How Your Body Reacts To Injury
Any injury produces inflammation. Although this is a crucial part of the natural healing process, it provides a big challenge for your immune system, which is heavily dependent on lots of nutrients, vitamins and minerals to provide effective protection.
When injured, the body stimulates the immune system to start a complex chain of reactions to begin the healing process. Specialist immune cells travel to the site of injury, with some engulfing and destroying infection/bacteria and others isolating the affected area. Healthy cells near the injury also become more active, using extra oxygen and energy to rebuild the damaged tissue. So good nutrition is essential.
Your food choices can either help or actively inhibit a speedy recovery, so read on to find out how you can help yourself:
Foods That Help Your Immune System
Slow Down And Listen To Your Body
When youre not paying attention to your hunger and fullness cues, its easy to overeat and experience gas, bloating and indigestion.
Its a commonly held belief that it takes 20 minutes for your brain to realize that your stomach is full.
While theres not a lot of hard science to back up this claim, it does take time for hormones released by your stomach in response to food to reach your brain .
Therefore, taking the time to eat slowly and pay attention to how full youre getting is one way to prevent common digestive problems.
Additionally, emotional eating negatively impacts your digestion. In one study, people who ate when they were anxious experienced higher levels of indigestion and bloating (
Reducing your consumption of alcohol may help your digestion.
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How To Heal Through Food
- Slowly remove common allergens, like gluten, soy and dairy, from your diet. Take one food at a time if you need to, so that you can adjust and find healthy replacements in your meals.
- Replace sugars and chemically-derived treats with natural sweeteners and homemade desserts.
- If you eat meat, purchase the best quality that you can. I opt for organic and grass-fed animal products as much as possible.
- Fill half of your plate with fresh vegetablesand reduce your pesticide consumption by opting for organics.
- Eat in season. Look for whats most abundant in your area nature always knows best! Those leafy greens will taste better if they are in season.
- Avoid eating raw foods if your digestion is sluggish. Gently cooked foods and soothing soups are easier on your system.
- Drink plenty of water throughout the day. A good rule is to consume half of your body weight in ounces. So if you weigh 120 pounds, 60 ounces or 7.5 cups is ideal.
I created this list of 10 Easy Ways to Transform Your Health Right Now which you can download and print out. It echos what I have listed above as small ways to begin making positive changes in your life, to help you on your way to creating healing in your diet. Just pick one of these to focus on, for a week or even a month, and then when that feels easy, start working on another change. Keep adding one change at a time until you start to feel a change. They are all habits that build on each other.
Increase your Nutrition Knowledge
Doctors Are Learning That One Of The Best Ways To Reduce Inflammation Lies Not In The Medicine Cabinet But In The Refrigerator By Following An Anti
What does an anti-inflammatory diet do? Your immune system becomes activated when your body recognizes anything that is foreignsuch as an invading microbe, plant pollen, or chemical. This often triggers a process called inflammation. Intermittent bouts of inflammation directed at truly threatening invaders protect your health.
However, sometimes inflammation persists, day in and day out, even when you are not threatened by a foreign invader. That’s when inflammation can become your enemy. Many major diseases that plague usincluding cancer, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, depression, and Alzheimer’shave been linked to chronic inflammation.
One of the most powerful tools to combat inflammation comes not from the pharmacy, but from the grocery store. “Many experimental studies have shown that components of foods or beverages may have anti-inflammatory effects,” says Dr. Frank Hu, professor of nutrition and epidemiology in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health.
Choose the right anti-inflammatory foods, and you may be able to reduce your risk of illness. Consistently pick the wrong ones, and you could accelerate the inflammatory disease process.
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Try to avoid or limit these foods as much as possible:
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Healing Food Containing Micronutrients
While it is best to eat a variety of foods to ensure you get all the nutrients you need for wound healing, some good choices include:
- Foods high in minerals: oysters, spinach, nuts such as cashews, legumes such as peanuts, dairy products, black beans and lentils, bananas, and fish.
- Foods high in vitamins: citrus fruits, bell peppers, whole grains, eggs, dark leafy greens, fish, lean meats, leafy greens, soybeans, almonds, sweet potatoes, and milk.
So When Is It Worth Considering A Supplement
Manaker insists that a food-first approach is usually best, but a supplement can be beneficial if a person’s diet is lacking foods that contain this nutrient. That said, she cautions that since its a fat soluble vitamin, its not one that people should megadose as there are risks associated with overwhelming the body with this category of vitamin. Always speak with your health care professional before starting a new supplement regimen.
