14 Warning Signs That There’s Hidden Inflammation in Your Body (and How to Get Rid of It)

Health

Recent studies have found that exercise may help with reducing inflammation in the body:

“It is well established that physically fit individuals have a reduced risk of developing CDC (cardiovascular disease) and other age-related chronic disorders… Chronic low-grade systemic inflammation may be involved in atherosclerosis, diabetes and in pathogenesis of several chronic pathological conditions; recent findings confirm that physical activity induces an increase in the systemic levels of a number of cytokines and chemokines with anti-inflammatory properties…”

One of my favorite sayings is: Movement is life.

I know a lot of people groan when they hear the word “exercise” so I will simply refer to it as movement.

Our bodies were born to move. To walk. To run. To feel. To become stronger and more powerful. When we choose not to take advantage of our body’s love of movement, we become stagnant. Think of what happens to a pond of water that has no in or out flow. It becomes murky… cloudy, right? The same thing happens inside your body when you refuse to move it.

Have you ever spent several days or week cooped up only to feel your joints and muscles tightening up, maybe even causing pain? This is because the gel like substance - synovial fluid - in between your joints thickens the less you use it. When you are not actively mobile, you could actually start to feel more pain (I know because I experience this whenever I miss a workout, which I don’t allow to happen too often).

If you are not working out actively, a great place to start and what we have our coaching students do, is to simply walk 10 minutes a day. This also helps to lower cortisol (remember that stress hormone I talked about). You don’t have to love the gym or run 5 miles a day. Find ways that YOU love to move. Take up martial arts, fencing, ice skating, swimming, dancing or another pastime that will get your heart pumping. Or just take the time to walk out in the fresh air and soak up some vitamin D. It will do wonders for your health.

Mindfulness

The truth is, it is often the little voice inside our own head—the story that that we tell ourselves—that causes us to experience the greatest amount of stress. Rarely do the feelings have anything to do with the actual situation or person. By letting go of these negative thoughts and allowing ourselves the space necessary to find gratitude in the situation, we can find peace, focus on what we’ve learned and move on.

While mindfulness may not seem like that big of a deal, consider this: negative thoughts create a stress in the body. Too much stress creates inflammation, which, when chronic (constant, persistent), creates the perfect home for illness and disease. So essentially, negative thoughts, over time, create disease in the body.

The good news is that we get to choose what we let in and how we react. So even if thinking positively doesn’t come naturally for you, consider the benefits of doing so the next time you allow your mind to shift to the dark side and commit to raising your level of mindfulness—awareness—to improve your circumstances.

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