| I've been researching this a lot lately. I think the following list (in this order) is the best general advice for tackling/preventing chronic inflammation: 1) Invest more time in compassion/self-compassion 2) Cultivate better social connections (quality more important than quantity) 3) More regular exposure to green natural environments 4) Less junkfood 5) Spend time building up habits that help relax you, such a breathing exercise etc 6) Do work that is meaningful and makes a visible social contribution 7) Varied physical exercise Chronic inflammation happens because the body feels it has to adopt a physiology that has a short term focus of dealing with threats vs a physiology that has a long term focus that promotes rest, growth and rejuvenation. The latter is only possible when the body feels safe and secure and that element is missing in many people's lives, many people's bodies are in the former mode most of the time. Most of the things in the list either promote parasympathetic states enabling the latter, or help build your ability to deal with stressful situations without promoting chronic inflammation. One of the most interesting findings I've come across is that hedonic happiness does not help with inflammation, in fact, people who get most of their happiness through hedonic pursuits actually have genes that express themselves to help bring about inflammation. People that achieve happiness/satisfaction through meaningful endeavors have been shown to have gene expression that is not promoting inflammation. This suggests for example, that spending an afternoon volunteering beats having a fun night out at the cinema, as far as physiological benefits go. Steven Cole (expert in genomics) has some very interesting presentations on this. |