b'How your diet can impact inflammation and healingControlling the level of inflammation in your body is the key to improving and shortening your recovery. There is a reason you constantly hear about inflammation; it is involved in so much of what happens in our bodies.Inflammation is often portrayed as harmful and as a sign of bad health. This is true in many cases. In fact the sufx -itis, which indicates inflammation, has become near-synonymous with illness. However, inflammation also serves a positive role in our bodies.What is Inflammation?Inflammation is nothing more than a response of our innate immune system. The innate immune system is meant to be the rst responder to infection and injury. It reacts quickly to start the healing process before the adaptive immune system can respond. The adaptive part of our immune system needs time to mount more targeted response to infection which is why we train it with vaccines.Short-term or acute inflammation is the ideal response to illness or injury. The inflammatory response is brought on by one of the following conditions: Physical injury: burns, cuts, blunt trauma, etc. Infection: bacteria, viruses, and fungus. Chemical irritants or toxins.The innate immune system is able to recognize certain chemical signals released by pathogens and/or damaged tissue. Immune cells swarm the area and are able to kill pathogens and break down or help repair damaged cells. This process should only last a few days or weeks. If successful, the inflammatory response should halt the spread of infection and tissue damage. It clears the way for the next two steps in the healing process: proliferation and remodeling. These last two steps involve new cells growing to replace the old tissue.Inflammation Can Become HarmfulInflammation becomes unhealthy when it remains long-term. This is called chronic inflammation and it is a sign of one of the following: The initial damage or infection hasnt been cleared and recovery can be compromised. A toxin is remaining in your environment and your body is constantly trying to clear it. Your immune system has become overactiveghting harmless environmental agents or your own body.07'