What do paper cuts, spicy foods, stubbed toes and intense gym workouts have to do with our odds of getting colon cancer, drifting into Alzheimer’s or succumbing to a heart attack? A lot more than we might think. All these issues are linked with the long-term effects of inflammation on the body — thus says “The Battle Within,” a 2005 Better Nutrition article I’ve been saving for just the right time to share.

I think this is the right time, because as time marches on for all of us, the inflammation-disease connection is becoming more and more important. In December my husband, Rich, retired. This May I am retiring. The last thing we want to deal with is bodies that are too sick to do all the things we’ve been dreaming about for the past few years. Maybe some of you can relate to these feelings.

Scientists are all banging the same drum: our overall health is up to us—it’s a matter of lifestyle and dietary choices. And internal inflammation is one of the things we need to avoid. The research says that while it’s a vital immune response to infection, injury, or irritation (healing from a paper cut, digesting spicy food, coping with a stubbed toe, or recuperating from an intense gym workout), it is also a double-edged sword.

Problems begin when — for one reason or another — the inflammation process becomes chronic, persisting long after it’s needed. It was heart disease researchers that first noticed that inflammation was playing a role heart disease. Now scientists are certain inflammation plays a role in diabetes, cancers, arthritis, Alzheimer’s, and even asthma.

The good news is, there is much we do can to dampen the fires. Besides the usual advice (that we better start taking seriously) to exercise at least thirty minutes a day, we can eliminate or at least lower our sugar intake, avoid trans-fatty foods, avoid excess alcohol and smoking, and floss our teeth every day.

Further prevention includes eating a diet built around defensive nutrition:

Oily fish and fish oil supplements

Extra virgin, cold pressed olive, walnut, or flaxseed oil

Walnuts and flaxseeds

Fruits and vegetables

Vitamin C and other antioxidant supplements (used under advisement of our physician)

Garlic, ginger and turmeric (curcumin)

Sunflower seeds, eggs, herring, nuts, zinc tablets

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So if we want a rewarding retirement, we better start now to stop inflammation. Guess we better get off the couch and head out to pick up some salmon, fresh produce, garlic and ginger. And let’s try not to stub our toe on the way!