“发炎”是医学界近年来的热门话题，由于其影响面大，从气喘、关节炎到心脏病、癌症无所不及，因此人们也需要进一步了解如何才能够远离这个红色警戒区。

大多数人认为膝盖擦破皮或手指灼伤后，皮肤变红、碰了会痛，那就是发炎。发炎可没这么简单。发炎是种免疫反应，会在全身各处进行，帮我们打败细菌、摧毁肿块。身体要健康，短期免疫反应的发炎不可或缺，因为少了这项反应，就算只是被纸张割伤，都可能有致命危险。然而现在科学家了解，当发炎变成长期现象时，就可能严重破坏健康。

发炎的危害

心脏病

胆固醇虽然是心脏病已知的危险因子，但是大约半数心肌梗死患者的胆固醇数值都是正常的。许多心脏科医师都认为，这项“胆固醇落差”的原因就在于发炎。有项研究在追踪了将近2.8万名女性逾8年后发现，在预测首次心脏病发作或中风的风险时，发炎是一条重要线索。

癌症

研究发现，近15%的癌症病例与慢性感染(发炎的原因之一)有关。例如，人类乳头病毒会造成子宫颈癌，乙型肝炎患者罹患肝癌的几率大于一般人。

阿兹海默症

美国洛杉矶加州大学阿兹海默症研究中心副主任葛雷格·柯尔教授说：“阿兹海默症患者大脑里积聚的类淀粉蛋白，就如同手指头上的一根刺，会引发发炎反应。”不幸的是，大脑里的类淀粉蛋白并不像手上的刺可轻易去除。

糖尿病

有几项受试对象超过5万人的大规模研究发现，慢性炎症最严重的女性，罹患2型糖尿病的几率是一般人的4倍。炎症与肥胖症、胰岛素抗性也都有密切关联。

减少发炎的措施

营养均衡、运动、戒烟是让你保持健康状况良好的三大基石，也可以减少发炎。以下是具体步骤：

多吃富含欧米伽3的食物

可阻止“好战”的白血球来到身体已经发炎的部位。鱼、核桃、亚麻子都是不错的选择。

多吃蔬菜水果

蔬果含有的抗氧化剂可以对抗自由基。特别应多吃菠菜和深橘色、红色或黄色的蔬菜，这类蔬菜富含类胡萝卜素，具有绝佳的抗发炎效用。

避免摄取“坏”脂肪

《新英格兰医学期刊》一篇评论指出，反式脂肪酸会引起发炎，比其他食物成分更容易增加罹患心脏病的风险。但肉类及乳制品所含有的饱和脂肪并不比反式脂肪好。

在食物里加点香料

咖喱里的姜黄素具有很强的消炎作用，另外加点黑胡椒和橄榄油，可促进姜黄的吸收。

戒烟

纽约芬斯坦医学研究所的克里斯廷·梅慈说：“研究显示，受试者停止吸烟才七十二小时，体内的某些发炎指数就有降低迹象。”

减重

一般认为肥胖症有促发炎作用。约翰霍普金斯大学的心脏科医师发现，体重过重的人血液中的炎性蛋白含量较高，容易引起心脏衰竭。

心脏病是长期发炎造成？这位心脏外科专家说简单糖类和过多摄取植物油是造成发炎的原因。他建议少吃甜食，用动物油炒菜。。。

（来源：生命时报  2012年08月01日）

心脏病是长期发炎造成？

World Renowned Heart Surgeon Speaks Out On What Really Causes Heart Disease

We physicians with all our training, knowledge and authority often acquire a rather large ego that tends to make it difficult to admit we are wrong. So, here it is. I freely admit to being wrong. As a heart surgeon with 25 years experience, having performed over 5,000 open-heart surgeries, today is my day to right the wrong with medical and scientific fact.

I trained for many years with other prominent physicians labelled “opinion makers.”  Bombarded with scientific literature, continually attending education seminars, we opinion makers insisted heart disease resulted from the simple fact of elevated blood cholesterol.

The only accepted therapy was prescribing medications to lower cholesterol and a diet that severely restricted fat intake. The latter of course we insisted would lower cholesterol and heart disease. Deviations from these recommendations were considered heresy and could quite possibly result in malpractice.

It Is Not Working!

These recommendations are no longer scientifically or morally defensible. The discovery a few years ago that inflammation in the artery wall is the real cause of heart disease is slowly leading to a paradigm shift in how heart disease and other chronic ailments will be treated.

The long-established dietary recommendations have created epidemics of obesity and diabetes, the consequences of which dwarf any historical plague in terms of mortality, human suffering and dire economic consequences.

Despite the fact that 25% of the population takes expensive statin medications and despite the fact we have reduced the fat content of our diets, more Americans will die this year of heart disease than ever before.

Statistics from the American Heart Association show that 75 million Americans currently suffer from heart disease, 20 million have diabetes and 57 million have pre-diabetes. These disorders are affecting younger and younger people in greater numbers every year.

Simply stated, without inflammation being present in the body, there is no way that cholesterol would accumulate in the wall of the blood vessel and cause heart disease and strokes. Without inflammation, cholesterol would move freely throughout the body as nature intended. It is inflammation that causes cholesterol to become trapped.

Inflammation is not complicated — it is quite simply your body’s natural defence to a foreign invader such as a bacteria, toxin or virus. The cycle of inflammation is perfect in how it protects your body from these bacterial and viral invaders. However, if we chronically expose the body to injury by toxins or foods the human body was never designed to process,a condition occurs called chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation is just as harmful as acute inflammation is beneficial.

What thoughtful person would willfully expose himself repeatedly to foods or other substances that are known to cause injury to the body? Well,smokers perhaps, but at least they made that choice willfully.

The rest of us have simply followed the recommended mainstream diet that is low in fat and high in polyunsaturated fats and carbohydrates, not knowing we were causing repeated injury to our blood vessels. This repeated injury creates chronic inflammation leading to heart disease , stroke, diabetes and obesity .