What is Inflammation & the Body’s Inflammatory Response?
Inflammation is the body’s attempt at self-protection; the aim being to remove harmful stimuli, including damaged cells, irritants, or pathogens, and begin the healing process. The redness, swelling, pain and heat that you experience when you cut your finger or twist your ankle are all part of the inflammatory process. In some ways, this is step one of the healing process because your body is beginning to repair the injured tissue. When inflammation is acute, we recognize it because there are some very vivid warning signs that are hard to ignore. The Latin terms Dolor, Calor, Rubor, Tumor, and Functio Laesa were coined thousands of years ago by Roman physician Aulus Cornelius Celsus. Still today, doctors look for these signs of acute inflammation: pain, heat, redness, swelling, and loss of function.
When a patient exhibits these signs, doctors know that the body is dealing with acute inflammation of some sort: a fever, an infection, a foreign object, etc. Something is definitely wrong in the body; but underlying this knowledge is the constant truth that the body is doing its job! The amazing immune system is targeting the “enemy,” surrounding it with heat, and swelling the area with extra blood cells and white warrior cells causing swelling and redness. The degree of loss of function tells doctors how long that acute inflammation has been there. Inflammation is our friend, but the underlying stress is the true enemy of our health and wellbeing.
What is Chronic Inflammation?
When inflammation is chronic, however, it can cause a number of inflammatory diseases like certain cancers, asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, tonsillitis, sinusitis, atherosclerosis, meningitis, chronic peptic ulcers, Crohn’s disease, active hepatitis, hay fever, and even heart disease. Stress is the culprit behind chronic inflammation, so our goal always at Redeem Health is to create bodies that are better able to adapt to and recover from stress.
The problem comes when we have damage to our internal organs — the game is different than when we have a fever, a splinter, a rash, or an infection. Why is it different? These five acute inflammation signs are only relevant when the affected area is on or close to the skin. When inflammation (acute or chronic) happens deep inside the body (like internal organs), only some symptoms are detectable. Many internal organs don’t have sensory nerve endings nearby, so there isn’t any pain recognized; but that doesn’t mean there isn’t inflammation and damage to that organ. Oftentimes people feel good and have heart attacks; or they seem to be in the pink of health, but suddenly get a cancer diagnosis. That is why it’s important to address the sources of stress on the body BEFORE the symptoms begin showing themselves.
The process of chronic inflammation begins with your body doing the right thing. Hormones are released due to injury, stress or your diet, which causes your immune system to react. If the injury doesn’t heal, the stress doesn’t end or the diet doesn’t change, this normally healthy process can turn into chronic inflammation and disease. Furthermore, over 60% of people are affected with at least one condition associated with chronic inflammation.
Because of this, researchers have identified inflammation as both one of the most beneficial and harmful processes in your body – acute inflammation is your body’s natural repair and healing response to an accident or injury, but chronic inflammation is an entirely different matter as it can be detrimental to your overall health. A few of the most common risk factors associated with chronic inflammation include age, obesity, diet, smoking, hormone imbalances and sleep disorders – while age is obviously uncontrollable, nearly all other risk factors can be altered with your daily habits.
Inflammation & Stress
When we talk about stress on the body, we aren’t merely acknowledging the frustrations of modern life like too much traffic, deadlines at work, drama in your family — although all of these are stressful. When we talk about stress, we are talking about total body burden. The amount of toxins stored in your fat cells and muscles, fungal, bacterial, viral, and parasitic infections that have gone undiagnosed and untreated, the number of negative thoughts and emotions you entertain daily, the number of prescription and non-prescription drugs you take, the extent of the trauma (to body or soul) you have endured throughout your life, your past and present exposure to heavy metals and other environmental toxins like mold, the extra fat you carry around your internal organs, sleep deprivation (even minor), and even the toxins you shared with your birth mother in utero all add to your total body burden that we call STRESS!
All of the systems in our bodies are regulated by hormones and the nervous system. The key to good health and reducing chronic inflammation is to make daily lifestyle choices that don’t result in a constant state of stress. Making healthy decisions each day around your stress level can help your nervous system maintain a balance that reduces chronic inflammation.
Lifestyle Changes to Combat Chronic Inflammation
We will be covering inflammatory diseases this month, but it will take more than a month of changing your lifestyle to overcome any of these conditions you are struggling with. In the meantime, following the twelve steps of Be Resilient by Dr. Pete Sulack will give you a great start!
