Pain and inflammation go together. The majority of pain stems from an inflammatory process. This can be acute (short lived) or chronic (long term) pain.
Inflammation is the natural reaction of a healthy body to an injury or a bite or suchlike. The localised area swells as the body’s defenses move in to deal with the problem. Pain is created to stop you injuring yourself further.
All this is short lived in a healthy body, with a curative outcome. However, chronic inflammation can occur from a variety of problems. This is when the large areas of the body, perhaps the whole body, suffers with pain and swelling.
The common medical treatment for this is with anti-inflammatory medication and analgaesics. But neither of these address the cause of the problem, both simply mask over the effects. Both prevent the body from healing itself properly. They also suppress the immune system and increase toxicity within the body, creating more problems for the future.
There are better ways to treat pain and inflammation. It is preferable to understand the cause before embarking on any treatment.
An unhealthy body may not be able to fully recover from the acute injury that a healthy body can. So the effects can become chronic. A typical example of this is when an old injury develops into arthritis after several years. The arthritis shows that the injury did not heal fully.
One major contribution to chronic inflammation is diet. Diet is critical to good health. You can’t run an unleaded petrol engine on aviation fuel. Neither does your body run well on the wrong food.
Although there are many foods which contribute to poor health, perhaps the wrong ration of omega 3 to 6 fatty acids is the biggest culprit.
The vast majority of people eat a diet that is too high in omega 6, compared with omega 3. A good recommended ratio is around 4:1, that is four of omega 6 to one of omega 3. Most people eat a diet that is closer to 10:1, some even 20:1.
One of the reasons for this is that oil that is high in omega 3 is very unstable and oxidises quickly, whereas that which is high in omega 6 is stable. This means all the margarines, all the cooking oils are high in omega 6.
Eating fried food is unhealthy for many reasons, but this is one of the major reasons.
Even some healthy foods, such as almonds, have a very high ratio, so these need to be limited (but not excluded).
The best foods with the healthiest ratio (less then 10:1) include hempseed, walnuts, macadamia nuts, rye, lentils, peas, apples, bananas, strawberries and other fruit and vegetables.
Those foods which contain more omega 3 than 6 include flaxseed, chia seeds, green beans, kidney beans, lettuce, spinach, aragula (rocket), purslane and other green leafy vegetables.
Simply by addressing your intake of fatty acids to a healthy ratio may completely rid your body of pain and inflammation.
For more information on a healthy diet, click here.