Inflammation is part of your body's natural defenses-when a cut swells up and turns red, that's inflammation at work healing you. But when it goes into overdrive, sparked by factors like poor diet and smoking, it can cause a host of health problems including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, arthritis (including psoriatic arthritis), cancer and even depression. Tame it with these strategies.
Turmeric is having a moment, thanks largely to curcumin-a compound that gives the sunny spice its anti-inflammatory powers. According to a recent review, curcumin reduces the production of a protein that makes your immune system work overtime. These studies used high doses of curcumin (up to 1,500 mg/day), so it may be worth asking your doctor about supplements. You may not be able to get that much from food (5 teaspoons ground turmeric or 2 ounces fresh has 500 mg of curcumin). But the spice's anti-inflammatory potential is still a good reason to sprinkle it liberally on roasted veggies or sip those trendy golden lattes.
Here's yet another reason not to skimp on green leafy vegetables they are rich in magnesium, a mineral that about half of us don't consume enough of. "I encourage anyone who's susceptible to inflammation to assess their magnesium intake," says Forrest H. Nielsen, Ph.D., a research nutritionist at the USDA's Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center in North Dakota. (Ask your doctor to check your magnesium levels with a blood test.) There's a lot of evidence that people with high inflammatory markers often have low magnesium levels. Plus, people who have conditions associated with inflammation, like heart disease and diabetes, also tend to have low magnesium levels
Speaking of color, green isn't the only one that's good for you. Women who regularly consume roughly 40 mg per day of anthocyanins-the compound that gives produce its deep red and purple hues-have 18 percent lower levels of C-reactive protein, a measure of inflammatory activity, compared to those who eat minimal amounts of them, U.K. researchers found. You can get that daily dose of anthocyanins from 1/3 cup of blackberries, 18 red grapes or 1 cup of shredded red cabbage
Frequently frazzled? A study in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity found that people who have a strong emotional reaction to stressful tasks (you bite your nails when you have to make a presentation at work or get tense when someone presses your buttons) experience a greater increase in circulating interleukin-6 (a marker of inflammation) during times of stress than those who take stressful tasks in stride. While stress harms your body in many ways, Christopher P. Cannon, M.D., a professor at Harvard Medical School. puts it like this: "Stress increases blood pressure and heart rate, making your blood vessels work harder. Essentially, you're pounding on them more often and creating damage. If that damage happens over and over, inflammation persists."
Even if coffee is your beverage of choice, you might not want to bag tea altogether-especially the green variety. Green tea is full of potent antioxidants that help quell inflammation.
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