-3 intake while decreasing omega-6s can reduce the amount of total body inflammation, because the omega-6 fatty acids are converted within the body into inflammatory hormones. The omega-3s are converted into less inflammatory hormones and compete for conversion.
So, if there are more of them present in the bloodstream, more of them will be converted and fewer omega-6s will end up converted. Numerous studies have proven this to be true.
In recent years, we have also learned that omega-3s, specifically the kind found in fish oil, stimulate the production of transmitters that signal the immune system to call off inflammation. That's something that should fight total body inflammation or reduce the pain in a single swollen joint.
Finally, it has been proven that fish oil does have true anti-inflammatory activity. Some brands are more active than others in this respect. Manufacturers can have their supplements tested to ensure that they are providing as much anti-inflammatory activity as is humanly possible, but most don't.
In the US, it would be illegal for a manufacturer to say that fish oil is an anti-inflammatory, because that would make it a drug. But, that's okay, because I know and now you know that fish oil fights body inflammation. You just have to choose the right brand.
Body Inflammation and How You Can Fight it and Win!
