Although inflammation is designed to help your body, it can be damaging when left uncontrolled.

If you’re careful about how you treat your body — particularly with the foods you eat — you will be less susceptible to the harms of inflammation.

There are two basic types of inflammation: acute and chronic. Acute inflammation is the body’s localized, temporary and protective response to an infection or injury. Chronic inflammation is a prolonged, often systemic response caused by an overreaction or a constant state of reacting to persistent negative stimuli, such as stress, obesity or poor diet.

When inflammation is chronic, it can lead to short-term and long-term health problems. Eliminating foods based on blood type and the effects on body inflammation can be a critical factor for students’ success.

“If you’re experiencing foods that are causing inflammation in your body, what’s going to happen? You’re going to have decreased cognitive ability, you’re going to feel tired all the time, you’re going to have decreased physical functioning … you may not do well in school [because] you’re going to have a hard time focusing [and] you’re going to have less concentration,” said graduate nutrition student Dawn Herbig, who recently completed her thesis on eliminating foods based on blood type and the effects of inflammation.

It might seem odd that what you eat can degrade your cognitive function. This can be explained by leaky gut syndrome, a condition caused by gut inflammation that leads to a porous intestinal lining and ineffective digestion. This allows toxins and bacteria to enter the blood stream, provoking systemic inflammation that can reach the brain. Once the brain is inflamed, you experience symptoms such as brain fog, depression and autoimmunity, according to brainhealthbook.com.

In addition to testimonials from Herbig’s research linking inflammation to short-term health problems, recent national publications indicate poor diet and inflammation also lead to chronic disease.

Inflammatory markers increased with the development of colon cancer induced by dietary factors where “the findings reveal a mechanistic link between diet, inflammation and cancer,” according to a study published Oct. 28 in Science Daily.

Of course, this is not a new revelation. Cancer has been linked to inflammation for years and studies have produced similar results in recent months. But, it doesn’t stop with cancer. Inflammation also plays a role in diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, heart disease and stroke.

Arguably, the best way to combat chronic inflammation is by reducing or eliminating foods from your diet that provoke an inflammatory response.

“If you can actually identify the foods that you have intolerances to, you can decrease your food sensitivity to them simply by staying away from them because you decrease your memory cells,” said Judith Lukaszuk, professor of nutrition and dietetics.

This can be tricky, as your body could be sensitive to any ingredient, chemical or other substance in a food — and everyone has different intolerances. A good starting point is to eat natural foods with minimal ingredients.