There’s been a lot of news the last few years about chronic inflammation and its debilitating effects on the body, but researchers are still unclear about the causes. Under normal circumstances, the body is supposed to “inflame” a little to mount an immune response and counteract infection — it’s when the body stays in that state that problems occur.

As reported at www.easyhealthoptions.com: “Like every system in the body, the key is balance – because inflammation does have a serious downside. It’s a slippery slope: A normal healing response can progress to an ongoing inflammatory process that spreads throughout the body under the right (or rather, wrong) conditions. Acute inflammation results from a specific injury and subsides with that injury. Prolonged or chronic inflammation reflects an imbalance in this critical response system. And it can drive premature aging and obesity as well as diseases, including aggressive cancer, autoimmune disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease and heart disease.”

What is known is that stress and the wrong foods can exacerbate the problem.

From The Huffington Post we learn: The causes of chronic inflammation can vary person to person, but include being overweight, experiencing lots of stress and even breathing polluted air, Women’s Health reported. Lifestyle choices, like smoking or lack of exercise, also play a role. “Sedentary lifestyle, lack of sleep — we have these repetitive insults that increase longer-term inflammation,” says Jessica Black, N.D., author of The Anti-Inflammatory Diet and Recipe Book.

Foods to avoid include trans fats and saturated fats, gluten along with white bread and white pasta, and excessive amounts of sugar and alcohol. But most of us have already reduced or eliminated those items, right? So why are we still having problems? One answer may be to reduce the number of meals that are cooked at high heat — foods that have been grilled, broiled, or fried contain higer levels of a toxin known as advanced glycation end product or AGE. For some, any animal product at all can increase the body’s immune response and the answer may be to go entirely vegan. Finally, increasing Omega 3 oils in foods such as fatty fish and walnuts, may have a beneficial effect.

Click here for Dr. Andrew Weil’s Anti-Inflammatory Food Pyramid