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Micronutrients And Wound Healing
The micronutrients needed for a healthy diet include vitamins and minerals. While your body needs a wide range of micronutrients, research shows that zinc and vitamins A and C are among some of the most vital for wound healing. Each of these micronutrients is essential to the bodys innate healing processes, and when you dont receive enough, you may notice that you start to feel more run down than usual. They also help with the bodys inflammatory response and help produce collagen.
Other notable micronutrients that are important to wound healing include magnesium, iron, copper, vitamin E, and vitamin B.
How Food Affects Health
The foods you eat help your immune system. Inflammation is a natural alert to fight invaders. But, if it goes on too long, it can hurt you and your ability to fight disease effectively.
Foods to help you reduce inflammation include:
- Apples, berries, tomatoes, celery and onions
- Yogurt, sauerkraut and kombucha
- Salmon, walnuts and chia seeds
No matter your shape or size, your body is beautiful. Its okay if youve been eating more comfort food than usual. See if there are ways to mix these invader-fighting foods into your lifestyle. A great first step would be adding a few new foods to your shopping list.
Each week, were focusing on one of the three pillars to improve your overall health and support your immune system.
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How Much Vitamin A Do We Need
The amount of vitamin A a person needs depends, of course, on age and sex.
Adult men need 900 mcg RAE, while adult women need 700 mcg RAE, says Manaker. Pregnant women need 770 mcg RAE and lactating women need 1,300 mcg RAE. For a visual of quantities she highlights that 1/2 sweet potato will give you around 700 mcg RAE, five dried apricots have 63 mcg RAE, and a whole mango has approximately 110 mcg RAE.
Can Supplements Prevent Covid
No single food, nutrient or supplement can prevent coronavirus infection, but eating healthy helps your body fight disease. Its all about balance. Supplements can be helpful, but only if youre not getting enough of those nutrients regularly.
Supplements can actually be bad for you if you take too much at one time. Everything is best in moderation. If you have underlying or chronic health conditions, check with your primary care provider before taking them.
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Visualize Yourself In Perfect Health
Your body is already trying to repair itself. Include your thoughts in this process. Sooner or later, the images in our minds will become our reality. Have a vision for your future, which includes perfect health. Return to that mental picture regularly throughout the day.
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How To Detox Your Body Naturally With Healing Foods
Learning how to detox your body naturally in order to combat the accumulation of toxins is vital the elimination of which is crucial to improving your health and overcoming disease. While many extensive cleansing programs do exist that can help to facilitate this process, a number of natural healing foods also present a powerful opportunity to help fight against toxic buildup and alleviate compounding stress that may be overburdening your organs. Thankfully there are a number of foods that are notable due to their unique ability to help stimulate organ processes, fight toxic buildup, and enhance your overall biological functions.
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/8why Do We Need Collagen
Collagen is the primary structural component of your skin, muscles, bones, tendons, ligaments, and other connective tissues. Since the body cannot produce these amino acids to make collagen, we must rely on protein sources that contain all nine essential amino acids, such as poultry, eggs, dairy, soy, quinoa, and buckwheat. Collagen is not only beneficial for skin, but also necessary for good health. Providing structure, strength, and support throughout your body is the primary function of collagen. Some specific benefits of collagen are-
How Detox Foods Can Boost Your Detoxification Ability
Research shows there are specific foods that can help your body boost its detox power.
Unlike many of the popular detox programs and supplements out there, these foods help your body flush out toxins. And they also provide many other positive health benefits, as well.
Here are 12 of the top detox foods and drinks:
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The 11 Best Ways To Improve Your Digestion Naturally
Everyone experiences occasional digestive symptoms such as upset stomach, gas, heartburn, nausea, constipation or diarrhea.
However, when these symptoms occur frequently, they can cause major disruptions to your life.
Fortunately, diet and lifestyle changes can have a positive impact on your gut health.
Here are 11 evidence-based ways to improve your digestion naturally.
Surprising Ways You Can Heal Your Body Naturally
We all know that the body heals, yet we take it for granted or we dont trust it when we need to.
Once we make it past paper cut level, we think our body forgets how to heal. Then we start looking up illnesses frantically online. We lose faith that the body can heal anything.
We have to allow our bodies to do what it naturally does. Pain is a part of life, and we need to learn to respond to it, not react to it.
We must start having faith that bigger injuries and pains in our lives will go away just the same as the small cuts do, or it will just exacerbate the problem.
So how do you heal your body?
