Inflammation has been in the news a lot lately. Not just inflammation but silent inflammation. Its been the topic in countless newspaper articles and TV news reports. So whats all the fuss about silent inflammation?

According to Dr. Barry Sears author of The Anti Inflammation Zone, Silent inflammation is inflammation that you cant feel and whats more average Americans are leading a lifestyle that causes chronic silent inflammation. He also states that silent inflammation is the first sign that your body is out of balance and you are no longer well. You cant feel it but its grinding down your heart, your brain, and your immune system. Its insidious and is the greatest threat to your wellness.

When over produced by the body, three hormones - Cortisol, Insulin and Pro-Inflammatory Eicosanoids - contribute to silent inflammation and set the stage for disease.

Dr. Sears states that wellness is ultimately dependent on the levels of cellular inflammation and especially silent inflammation found in your body. If you have what he calls screaming pain or an existing chronic disease then you know your arent well. However silent inflammation is different because its ongoing inflammation that is under the pain threshold, its difficult to detect and you cant determine it by sight alone.

Your first line of defense against silent inflammation is the Zone Diet. The Zone Diet was designed to reverse silent inflammation. The key to keeping silent inflammation under control lies in keeping your glycemic load high enough to avoid ketosis and low enough to avoid excess insulin secretion. You also need to balance that with the proper amount of protein and fat. Its really not that hard. You can learn all about the Zone Diet by reading either of Dr. Sears books, The Anti-Inflammation Zone or The OmegaRx Zone.

The other single most important thing that you can do to control silent inflammation is to take a daily supplement of high-dose, ultra-refined fish oil. Its not the cod liver oil your grandmother used to take. Its the new generation of fish oils the ultra-refined, ultra-pure fish oils. These fish oils have less than 10 parts per billion (ppb) of Mercury, less than 45 (ppb) of PCBs, less than 1 part per trillion (ppt) of Dioxins and less than 13 meq/L Total Oxidation. These fish oils are not the fish oils found in health food stores or supermarkets. It takes 100 gallons of a health food store grade fish oil to make one gallon of the new ultra refined fish oil recommended by Dr. Barry Sears in his book, The Anti-Inflammation Zone.

On the cover of his book, The OmegaRx Zone The Miracle of the New High Dose Fish Oil, he states that high-dose pharmaceutical grade fish oil is as close to a medical miracle as we will see in the 21st century. In fact, he states that it is his most important Zone discovery ever!

This article was posted on February 23, 2006