Inflammation has a critically valuable role in maintaining a healthy body.
When we acquire an infection or become injured, our body’s immune system detects the problem and sends a variety of cells to the site to heal the damage and get rid ofinsidious invaders.
Most of us are familiar with inflammation on a grander scale, when we get a cold with a runny nose, sprain an ankle, or when we cut the skin and it becomes red and irritated when it is healing.
These events are usually due to a single traumatic incident or have a localized area or time frame they occur in.
However, inflammation can also be chronic, continuous and low-grade level in association with obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
Atherosclerosis is a syndrome affecting arterial blood vessels due to a chronic inflammatory response of white blood cells on the walls of arteries.
Adipose tissue (our fat storage system) was thought to be inactive, functioning only as a storage site for excess fat.
Each fat cell contains a finite amount of fat, and when each of our 40 billion fat cells becomes full, we can grow more.
Once these new fat cells are manufactured, we can’t lose them, even if we lose the fat inside them.
More recently, researchers have discovered that adipose tissue is, in fact, active and behaves as an endocrine organ. It releases a variety of substances that are involved in metabolism, including appetite, glucose regulation and immune system function. Many of these substances are pro-inflammatory.
When the rate of storage of fat into adipocytes (fat cells) outpaces the storage capacity of existing cells and the body’s ability to build new cells, this stress causes adipose tissue to release inflammatory molecules, which causes a cascade of events ultimately leading to, among other things, plaque build-up on the walls of blood vessels.
Over time, this plaque deposition partially or completely blocks the flow of blood to the heart or brain causing, heart attack or stroke.
The location of fat storage that seems to have the greatest effect on producing inflammation is not the subcutaneous fat located under the skin (the kind you can pinch), but to a greater degree it is your visceral fat. Visceral adipocytes are located in the abdomen surrounding your internal organs and stored in the liver.
People who carry more fat around their waist and belly have more visceral fat and are more prone the risks of blockage of blood vessels, stroke, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
Where you store fat is genetically influenced.
However, physical activity can offset these deleterious effects.
Regular sustained exercise has a direct effect on reducing the amount of these pro-inflammatory molecules.
The health risk is the chronic low-level inflammation produced by obesity and inactivity. This kind is life-threatening.
Even if there is no change in weight loss, the mere fact that you are exercising is causing a reduction in these inflammatory molecules.
The age-old exercise routine of three to five times a week for at least 30 minutes still is the suggested regimen. However, the anti-inflammatory effects of exercise increases with the duration (longer is better), frequency and intensity.
Being active may be the best thing you can do for your health.