If, like me and my Son, you have asthma or a skin condition like eczema, you have inflammation in the body.
Other health issues linked with body inflammation include painful, aching joints or muscles, changeable bowel motions, or acne. For sufferers like us, it’s another thing (or two!) to deal with on top of all the challenges we already deal with as a working professional and caregiver.
Fortunately, there are ways to prevent inflammation occurring in our body.
To begin with, we must understand what internal and/or external factors trigger body inflammation. Once we know, we can do something about these triggers to improve our eczema, asthma, and body inflammation.
So, what is body inflammation and what triggers it?
Inflammation is our body’s immune system’s response to an irritant. The irritant might be a germ, or a foreign object like a splinter in a finger. Inflammation is the process by which our immune system recognises and removes harmful and foreign stimuli and begins the healing process.
Inflammation can be acute or chronic. Acute inflammation is an immediate response to tissue damage that may cause redness, heat, pain and swelling as a result of an injury or getting an infection. The body sends specific immune cells to the site of the tissue affected to control the infection, repair damaged tissue, and begin the healing process.
Chronic inflammation is unresolved inflammation that is ongoing. It can last for months or years, and occurs when the body is unable to repair or heal the damage caused by an injury or infection. Chronic inflammation symptoms can include abdominal pain, fatigue, fever, joint pain, and skin rash. Chronic inflammation is associated with conditions like asthma, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, arthritis and inflammatory bowel conditions like ulcerative colitis.
Is there a link between asthma and eczema?
Asthma and eczema are linked to inflammation, and medical cases suggests having one condition makes you more likely than most people to have the other.
Not everyone with asthma has eczema. But there’s a strong link between having eczema as a child and developing asthma later on in life. It would appear this is what happened with our Son. First came the food allergies followed by eczema and then, about a year later, asthma. These conditions may also be hereditary.
Both eczema and asthma are linked to inflammation that’s often caused by a strong reaction to environmental allergens. This strong (allergic) reaction happens when our immune system overreacts to certain benign substances it sees as harmful. One unintended consequence of this response is increased body inflammation.
Asthma and eczema triggers
Many things trigger asthma and eczema flare-ups. You’ll notice that some triggers will aggravate both.
- dust mites
- pollen
- mold
- animal dander
- cold or dry air
- stress
- bacterial or viral skin infections
- exposure to irritants found in detergents, soaps, fragrances, chemicals, and smoke
- heat and humidity
- cold or dry air
- stress
- upper respiratory infections
- exposure to irritants like smoke, air pollution, or strong odors
- heartburn
- exercise
Managing asthma and eczema
We can do our best to manage external triggers by:
- using an air conditioner at home;
- keeping windows closed;
- washing bedding every week in hot water;
- vacuuming carpets and rugs once a week;
- keeping pets out of the bedroom;
- taking showers immediately after we’ve been out and before bedtime.
With internal triggers, certain dietary and lifestyle practices such as eating sugar, drinking coffee and too much stress can also bring on inflammation. Here are the worst inflammatory foods we should try to avoid:
Fried foods
Like fish and chips, fried chicken, crisps, and tempura. These foods cooked at very high temperatures produce compounds in the body called Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs) that stimulate inflammation.
Sugar and refined carbohydrates
Like white bread, pastries, pizza, breakfast cereals, fizzy drinks and sweetened drinks. These are full of sugar, which triggers our liver to produce fatty acids which when digested by the body, creates compounds that inflame the body.
Gluten
Can trigger an inflammatory response in people who are sensitive to it. The immune system sees the gluten molecules as a threat and causes the immune cells to attack the small intestine. This leads to inflammation and damage to the intestinal wall.
Processed and packaged foods
Like breakfast cereals, snack bars, ham and chicken slices, pizza, condiments and sauces have a lot of hidden sugars, salt, additives and preservatives – all of which contribute to inflammation in the body;
Margarine
Is inflammatory because it’s considered a trans-fat, which is a type of unsaturated fat that is harmful for the body. While margarine is being made, hydrogen is added to vegetable oil to make it solid at room temperature and spreadable like butter. The hydrogenation process changes and damages the chemical structure of the oil. Other foods that contain trans-fats include vegetable oils like rapeseed oil, pastries, cakes, doughnuts, bread, biscuits, crackers and ice cream;
Red meat and processed meats
Including deli meats, hot dogs, sausages, smoked meat, bacon and beef jerky are high in saturated fats, which can cause tissue inflammation. Meat also produce AGEs (referenced above), which trigger inflammation in the body;
Pasteurised cow’s milk
Including cow’s milk products like cheese and ice cream can cause acidity, excess mucous and inflammation. Milk can aggravate the immune system and trigger inflammatory conditions such as acne, eczema, asthma, ulcerative colitis and rheumatoid arthritis.
So, if like me and my Son you’re living with asthma and/or eczema, or other conditions like changeable bowel motions or acne, there are ways to prevent body inflammation. Let me know how you get on and if you have tips and advice to share, I’d love to hear from you!
You can also read more about the health benefits of a plant based diet in blog #10. including why it’s great for allergy sufferers.
