Most people have heard about inflammation by now, although few people truly understand what it is. This has been the primary subject of my work with clients since 2015. If you are suffering from a chronic illness or chronic symptom, the chances are that you haven’t addressed this pesky underlying cause.

In the following 5 minute video, you’ll learn about what chronic inflammation is, how I discovered it with my own healing of eczema journey (1 minute), and how to address it. I’m a huge believer in simplifying health – all things in fact. Why be complicated, when we can be simple? The final 2 minutes are Q & A from this presentation I did a few weeks ago. One was “what is inflammation?” Another was discussing the impact of emotions on our health, and the final question was asking for a checklist. That checklist is coming.

Below the video, and below the text, you will find an inflammation quiz. I invite you to take it, and see if you can get an understanding of whether you are inflamed or not, and your next steps to free yourself from illness, pain, and even medication (subject to your Doctor’s approval of course).

What is Inflammation? A Simple Guide..

Have hit your thumb and noticed that it gets all red and puffy? That’s your body’s way of saying, “Hey, I got hurt!” and it’s trying to fix it. That red, puffyness is called inflammation. It’s like your body’s team of doctors rushing to help where it hurts. It’s your immune system – aka your “army of defenders” getting to work to fix you.

Sometimes, your body gets a little overworked. Not from a hammer hitting your thumb, but something entering your body, that your body doesn’t recognise, considers it a threat, and your army gets to work to protect you from the treat.

That’s what happens when we get chronic inflammation. It’s like your body’s doctors don’t stop fixing, even when they don’t need to.

So, what makes your body think it has to keep fixing things? Well, there are two big reasons: toxins and traumm (and chronic stress)

1. Toxins Are Like Trash in Your Body

Toxins are like trash that shouldn’t be in your body. They can come from “foods” that aren’t good for us (that shouldn’t be called food), dirty air, polutants, chemicals, pesticides, even things we touch. Just like how you wouldn’t want your room full of litter, your body doesn’t like toxins because they can make it sick. A little is ok, the body has its detoxification pathways, but too much? It gets overloaded – and that also weakens your immune system against other intruders – such as a bug or virus.

2. Stress and Trapped Emotions Weaken Your Immune System 

Chronic stress prevents your immune system working optimally.  Stress hormones actually weaken the immune system. It is often spoke about how 90% of illness is due to chronic stress. Stress is not what most consider it to be though. Whislt we might think a traffic jam is “stressful” it’s our reaction to slow moving or stationary cars.  In other words, a neutral event. This is my favourite defintion of stress: Stress is our internal response to external strains. Another way of saying this, is our perception of events in our lives is what causes what we consider stress to be. It’s not the events themselves. Years of emotional intelligence training has helped me to remain much calmer in times that would otherwise cause me to be “stressed.” I’ll share more another time – or you can learn from my latest books, linked below.

What causes some people to overreact to certain situations, where others remain calm? Simply: trapped emotions & trauma. Aka PTSD.  It’s a lot easier than you might think to release trapped emotions, and when we do this, we become much less “stressed.” Ultimately, we want to create meaning around events in our lives that does not create suffering within us. Easier said than done, but a superbly powerful tool.

Why Should We Care About Inflammation?

If we don’t take care of these toxins and stress, our body’s doctors get super busy and can make a mistake by hurting parts of our body that are actually okay. This can make us feel sick, tired, and really grumpy all the time. It’s like having a cold that never goes away, which is no fun

How Do We Make Inflammation Go Away?

Firsttly, start with diet, and remove or limit anything that is a toxin. For example:

• Fake or processed food – if you don’t recognise an ingredient, your body won’t either. #inflammation
• Fried food.
• Gluten (wheat) – particulalry in the US where it has been through mutagenesis, and is Round Up Ready. A recipe for inflammation. Man has tampered with Nature. If man made it, don’t eat it!
• GMOs – as above, when man interferes with Nature, this is a huge gamble. Check out the GMO OMG documentary to find out what happens in our bodies when we consume GMOs.
• Most can benefit by replacing gluten and dairy and limiting sugar. And when we up our micronutrient intake (from vegetables and fruits), that helps considerably. Diet is a big topic of course, looked at in depth in The Vitality Secret (2016) and summarised in The Vitality Code.  Drinking lots of toxin-free water helps too, after all, it’s our #2 cell fuel after oxygen. Reducing inflammation is a big topic, but it’s not that complicated when you get your head around what it is.

And guess what? I created a fun quiz! It’s like a treasure hunt to understand how your body feels.  If you’re feeling curious, take the quiz and see if you can help your body’s army of defenders take a break and stop the inflammation.

Remember, your body is a powerful self-healing machine, beautfully built, and sometimes it just needs a little help from us to stay in balance, happy and Vital.