What if I were to tell you that I knew the cure to heart
disease, arthritis and Alzheimer’s? Well, you’d
probably want to know what it was and where to get it.
Unfortunately for us, however, there is currently no magic wand for
these conditions, but we may be closer than we think.
There is one thing that these diseases all have in common,
inflammation. Inflammation is something many of us don’t give
much thought to unless we directly hurt ourselves.
Acute inflammation occurs as our tissues’ first line of
defence against harm. When you injure yourself, such as by cutting
your finger or scraping your knee, your body immediately forms a
blood clot and white blood cells move into the area to fight
infection and begin the healing process. As blood vessels dilate to
bring blood and nutrients to the tissue, fluids and cells pool in
the tissue around the wound and cause characteristic swelling and
pain.
The body, however, sometimes gets it wrong. It sees some of its
own cells as alien invaders and attacks healthy tissue, causing it
to become inflamed. If this continues for long periods of time, it
can cause untold damage to organs, blood vessels and tissues.
What many of us don’t realize is that our own
bodies’ are often in a low-level state of inappropriate
inflammation, known as silent inflammation’, due to our diet
and lifestyle choices. This significantly increases our risk of
atherosclerosis, heart disease, diabetes, stroke, dementia and
Alzheimer’s disease, to mention but a few.
Silent inflammation is associated with a constant elevation of
pro-inflammatory chemicals in our body. Unfortunately our modern
diet is loaded with substances that trigger their release.
The principal perpetrator, omega 6, lurks in excess within the
majority of our pre-prepared, processed foods and vegetables oils.
Because omega 6 acts as a precursor to the chemicals that initiate
and control the inflammatory process, it is this excess in our diet
that encourages silent inflammation in our body.
Dietary omega 3 on the other hand helps to counteract this
reaction. Acting as an anti-inflammatory, it can help to decrease
the concentrations of inflammatory chemicals within the tissues. In
fact, studies have shown that the higher the intake of omega 3
fatty acids, the lower the levels of inflammatory chemicals found
within the body, especially those generated by omega 6 fatty
acids.
To prevent silent inflammation and significantly reduce your
risk of heart disease, arthritis and Alzheimer’s, you need to
balance the omega essential fatty acids in your diet. Omega 6
should never outweigh omega 3 more than 5:1 and ideally an optimum
ratio would be 3:1 or less.
You can easily cut out excess omega 6 by replacing seed (e.g.
sunflower) cooking oils with olive oil and cutting down on
processed foods. The UK Government suggests that we consume 450mg
omega 3 essential fatty acids daily, but many experts recommend at
least 1,000mg each day in order to address the balance and obtain
the most benefits. You can increase your omega 3 intake by eating
more oily fish, or if you don’t like fish or are concerned
about environmental pollutants, a pure fish oil supplement is a
convenient way to get your daily dose.
Why not check out your omega ratio by taking Healthspan’s
NutriProfile at www.nutriprofile.org?
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