If you catch every cold or ‘flu that is going around, or are constantly tired, or have aches and pains in the joints and muscles for no good reason, then your body may well be signaling to you that it is suffering from Chronic Sistemic Inflammation.
‘If only I’d known this years ago, I could have stopped things in their tracks.’ That’s what I thought when I first read a list of signs and symptoms back in 2014. My body had been alerting me for years – decades, even – but I didn’t know how to interpret the warnings. The hayfever, the sinisitis, the tendonitis, the mucous. The inexplainable fatigue. The horizontal ridges and verticle lines in my fingernails. The blotches that would appear on my skin. And, oh, the digestive issues which I thought were, well, sort of normal.
To be honest, I think I’ve been lucky. I think – I hope – that I’ve managed, in fact, to stop things in their tracks through adopting the Paleo Diet and Lifestyle. I have what I call ‘an autoimmune situation’, which thankfully hasn’t exploded into any particular autoimmune disease. I have auto-antibodies which are alive and kicking, but their numbers are low. I still have inflammation in my hips and lower back, but it’s not completely debilitating any more. It’s annoying, frustrating, and it limits my movements, but I’m not lying on the couch, taking anti-inflammatories and painkillers. Nonetheless, I really wish I’d known what was going on a good twenty years ago.
Is your body sending you the signals that it’s suffering from Chronic Sistemic Inflammation? Be alert to the following signs.
Signs and Symptoms of Chronic Sistemic Inflammation
Weak Immunity
- Tendency to catch colds and ‘flu
Muscular and Skeletal
- Ongoing aches and pains in the joints and muscles
- Chronic Tendonitis
- Osteoporosis
Digestive
- Acid reflux, heartburn
- Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Constipation, Diarrhea
- Colitis
- Crohn’s disease
- Gastroenteritis
- Gingevitis
- Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO)
Respiratory
- Asthma
- Bronchitis
- Seasonal allergies and hayfever
- Sinisitis
Circulatory
- High blood pressure, high cholesterol, high triglycerides
- Diabetes 1 & 2
- Heart Disease
Nervous
- Constant fatigue and lethargy
- Bipolar disorder
- Dimentia
- Depression
- Fibromyalgia
- Migraines and headaches
- Parkinson’s disease
- Seizures
Skin
- Acne, rashes, allergies
- Dermatitis
- Eczema
- Psoriasis
Autoimmune Disease (all, including but not limited to)
- Arthritis
- Alzhiemer’s disease
- Rheumatoid Arthritis
- Celiac disease
- Hashimoto’s tyroiditis
- Lupus
- Lyme Disease
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Scleroderma
Reproductive
- Endometriosis
- Infertility
As well as
- Cancer
- Hepatitis
- Obesity
- Heart Disease
This list is by no means comprehensive. There’s a longer list in It Start’s With Food by Dallas and Melissa Hartwig… but their list isn’t comprehensive, either. As mentioned in the post What is Inflammation and When Is It Unhealthy?, studies are suggesting that pretty much all disease stems from chronic inflammation.
How to Avoid Chronic Sistemic Inflammation
Thankfully, there are ways of reducing chronic inflammation, even to the point of being inflammation-free. Eliminating the foods which cause direct or indirect inflammatory responses in the body – grains and legumes, dairy, sugar and alcohol, refined industrial seed oils – is the most immediate and proactive thing we can do. Choosing a lifestyle which is low-stress, sleeping at least 8 hours every night, and engaging in physical exercise are factors which work synergistically with our dietary choices. In a nutshell, one of the best ways to reduce inflammation is through the Paleo Diet and Lifestyle.
Read the related posts here on Paleomantic:
What is Inflammation and When is it Unhealthy?
Is Your Leaky Gut Getting You Down?
What’s Wrong with Grains and Legumes?
What are your experiences of Inflammation? How has it manifested in your body? What techniques have you used to reduce inflammation, and what would you recommend to others?
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Best Wishes, Good Health and Happiness
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