A few days after Christmas of 2008, Michael’s Mommy suffered a heart attack. By the grace of God, she lives to tell the tale. As a continual reminder of how your diet can affect your body, we here at Being Michael’s Daddy have declared the last Monday of the month to be “Myocardial Monday.” Here we’ll offer information about food and nutrition in hopes that it will help others avoid facing what could be a fatal condition. Yes, I know it’s not the last Monday of the month. I’ve been busy.

Today we’re going to explore a buzzword that seems to be one of the latest health concerns: inflammation.

What is inflammation?

Inflammation is a swell thing.

Actually, in many cases, it isn’t so swell.

Inflammation is your body’s response to injury: It’s sending in the cavalry. White blood cells are sent to an area where there’s an injury in the body. In some cases, you can see or feel the inflammation: sinus problems, arthritis, a welt on the hand, swelling from a bee sting. These white blood cells arrive at the scene, and move in, doing their work in preventing infection and releasing chemicals that fix things up.

So what? A little bump or a stuffy nose. What’s the big deal?

The problem occurs when there are inflammatory actions in blood vessels. When the inside of a blood vessel becomes inflamed, the swelling that occurs impacts the flow of blood through the vessel.

Imagine a busy street downtown mid day. A pot hole appears out of nowhere, and workers are dispatched to fix it up. What are they going to do? Shut down at least one lane of traffic. Now you have a traffic jam. Let’s hope the pothole doesn’t get any bigger, or they’ll have to close down two lanes – or worse – the whole street. And if so, let’s hope that street doesn’t lead to something vital, like, say, your heart. Or your brain. That would be the start of a really bad day.

Yikes, that’s horrible!

Oh, but it gets worse.

The injured areas inside blood vessels tend to snag LDL cholesterol that’s gliding along in the blood. As these little fat globs collect, they oxidize and explode, then build up and calcify, turning into plaque which then gets covered over with a layer of asphalt – err, scar tissue. This alone is enough to completely close off a vessel. And there’s your heart attack, embolism or stroke.

Isn’t there some way to roto-rooter them off?

You wouldn’t want that. If one of these little plaque bombs gets dislodged, it goes floating on down your blood stream in one big clump until it gets to a vessel it can’t squeeze through – which will cause a heart attack, embolism or stroke.

Hold on – ibuprofen reduces inflammation. Can’t I just take that?

For the occasional headache or muscle ache, yes. But not for this. Popping NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatories) every day will actually have the opposite effect, as it interferes with your body’s ability to control its inflammatory response, which will ultimately make matters worse.

And it doesn’t stop there.

There are studies that link chronic inflammation with development of cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, and a whole slew of health problems.

Take a look:

I’m doomed.

Now, now. Let us not abandon hope. I wouldn’t have brought you this far without offering the lifeline.

One of the best things you can do to fight the inflammation is adjust your lifestyle.

Eating the rights foods: Get plenty of Omega 3’s, like those in Salmon and cold water fish, flaxseed and walnuts; fiber in whole grains and fresh fruit; antioxidants found in fresh grapes, blueberries, broccoli and soy products. I’ve discussed Omega 3’s and fiber in past Myocardial Monday posts. I’ll get to the purpose of antioxidants in a future post.

Stay away from sugar, particularly high fructose corn syrup and white refined sugar. Not because they’re so horrible in and of themselves, but because they’re so easily absorbed and bring nothing with them to help the body deal with them.

Sugar? What’s that got to do with inflammation?

Glad you asked. But you’ll have to wait until next time, when I discuss Type II Diabetes, and the horror that is sugar.

Studies indicate that turmeric may prove helpful in preventing buildup of atherosclerosis, or blocked arteries. It lowers LDL and inhibits its oxidation, which is good: oxidized LDL is what sticks to artery walls and causes blockage. By the way, it’s pronounced “TER – mer – ick”, not “TOO – mer – ick”. But whatever.

Inflammation may sound like a fairly innocuous issue, but being aware of it is critical. While it is a normal body process, when it gets out of control it can cause all kinds of problems. Just a few little adjustments can make a huge difference in the length and quality of your life.