You may have heard that inflammation is the driver of all chronic disease, and that’s correct. So simply taking an anti-inflammatory medication to tamp down inflammation should return you to good health, right? The body is wise and complex, and not surprisingly, it’s not that simple to just shut down inflammation to be healthy.
Inflammation plays an important role in our bodies. Originating in the immune system, inflammation is the body’s response to something that’s not right. It is part of the body’s strategy for fixing what’s wrong. It is a complex reaction designed to protect the body and restore it to normal function.
The Immune System and Inflammation
Inflammation starts in the immune system. The immune system acts as the body’s military forces. Different immune cells have different jobs, from scouting for enemies, to attacking enemies, to stopping the attack when it’s over, to cleaning up the debris afterward. These immune system activities generate inflammatory chemicals.
There are several reasons why the immune system creates inflammation.
- Defending Against Pathogens: When pathogens like bacteria, viruses, or fungi invade the body, immune cells release inflammatory chemicals to eliminate these foreign invaders.
- Tissue Repair: Inflammation plays a critical role in tissue repair and wound healing. The immune system starts an inflammatory response to remove damaged cells and debris.
- Neutralizing Harmful Substances: The immune system creates inflammation to contain and neutralize toxins and chemicals before they cause extensive damage.
- Allergic Reactions: Allergens trigger an immune response in sensitive individuals, leading to the release of inflammatory substances like histamine.
- Autoimmune Response: With autoimmune diseases, the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissues as if they were foreign invaders. This chronic inflammation damages the body’s own tissues and can lead to various autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, or inflammatory bowel disease.
- Chronic Stress and Lifestyle Factors: Chronic stress, poor diet, lack of exercise, and other lifestyle factors can lead to low-level inflammation in the body. This type of inflammation can contribute to various chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and certain cancers.
- Immune Surveillance: Inflammation can also serve as a means of immune surveillance, attracting immune cells to identify and eliminate any abnormal or potentially harmful cells, including cancer cells.
Inflammation is a tightly regulated process. Once the threat is eliminated and healing begins, the immune system switches to anti-inflammatory mechanisms to resolve inflammation and restore tissue function.
Overall, inflammation is a crucial immune response that serves to protect and heal the body. This is why simply taking anti-inflammatory medicines day after day is not a good solution to chronic inflammation. The key to lowering inflammation is reducing the burden placed on the immune system.
Give Your Immune System a Break to Lower Inflammation
In functional medicine, we talk a lot about finding the root cause of chronic health issues.
Inflammation is the common denominator of chronic health conditions and unpleasant symptoms, but it is not the root cause. In fact, two people can have the same condition, but have very different root causes. For example, chronic fatigue can be caused by a number of issues – poor sleeping habits, sleep apnea, hormone imbalances, underlying infections, autoimmunity, dysregulated blood sugar, food sensitivities, nutrient deficiencies, or toxicity. All of these can trigger an immune response, causing inflammation that results in chronic fatigue. At Radiance Functional Medicine, we investigate all these possible root causes.
Some immune system triggers are not directly in a person’s control, but many are. We begin by addressing diet and lifestyle factors to create an anti-inflammatory foundation. This is critical for taking the burden off the immune system so it is less reactive.
Eat an Anti-inflammatory Diet
The standard American diet is heavy in refined grains, conventional dairy, added sugars and highly processed oils. These are all extremely inflammatory foods. At the same time, it is low in anti-inflammatory foods, especially vegetables, fruits and seafood.
We recommend the Mediterranean Diet as a healthy and sustainable diet for most people. This is a diet of fresh whole foods, with an emphasis on vegetables, anti-inflammatory oils, fish and moderate amounts of dairy.
When a patient has a chronic condition, we may recommend a temporary elimination diet to lower inflammation, alongside pharmaceutical and nutraceutical protocols.
Get Enough Exercise
Appropriate exercise and movement are key to supporting the immune system and clearing inflammation. A combination of cardiovascular exercise, resistance training and restorative exercise is recommended, but may vary depending on the person’s condition.
- 2-4 cardiovascular workouts per week, such as fast walking, jogging, biking, or swimming
- 2-3 resistance training workouts per week, such as weight lifting
- 2-3 restorative exercise sessions per week, such as Pilates, stretching, yoga or moderate-paced walking
Prioritize Sleep
Restorative sleep is a critical part of supporting the immune system. While asleep, the immune system removes toxins, repairs tissues and clears inflammation.
Allow 7-9 hours of uninterrupted sleep. It is also important to follow good sleep hygiene principles to set circadian rhythms and maximize sleep success.
Take Steps to Detox
Our world has become much more toxic than it was even 75 years ago. This is a major stressor for our immune systems. We recommend taking several steps to minimize toxin exposure, and to clear toxins from the body.
- Eat a diet rich in vegetables and fruits to provide the nutrients the liver needs to metabolize and clear toxins.
- Implement a step-by-step process of removing environmental toxins from your house and work-place.
- Consider a HEPA air filter unit in the rooms you spend the most time in.
- Drink filtered water, as tap water can contain contaminants.
- Sweat it out! Sweating through exercise or a dry sauna helps release toxins. Infrared saunas are another excellent and relaxing way to release toxins.
- Consider doing a cleanse 1-2 times per year. The Radiance Functional Medicine medical cleanse is a supervised cleanse designed to clear toxins and provide a reset for the immune system.
Practice Mindfulness
Many of us exist in a sympathetic “fight, flight or stew” nervous state much of the time, bringing anxiousness and agitation. Chronically high cortisol causes inflammation. We recommend engaging every day in activities that settle down the nervous system and activate the parasympathetic “rest and digest” system. This can be different for every person, but some examples include:
- Getting in the “flow zone” with a pleasurable activity that makes you concentrate only on one thing, such as playing an instrument, doing a puzzle, petting the dog, and doing art
- Being in nature – hiking, taking a walk, forest bathing and grounding
- Meditation
- Yoga
Dialing in and maintaining these foundational areas can have profound positive effects on supporting the immune system. These help the immune system modulate itself so that inflammation is no longer chronic and is only used as needed in the body.
At Radiance Functional Medicine, we believe that food is medicine. We hope that you will allow us to help you heal your gut, balance your hormones, or find a way of eating that helps you thrive! Schedule an appointment to get started. Whether you are looking for a Nutritionist or Functional Medicine Doctor in Denver or your local area, we see patients in person and virtually. Call our office at 303.333.1668 to schedule your Initial Nutrition Consultation.
