A guide on helping inflammation

Inflammation is part of the body’s defence mechanism. It is a healing process that helps your body heal and remove harmful antigens in your body. Inflammation is something that can be seen on the outside such as a redness around a foreign object on your skin but its also doing its thing on the inside.

When inflammation happens, chemicals from your white blood cells enter your blood or tissue of the affected area to protect your body. Often you know something is going on due to a pain or fever. These are symptoms of your body doing its job.

when i was in my early 20’s i started to wonder if I had an issue with excessive inflammation?

I often felt poorly, had a tempreture, body aches and was often tired. Sometimes my body was painful to touch especially my rib area. I also had a dizzyness that just nagged away in the background. I knew i didn’t feel right but carried on as i couldn’t figure it out. I then developed POTS which stands for Postural orthostic Tachycardia Syndrome which is an increase or heart rate when standing but also had a host of other issues that came with it. When i had my first child i then developed Crohns Disease which is inflammation of the gut.

I went to the doctors and they gave me steroids but anyone with inflammation knows that inflammation can pop up almost anywhere in the body so steroids is just a temporary fix and definitely doesn’t get to the root of the problem.

I have been Crohn’s free now for three years and i would love to help people achieve the same in their autoimmune journeys.

My journey started when i started to think to myself, why do some peoples bodies attack itself causing autoimmune conditions and why doesn’t the body stop itself at times. I thought it must be either one of two things or maybe a bit of both..

1) My body’s nervous system and vagal tone is off or unbalanced.

2) The virus or issue causing the fuss hasn’t been fully eradicated causing it to still react.

As good as the steroids are at stopping your body from causing inflammation it doesn’t make sense to me to stop a healthy process that your body uses to keep you safe. Why would i want to compromise?

We need to make sure our vagal tone is working the best it can be and manage our stress levels.

Vagal tone is the activity of your vagus nerve. It is the fundamental component of the parasympathetic nervous system. I believe your nervous system can be damaged by all sorts throughout life such as excess stress, environmental, viruses, bacteria and many more but amongst all of that i believe you can mend and heal.

There are many ways to strengthen your vagus nerve. My favourite way that has worked for me is cold water therapy. It can trigger the vagus nerve into action by introducing a stress response to your body. It tells your body to get the temperature to normal which in doing this will activate your parasympathetic nervous system. It is also great for increasing circulation, slowing down your heart rate, your breathing rate, promoting digestion and controlling your blood pressure. The body then enters a state of relaxation which helps with inflammation.

There are many other things that can increase your vagal tone such as exercise, laughter, gargling, singing, breath-work and many more which i will go into in another post.

I do believe it’s a combination of lots of different ways of living that can decrease inflammation and give you great body health. The body is so complex but i believe that as quickly as you see that red mark on your finger your body is capable of healing just as fast inside and out.

I understand that everyone’s vagal tone and immune system are different to one another and also can have genetic factors. We are all unique and should be treating our bodies with what works for the individual. Some people may have to take extra steps to keep it balanced. The body is remarkable and will soon set itself to a routine you give it. Good or bad.