Pain, tiredness, IBS bloating even low mood, plus a host of other health issues may all be due to one thing!

Low Grade Inflammation

Low grade inflammation is your body’s silent saboteur.

You probably know that inflammation is the body’s way of fighting infection or how it heals after injury. In the short term, it’s essential for our survival.

But when its job is done, it is supposed to switch off. If it lingers quietly switched on in the background, day after day, it begins to negatively impact our health.

Unfortunately, this long-term, low-grade inflammation often has no obvious symptoms but over time is linked to major health issues including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, joint pain, depression and accelerated ageing.

What drives it?

Stress, poor sleep, being sedentary, ultra-processed foods, and unresolved injury all play a role. They cause your body to feel a ‘threat’ so the immune system stays permanently switched on in the background and releases chemicals which can damage healthy tissues.

The good news! Small, choices maintained consistently make a huge difference.

Simple strategies

• Prioritise plenty of restorative sleep – set a bedtime and stay with it and get up at a regular time too.
• Move daily – even gentle walking, chair exercises, dancing to a favourite song. Our physios can help you set up an enjoyable routine that’s right for you.
• Eat a varied diet with plenty of colourful plants and healthy fats like virgin olive oil and cut back on ultra-processed foods. Our massage therapist Jamie, is passionate about this and has a wealth of tips and tricks to make this fun. Prof. Tim Spectre and the late, Michael Mosely are great names to Google for more info too.
• Learning to manage stress and resolve past emotional trauma using breathwork, positive mindset and mindfulness is lifechanging. Angela has a wealth of experience and offers wonderful coaching programmes online and in person. Failing all else, at least treat yourself to some uninterrupted time in nature each day.

Small and consistent steps are what keeps healthy change sustainable. The goal is like tending a fire – we don’t want to put it out completely we want to keep it controlled and working for us not a runaway wildfire.

Quiet inflammation isn’t harmless. Your future health depends on calming it down today.

Not into regular exercises or they just aren’t helping?

Getting to know your central nervous system better can change everything, pain, stiffness and balance – after all the brain is the master controller.

Meet the Vagus nerve, The Vagus nerve influences heart-rate, breathing and gut absorption it also helps us relax, reduce pain, and thrive.

Fun exercise to stimulate the Vagus Nerve

Activate it by sitting tall and without moving your head, only your eyes, look as far to the right as you can and hold it until you feel a sigh, a yawn or just a release in the shoulder muscles – usually 30 secs to a minute, Now repeat to the left.

Give it a go.

There are lots of simple ways to create change – come and find out some of the unusual ways to disrupt pain circuits.

Telephone: 01245325037

E.mail: info@essexphysio.co.uk