Understanding Inflammation

Signs you have chronic inflammation

Count the number of "moderate" and "severe" symptoms—read the explanations.

Chronic Pain (joints)

Chronic Pain (muscle)

Inflammation involves hormones that cause swelling and that irritate surrounding nerves, sending pain signals to your brain. Normally this helps us heal. But if the source of stress continues, the body gets stuck in chronic inflammation and never moves to the healing and repairing stage.

Low Energy

When your body fights inflammation, two things happen:

That sense of fatigue, “a cold coming on” or other “low” may be your body’s request attempt to rest and heal—inflammatory response hormones drive this.
If the body cannot quench the inflammatory fire in the time you give it, the energy production systems backlog and don’t produce energy well = chronic fatigue.

Digestive Complaints

Frequent upset stomach, acid indigestion, chronic diarrhea, or constipation are all signs that you are suffering from chronic inflammation. Leave it go, and it will develop into IBS or other disease.

Chronic Seasonal Allergies

Food Allergies

Whether triggered by food or other irritants, your body may react to chronic inflammation a bit too eagerly; seeing benign things as threats, including foods, flowers, trees, bugs… is abnormal. We are seeing younger and younger people with multiple allergies, a sign of our inflammatory lifestyle.

High Blood Pressure

Chronic inflammation can lead to high blood pressure and damaging effects on the arteries. In fact, atherosclerotic plaques can be reversed by improving diet, exercising a little, and removing sources of inflammation.

Frequent Headaches

Frequent headaches may be your body mounting an attack against perceived inflammation just about anywhere in your body. Histamine release brings about many changes in the body including recruiting white blood cells that now release other inflammatory chemicals—that change blood pressure and produce headaches.

Brain Fog

Chronic inflammation inhibits your body’s ability to clear out toxins. And some sources of inflammation cause yeast and bacteria to ferment rather than digest your food. When these build up you may experience symptoms of brain fog, or not being able to think clearly.

Chronic Skin Issues

Eczema, psoriasis, hives… can be signs that your body is trying to eliminate inflammatory toxic waste.

Obesity / Overweight

Obesity can be caused by and then in turn cause chronic inflammation. Once inflammation starts, organ function can become compromised—especially the thyroid and hypothalamus that help regulate your metabolism and hormones. The fat tissue itself produces some 14 known (and more are being discovered) hormones that signal immune response, inflammation and even hunger.

Insomnia

Can’t get to sleep or lying wide awake at night can be a lack of nervous system coordination, an organ waking you up from environmental or emotional stressors. It can also both cause and be caused by hormone imbalances.

How'd you do?

No answers moderate or severe: It is clear you’re taking care of yourself, but anything not a zero is an imbalance worth addressing.

1-2 answers moderate or severe: Inflammatory foods and chemicals, even so-called “health foods” are stressing your body, creating imbalances.

3 or more answers moderate or severe: Your body is crying out for your immediate attention the only way it knows how: Symptoms.

Let’s Dig deeper and get some relief

Food is a big part of our lives, your daily meals, celebrations, social or cultural traditions… you are probably here because you want to know how to get on track with your eating to resolve some unwanted problem. Welcome.

I’m going to teach you as much as I can in the short time we have together, but it’s a big topic! I promise I’ll show you how you can go further at the end.

Chronic Inflammation—29 million U.S. deaths every year

We evolve at the rate of the tribe we’re plugged into.”
—Caroline Myss

The problem is the current model of “take a pill to solve every pain or problem.” This is the current “tribe”.

The problem:

Sugar industry lies: Why fat is not the enemy. The first Dietary Guidelines for Americans were issued in 1980 to solve high rates of obesity and heart disease.

The new, low-fat, diet recommended grains and cereals with few animal products. It substituted vegetable oils for animal fats. This extreme, low-fat diet change added sugar, chemical flavorings, and additives to make that low-fat food taste good.

Did it work? The diagram to the left depicts how many of us had the problem in 1980, how many had it ten years later, and how many of us have it now.

More that 60% of all adults in the US are overweight or obese, obesity tripled under these guidelines;
Blood presssure, stroke and cholesterol imbalances are rising;
There are fewer of us with elevated cholesterol—but heart disease hasn’t gone down. Statin drugs were approved in the late 1980’s and became a $22 billion per year drug one takes for the rest of their lives—this explains the lower cholesterol.

The soft gray bars in the background show how many $Billions were spent on prescription medications to numb our symptoms.

Obesity, diabetes, blood pressure and cholesterol problems (‘metabolic syndrome’) is caused by being overfed and undernourished.

The Sugar Industry paid off researchers to point the finger at dietary fats.

Some other categories we never heard about have increased tremendously:

We have more than quadrupled back pain,
1 out of 4 of us has arthritis making it painful to do the things we love.

Digestive disorders are soaring—the most common reason for allergies:

Never before have we seen so many food allergies, especially children. When I was growing up, I don’t remember anyone who had a food allergy.
Between the few who have true Celiac’s disease and the many who have non-Celiac gluten and grain sensitivity, we’re seeing a lot more digestive disorders and irritated bowels.”
Asthma is linked to food sensitivities—it’s basically the immune system on overdrive.

Another category; new and baffling problems like:

Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome that some argue is “all in your head.” Well, tell that to the person who experiences mysterious headaches, sleep disorders and skin rashes from their perfumed detergent.
Autism Spectrum Disorder… when I was growing up there might be 1-2 children in the whole school with a general learning problem. According to the US Centers for Disease Control, as of 2014 Autism alone now affects 1 in 68 children. Wow.
More people than ever are having a difficult time conceiving and when they do, more and more babies can’t be carried to term.
One in six of us will take mood altering psychiatric drugs for symptoms of depression, mood swings, or anxiety. This is a booming, $70 Billion market.

Did our dietary guidelines help? Or did they boom the pharmaceutical and food lobby coffers?

Step One

This might sound depressing, but you are in control:

There is no pill that solves every pain or problem; let’s create our solution 🙂
Sugar sweetened beverages are the biggest source of inflammation. Download and keep your Food and Mood Log. Track your current habits; it’s eye-opening.
Stop baking or buying sweet treats and sweetened beverages. If you’ve done that then…
If it has a label, read the ingredients list.
If it has an ingredient list, are there added sugars? (Hint: at least one brand of organic chicken broth adds sugar. Why?)

Perhaps before reading this you've already made some changes, pat self on back!

Why was fat demonized and sugar made into a reward? See you in the next section….