Want to know what's causing your chronic health issues?
Jun 02, 2021
Most often, when a client comes to work with me, it’s because they’re dealing with a chronic condition that they want to heal holistically. And while, of course, we will run a variety of labs to understand the root cause, most often, controlling inflammation is a big part of the answer. Research has shown that chronic inflammation is associated with diseases like heart disease, diabetes, cancer, arthritis, and bowel diseases like Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, female infertility and endometriosis, Alzheimer’s, thyroid disease, etc.
Inflammation is a natural biological function that arises in response to any stressor within the body. Inflammation is essentially the body trying to protect and heal itself - it comes from a place of good intentions! Injury, illness, or any other kind of stressor causes an inflammatory response to fight off the infection or properly heal the area of trauma.
Two types of inflammation can be present in the body: acute and chronic. Acute inflammation is important in times of injury or infection because it is the body’s way of repairing itself (for example, when you have a cut). On the other hand, chronic inflammation is a major cause of chronic degenerative diseases like I listed above. This type of inflammation, also known as “silent inflammation,” is not as easily detectable as acute inflammation and can go unnoticed for years.
Western lifestyles are far more stressful, sedentary, and nutritionally imbalanced than what is ideal or natural, leading to a problem of chronic inflammation in our society.
So let’s talk about the causes of inflammation:
- Hyperpermeability of the intestinal tract
- Standard American Diet (because it causes blood sugar imbalance and insulin resistance)
- A deficiency of healthy fats and antioxidants
- Insufficient Omega-3 and/or excessive Omega-6 intake
- Excessive exposure to environmental toxins
- Poor food choices, allergies, and intolerances to food, and an imbalance of good and bad bacteria in your gut
- Infections
- Lack of sleep
- Inadequate exercise
- Chronic stress
Any combination of the above leads us to a place where our bodies are in a constant state of low-grade inflammation, negatively affecting many different systems, organs, and tissues and cause a chronic condition.
To heal inflammation and ultimately heal your chronic condition (it is possible!), it's important to look at what contributors may be causing inflammation in your life that you may not be aware of, do the appropriate testing, which is something I provide for clients and teach them to modify your diet and lifestyle accordingly.
FOOD: It’s important to nourish yourself with foods that are less processed, have more fiber, more omegas, and more antioxidants!
I like to walk my clients with chronic conditions through an anti-inflammatory diet and help them put together shopping lists and meal ideas to help them with this new way of eating.
STRESS: Stress is a major cause of inflammation in the body. When our body is under stress, we produce more of the hormone cortisol. Cortisol promotes inflammation in the body as part of the stress response. By reducing stress, we can lower our cortisol levels and help to reduce inflammation.
When I work with individuals, I help them understand where physical, mental, and emotional stress in their life is coming from, something that if they’ve been dealing with stress for a long time, they may not even be aware of. Then we come up with techniques that work FOR THEM because everyone is so different.
EXERCISE: While exercise does place some stress on the body in its physical breakdown and buildup of muscles, overall, it has been shown to reduce inflammation even in small amounts greatly.
Some people need that extra motivation while others learn more about how to rest and not overwork their bodies. I meet my clients where they’re at, and we figure out what will work best for you and your levels of inflammation.
SUPPLEMENTS: Depending on what is causing your inflammation and the chronic condition you’re dealing with, there are so many good supplements that you can take that will help you fight the good fight like
* do not start new supplements without knowing your levels and working with a provider
Together we will work to determine the supplements your bio-individual body needs.
If you’re struggling with a chronic condition, whether it’s your thyroid, PMS, or something more serious like cancer, I hope that this guide to anti-inflammation is a helpful tool on your healing journey.