Daily Exercise:
Researchers have discovered that daily exercise and weight loss can cause a dramatic reduction in chronic inflammation. Exercise can improve the body’s anti-inflammatory response by activating the sympathetic nervous system, which helps to increase heart rate, blood pressure and breathing rate. Exercise is a powerful weapon against chronic inflammation, regardless of your age or fitness level — when we exercise, our body’s tissues increase the production of proteins known as “cytokines”. This process, known as “cytokine production”, helps regulate immune and inflammatory responses. Exercise or movement for as little as 20 minutes a day can help to decrease chronic inflammation.
Sleep:
Sleep is a process during which your body performs various crucial functions, such as flushing out toxins, processing memories, and recharging your body’s cells. It also plays an integral role in regulating immunological functions. Researchers have discovered a strong connection between lack of sleep or poor-quality sleep and increased inflammatory responses. One way sleep is tied to inflammation is through your body’s circadian rhythms. These internal “clocks” regulate many physiological processes, including immune response and inflammation. Disruptions in these rhythms – as happens with poor sleep – can increase the risk of inflammatory diseases.
Quality sleep helps to balance the production and release of cytokines, small proteins involved in cell signaling during immune responses. Cytokines are crucial in promoting sleep and fighting infections, but overproduction of proinflammatory cytokines due to sleep loss can trigger an overly aggressive immune response, leading to chronic inflammation.
Promoting good sleep habits, or sleep hygiene, can significantly impact reducing chronic inflammation. Some key aspects of sleep hygiene include maintaining a consistent sleep schedule, creating a calm and comfortable sleep environment, limiting exposure to screens before sleep, avoiding stimulants like caffeine and nicotine close to bedtime, and managing stress.
Chiropractic Care:
Reducing the stress on your muscles and joints through chiropractic care may provide additional benefits on your way to curbing chronic inflammation. The Integrator, used for Torque Release Technique, releases tension on the central nervous system and allows it to better function and communicate efficiently and effectively with all of your body’s systems. When your body has reached homeostasis physically and your nervous system is functioning properly, your body’s biomechanics return to normal – this stops the production of neuropeptides, which can help reduce inflammation. Chiropractic adjustments help combat stress on the body, which is at the root of chronic inflammation.
Diet:
Obesity is associated with higher levels of inflammation; so you will work to eat nourishing foods and cut out foods with empty calories. Some foods, herbs, and supplements are anti-inflammatory by nature like oily fish, ginger, turmeric, green tea, tart cherries, and devil’s claw. You will begin adding these to your diet. Reducing inflammation starts on your plate – the choices you make about what you eat can play a huge role in your body’s hormone balance, immune response and inflammatory state. Each meal provides an opportunity to turn up or turn down inflammation. Creating an anti-inflammatory diet doesn’t mean that you need to make massive changes – as a matter of fact, simple additions, such as spices, can make a big difference.
Some foods and chemicals are known for their ability to increase inflammation — foods like sugar, dairy, and grains. So you will begin limiting these foods in your diet to reduce pain and inflammation in your body. On the flipside, adding flavorful and anti-inflammatory spices such as turmeric or ginger can improve the health (and taste!) of your next meal. Turmeric has been shown to reduce inflammation in people suffering from painful arthritis. Ginger can limit the production of inflammatory mediators like cytokines. Lastly, leafy green vegetables are high in antioxidants, which protects tissues from damage against reactive oxygen species and other free radicals. Because antioxidants protect tissues from damage, they prevent unwanted inflammatory responses occurring in the first place.
Living a healthy lifestyle that includes daily exercise, a balanced diet, quality sleep, and regular chiropractic care can make a substantial difference in managing chronic inflammation. A whole foods-based diet, rich in anti-inflammatory compounds, serves to nourish the body and control inflammatory responses. Restorative sleep offers a multitude of anti-inflammatory benefits, promoting the balanced production of cytokines, and maintaining crucial immunological functions. Chiropractic care can complement these practices by restoring joint function, increasing blood flow, and providing overall stress relief, all of which are detrimental to reducing inflammation. While these interventions might not serve as a cure-all, they do offer an integrated and preventative approach to fight chronic inflammation – a critical aspect of overall health and wellbeing.