Like all things, inflammation is good and healthy in moderation, but when it becomes chronic, inflammation can cause harm to your body. SoftWaveTRT wants to help you with your chronic inflammation so you can live a happy, inflammation and pain free life.
Chronic Inflammation and its Risks
Chronic inflammation is defined as any and all inflammation that lasts longer than a few weeks. Inflammation is a natural response to processes your body conducts when irritants both physical and chemical are introduced to your system and need to be dealt with. When you sprain your ankle and your ankle becomes swollen and bruised, that’s inflammation. When you get a cold and your throat gets sore, that’s inflammation.
Inflammation on its own is typically no cause for concern, however, if you start to experience inflammation that does not go away after an appropriate amount of time, you may be experiencing chronic inflammation that requires some extra attention.
Chronic inflammation does not just make your life full of aches and pains, but it also can be harmful to your body so it is critically important that you pay attention to your body’s signs and symptoms and act appropriately. When you have chronic inflammation, your body’s natural immune response could start attacking healthy cells, tissues, and organs and can lead to some pretty serious conditions including diabetes, obesity, arthritis, cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s.
Causes of Chronic Inflammation
Chronic inflammation can be caused by a multitude of different factors:
Untreated injuries: if you sprain your ankle or herniate a disc in your spine and don’t seek proper treatment for your injuries, you will likely suffer from chronic pain and inflammation as a result.
Long term chemical exposure: being exposed to harmful chemicals long term can cause inflammation due to the body’s inability to properly heal before another session of exposure.
Autoimmune disorder: if you have an autoimmune disorder that causes your body to attack healthy tissue you will likely suffer from inflammation.
It is always important to note that every individual is unique and is not likely to experience a condition in the exact same way as another individual. These conditions may cause inflammation in some, but not others, there also may be other factors that can cause inflammation.
Diagnosing Chronic Inflammation
No matter the ailment, if you are not feeling healthy and well, we always recommend making a visit to your medical provider to talk about your symptoms and a guided treatment plan.
There are no tests that can be used to diagnose inflammation on its own, but there are tests that can help you figure out what the underlying causes of your inflammation are and help you to better understand your treatment options.
How Do I Reduce Inflammation Naturally?
If you’re not interested in taking prescription medications for your inflammation there are some things you can do to help reduce your inflammation naturally.
- Diet: the types of foods that you eat directly impact your body’s natural processes. If you are eating lots of highly processed foods that are high in sugar, you are likely to be exacerbating your inflammation symptoms. Try relieving inflammation by replacing processed foods in your diet with foods that are high in antioxidants and low in sugar.
- Avoid excessive alcohol consumption: drinking alcohol excessively can impair your liver function and disrupt tissue homeostasis within your GI tract which can lead to increased inflammation.
- Exercise: regular physical activity has a lot of health benefits including reducing inflammation naturally! A study published in Brain, Behavior and Immunity found that even just one 20 minute session of moderate exercise can stimulate the immune system and produce an anti-inflammatory response.
- Manage stress: experiencing chronic stress is bad for the body in many different ways. Chronic stress can trigger an inflammatory response within your body which makes finding healthy ways to reduce and manage stress critical to helping you relieve inflammation.
- Get enough sleep: getting enough sleep is critical to many different bodily processes. Without sleep, your body does not have the proper conditions to perform important tasks such as repairing cells, restoring energy, and releasing important hormones. Making sure you are well rested and getting the recommended 7-9 hours of sleep (for adults) may help you to naturally fight inflammation.
- Consider Holistic Medical Treatment: holistic medical treatment may be able to help you reduce inflammation naturally. Your chiropractor or other holistic medical care provider may encourage physical therapy, regular chiropractic adjustments, or even SoftWave therapy which is a treatment that utilizes shock waves to promote healing and reduce inflammation in the body naturally. If you want to learn more about SoftWave therapy, check out this article.
All in all, inflammation is definitely not something that should be ignored. If chronic inflammation is disrupting your day-to-day life, talk to your healthcare provider about finding a treatment that fits into your lifestyle. While there are methods to reduce inflammation naturally, not all methods are created equal and may not provide you with the best results. If you have tried a number of these recommendations and are still battling chronic inflammation, ask your healthcare provider about SoftWave!
SoftWave has been found to be an effective treatment for chronic inflammation and many other chronic pain conditions. If you are interested in seeking SoftWave therapy but don’t know where to find treatment, visit our Provider Search.
If you are a provider that wants to help your patients reduce their inflammation and treat various other conditions, look here to learn more about becoming a SoftWaveTRT provider.