Do You Know What Inflammation Is?

This is a subject that is very true to me. I absolutely and without a doubt believe this is the number one cause of all skin and health problems!

Firstly though, how would you define inflammation?

Most people think of redness, burning, and overall discomfort, right?


Yes and no.

Yes, these can be some symptoms of inflammation, but no, inflammation doesn’t necessarily need to look like this. It can be silent, meaning you may not notice any outward physical indicators, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have it.

I will expand more on this subject later, but for right now I want to plant the seed that gets you thinking a little differently about your skin and what you’re eating.

I want to put a big question mark in your mind. You’ll thank me later!
The way I see it, inflammation does have its benefits as an evolutionary tool our body uses, similar to stress.

Stress, or what’s known as the “fight or flight response”, has been very useful for our ancestors when being animal’s prey was a constant possibility. It allowed a large amount of adrenaline to be pumped through the system to give the endagered human the ability to outrun and outsmart his or her attacker.

It still serves us today in times of danger.

However, this was intended for just that- moments of danger. In today’s society with more technology, more demands, more efficiency and less hours of sleep, we keep our bodies in this constant state of “fighting off danger” whether we realize it or not. Whether it’s there or not.

It gradually takes a toll on our health and weakens our immune system. It also opens us up to adrenal fatigue, fluctuations in hormone levels and overall draining and weakness.
Stress is useful in the small spurts it was intended for, but chronic stress harms us.
Likewise, inflammation has its place in our body’s ability to protect us. When we get a cut for example, inflammation is our friend. Our skin gets red because more blood is being sent to the affected area, increasing the white blood cells to fight off infection, and the area swells to give added padding and protection.

However, just like with chronic stress, chronic inflammation begins to harm us when it’s ongoing.

It creates more free-radicals and actually begins breaking down our tissue. It’s almost as if we turn our own protective mechanisms against us.

In the skin care world, it seems we can’t get enough of inflicting wounds onto our skin through the constant (and sometimes abusive) use of peels, Retin-A, Obagi or other lightening systems, lasers and microdermabrasion.

Am I saying you shouldn’t ever do any of these things?

No.

What I am saying is that we have gotten used to being hard on ourselves and think that being hard on our skin is the only way to get better results, faster. We deplete our skin constantly and fail to create balance…

And guess what? Your skin will rebel. It’s only a matter of time.

I will leave you with this and next post I will explain how and why and what you can do to turn it around, even if you are peeling and lasering.

Stay tuned…