10 Ways to Reduce and Inflammatory Flare Up
If you have an autoimmune disease then you need to think of the inflammatory system as over active. Â Meaning it is not functioning properly and therefor when we have an inflammatory flare up, our system that regulates inflammation may not shut the delivery of inflammation as it should and we may need to help reduce the inflammation ourselves.
I have been a personal trainer for over 17 years and in the past I recommended ice when I client had an injury almost all the time. Â Over the last few years I have reduced my recommendation of ice due to new research that has come out about the most effective way to heal and injury. Â Â I will write a post about that soon :)
If you have a immune system that functions as it should then you want the inflammation to do it's job which is in part to help the healing of the joint or tissue that is injured or damaged. Â With that in mind I don't recommend ice all that much to clients with acute injuries. Â BUT with us good, fine people with a autoimmune issue we may need to intervene and help reduce the inflammation manually.
Using ice to reduce inflammation for us with overactive immune systems may be necessary and can be extremely effective and helping manage this issue and reducing pain even if for a just a few minutes. Â I personally have been in so much pain that I could not walk and had to crawl to the bathroom so if I could get even 5 minutes without pain I would take it!
I recently just had a flare up in my left foot and could not put weight on it. Â The reason for the flare up was not mechanical and I have no idea why my foot was the site for this flare up but I believe the reason was a birthday weekend where I consumed too much sugar(even though it was unrefined) and had few too many drinks (10 total over 4 days, 4 glasses of wine, 4 glasses of sativa pop and potato vodka and 2 ciders). Â Yes I enjoyed my days a bit to much and paid the price. Â I am not sorry I did it as I really had a great time and would do it again, but now I need to manage my disease and help it as much as possible. Â Here is what I did:
1. I put my foot in a bucket of ice water 2x a day for 15-20 min each time
2. I increased my Curcumin supplement to 1000mg per day and added black pepper to increase the bioavailability
3. I removed all night shades, alcohol, soy, dairy, gluten, sugar, corn.
4. Reduced my red meat and starchy carbohydrates
5. Improved my sleep time and quality
6. Meditated more to reduce perceived stress
7. Tried to rest my foot and body as much as I could
8. Reduced my workouts and workout intensity
9. Increased my Gratitude practice
10. Increased my fish oil to 10g per day
I hope this helps everyone and as always let me know if you have any questions or comments! Â
