We are all familiar with inflammation from a cut or bruise. We see it with our eyes and feel pain associated in healing. What about inflammation we can neither see nor feel aptly referred to as “the silent killer?”

Inflammation is neither complicated nor mysterious.  It is your body’s protective response to a germ, bacteria or foreign invader threatening your life.  We cannot see the internal process but we see it externally in bruising, swelling and finally healing.

A great analogy Dr. Lundell gives is that of your body’s army of defensive warriors that rush in to battle germs, bacteria and invaders.

They have scientific names such as macrophage, a type of white blood cell that assists the body’s fight against bacteria and infection by engulfing and destroying invading organisms. Another is cytokines, a protein molecule secreted by cells in the immune system

They each play distinctive roles in the battle to keep infection from overwhelming your body.  This process occurs naturally without your giving it a thought; a built in response that saves your life countless times throughout your years of living.

We don’t hand the body a list of what to fight for it inherently knows what is foreign.

Sugars, Simple Carbohydrates

The body detects processed foods, sugars and simple carbohydrates no differently than a germ, bacteria or foreign invader.  The inflammation switch trips on, the defensive warriors rush out to battle.

This is inflammation running amok each day and everyday as we ingest foods designed for shelf life not human life; foods manufactured to reduce fat that comply with the ill-fated cholesterol theory based on faulty research lacking scientific fact.

Inflammation in your heart is heart disease; in your eyes macular degeneration; in your cells obesity and in your brain Alzheimer’s. In the last half century, science has defined new inflammatory diseases from this tragic, washed out theory medicine chases while food and pharmaceutical companies count profit.

It doesn’t take a degree in medicine or nutrition to reach your own conclusions.  It requires we look at statistics and question the 48-year consensus that cholesterol causes heart disease and the dietary recommendations that followed.  We may have jumped on board faithfully but we can disembark.

The good news is, you have the power to take control over inflammation right now.

Return to whole, real foods even a steak and an occasional dab of butter. Before you react with horror to the thought of real butter, look closely at any margarine label.  Any food process that requires chemicals with ingredients you cannot name brings out the warriors to attack the foreign substance.  Your body has no choice in how it responds.

If your physician did not add a C-reactive protein test as part of your annual blood test, be sure to ask this inexpensive reading be included.

In Chapter 7, Dr. Lundell lists his clinically recommended essential nutrients that will help return elevated inflammation to healthy levels. You are one step away from healing your heart with Dr. Lundell’s recommendations for heart disease and inflammation.