Inflammation Quiz — Is Your Lifestyle Hurting Your Health?

Acute inflammation is an essential part of the body’s healing process. Inflammation occurs at the cellular level when the immune system tries to fight off disease-causing germs or debris from an injury and repair damaged tissue. Once the fight is over the inflammation-triggering substances are supposed to retreat. However, when they don’t, it destroys the balance within your body and can make you more susceptible to premature aging and disease.

Answer “yes” or “no” to the questions below to find out if any of your everyday lifestyle habits are contributing to chronic, unmanaged inflammation.

1. Do you regularly eat processed foods, refined sugars or refined grains?
2. On a typical day do you eat white bread, pastries, French fries, margarine, soda or other sugar-sweetened drinks?
3. Do your meals rarely consist of whole, unprocessed fruits and vegetables?
4. Do you get less than 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep per night?
5. Are you a smoker or routinely exposed to secondhand smoke?
6. Are you overweight or obese?
7. Do you routinely drink less than one liter of pure water per day?
8. Do you feel anxious, hopeless or stressed out most of the time?
9. Is your exercise unbalanced? For example, do you live a sedentary lifestyle or routinely overtrain?
10. Do you sit for long stretches of time at work or home?

Add up the total number of times you answered yes. If you answered yes more than 3 times, your lifestyle might be contributing to chronic inflammation.

If you answered no to all or most of the questions, your inflammation may be controlled, but you can still benefit from adding anti-inflammatory foods, exercises, and habits to your daily routine.