There are many ways to eliminate pain, and every way can work as long as your heart is behind it.
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Top Foods For Healing Your Body
When it comes to healing your body, you dont need to look any further than your kitchen for remedies. Of course, you may have to make a trip to the grocery store to get a few things on this list, but the point is that you can heal your body naturally with food straight from the Earth. Some people even get rid of their medications by replacing them with better health through diet and exercise.
If you have been looking for ways to heal your body, make sure you have these food items on hand, because they will accelerate your healing journey and help you feel more positive.
/8helps To Strengthen Your Hair Nails And Teeth
Collagen protein serves as the foundation for your fingernails, hair, and teeth. Including it in your diet can help strengthen your nails and possibly reverse signs of hair loss. One study found that adult women who took collagen, experienced improvements in overall hair volume, scalp coverage, and hair body thickness after 90 days. Hair shine, skin moisture retention, and skin smoothness all improved after 180 days.
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I Was At The End Of My Rope
By the time I checked myself into a hospital in Philadelphia, I had developed Clostridium difficile colitis, a deadly condition in which C. difficile bacteria proliferates in the colon and destroys anything in its path by releasing a harmful toxin. This can occur in weak immune systems or in people who’ve had frequent exposure to hospitals . Though I was able to recover from it after five days of intense treatment, my legs were still swollen, I was still suffering from chronic fatigue, and I was only 95 pounds. The bacteria were gone, but blood work showed that my hemoglobin and white blood cell levels were still off, and my liver and kidneys were still inflamed.
After multiple CT scans, MRIs, X-rays, and more blood work, the doctors still didnt have any answers. I was at the end of my rope with nowhere left to turn.
Stories Of Extreme Healing Through Food
Think clean eating is just one more passing food fad? You won’t after this. Meet four people who healed themselves by seriously cleaning up their diets. Prepare to be astonished.
“People started telling me I looked radiant instead of tired.” Lisa Rae Rosenberg, 50, South Pasadena, CA
At first, Lisa Rae Rosenberg was skeptical of the extremes of a raw vegan dietno cooked food, no dairy, no meatand not so thrilled by the prospect of giving up glazed doughnuts and chicken-fried steak. But in a last-ditch attempt to curb her rising cholesterol, she stifled her doubts and resolved to try it for 7 days. “After that week, I felt so much better that I decided to add another week, and after about a month, I felt like I had superpowers,” she says. She dropped 20 pounds, and her total cholesterol plunged 60 points in 8 months. “People started telling me I looked radiant instead of telling me how tired I looked,” she says. “My skin is clearer and my eyes are brighter. ” The changesand all the questions from friendsinspired Lisa to start MyRawBlog.com, a chronicle of recipes and tips illustrating how anyone can adopt the diet. “I wanted to show people it’s not hard, and you can do this,” she says. “You can feel better.”
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“I lost 100 pounds and reversed my diabetes.” Maria Gordon, 28, Upper Marlboro, MD
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Top 10 Foods To Help You Heal
Whether youve been injured or are recovering from medical treatment you must do everything possible to rehabilitate your body. Adequate rest, physical therapy and medications as recommended by your doctor at the Southeastern Spine Institute are all critical to your recovery. But dont neglect the power of healing foods.
While striving for a balanced diet promotes good overall health, healing foods encourage your body to recover from trauma. Eating the right foods actually speeds the healing process because it gives your body the fuel it needs to repair itself.
I Wanted To Help Others
When I started to feel better, it occurred to me that I could help others by sharing my journey. So I started blogging at TheHealthyApple.com and wrote a book called Eating Clean: The 21-Day Plan to Detox, Fight Inflammation, and Reset Your Body. My goal is to show people how cleaning up their diets and lifestyles can help them get healthy.
So how can you get started? Here are three ways to begin your detox journey today:
1. Eat Clean. Focus on eating whole foods and avoiding processed foods, which cause inflammation in the body. Trust me, it can be done! Ive been doing it for 10 years.
2. Fight Inflammation. Reach for anti-inflammatory foods such as raw walnuts and ground flaxseeds, which are rich in omega-3 fatty acids that help fight inflammation. And dont fear fat! Our bodies need fat to function properly. But its important to focus on healthy fats found in foods such as raw nuts and seeds, avocados, and extra-virgin olive oil.
3. Heal Your Gut. You can do this by removing foods from your diet that cause symptoms like bloating, headaches, rashes, or tiredness . Replace these items with whole foods. For example, in my book I explain how to make spreads and cheeses out of nuts and seeds.
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