What Most People Don’t Know About Chronic Inflammation
And the hidden danger it presents to long-term health
Chronic inflammation can manifest in systemic symptoms such as joint pains, brain fog, digestive issues, or fatigue. Learn what it is and how to prevent it before it takes hold.
Introduction: A Slow Burning Fire
A few weeks ago, I was at a party chatting with a group of women when our host placed a beautiful cheese plate in front of us. As the women around me reached for cheese, they commiserated on the effects dairy had on them: bloating, skin breakouts, stomach upsets, and so on. I was the only one who didn’t reach for cheese or fill my glass with wine.
Up until three years ago, I would have. That was before my stomach became bloated and my joints started shooting pain. It was before every small -itis I brushed off growing up — tendonitis, dermatitis, periodontitis — suddenly became severe arthritis. I was only 25 and knew something was very wrong.
Though I was diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease, I soon realized the root of my issues was chronic inflammation. Over the next three years, I learned to recognise and eliminate inflammation in my body through diet and lifestyle changes. But as I started healing, I noticed something strange: the warning signs of chronic inflammation were on the faces and bodies of almost everyone around me. Even friends under 30 suffered skin problems, bagged eyes, and joint aches.
Though it’s well-known that chronic illnesses are the leading cause of death in the world, very few people learn about chronic inflammation until it’s already done serious damage. I want to share the four things I wish I knew sooner- which could have saved my joints years of damage, dramatically improved my skin and self-confidence, and given me back the vitality I didn’t have in my early twenties.
#1. Chronic Inflammation Impacts Your Whole Body
I learned my first lesson about inflammation as I sipped a cappuccino while doing math homework in college. As I stared at the same problems I had completed quickly the day before, I found my thinking foggy and my stomach aching uncomfortably. My eyes drifted over the cappuccino and for the first time, I wondered about the impact of the milk- I had known for years that dairy didn’t “sit well” with me, but it suddenly hit me that milk might be bothering more than my stomach.
As I later learned, chronic inflammation- unlike the acute inflammation associated with small cuts- damages the entire body. The warning signs are subtle and common enough to seem normal. Some of the main ones to watch for are:
Body pain, arthralgia, myalgia
Chronic fatigue and insomnia
Depression, anxiety and mood disorders
Gastrointestinal complications like constipation, diarrhea, and acid reflux
Weight gain or weight loss
Frequent infections
Skin rashes
Though many people decide they can live with one or two of these symptoms, each one is like smoke signalling a fire burning throughout the body.
#2. What You Do (And Don’t) Eat Matters
From personal experience, a clean diet is probably the best way to reduce chronic inflammation. The most famous anti-inflammatory diet is the Mediterranean Diet, which includes abundant fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and legumes, and olive oil, as well as moderate fish and white meat. As a 2016 study reports:
“the results of several studies suggest that the MedDiet may have a dual effect on the prevention of CVD, improving classical cardiovascular risk factors and also having an intense anti-inflammatory effect. In fact, epidemiological studies have shown that the MedDiet may exert its effect partly through mechanisms such as improved lipid profile and reductions in blood pressure or insulin resistance.”
Though maintaining a healthy, nutrient-rich diet is a great start, I’ve learned that testing for food allergies and sensitivities can also make a huge difference. Regarding food sensitivities, the Harvard Health Blog shares, “it appears that exposure to specific foods may create an immune reaction that generates a multitude of symptoms. The symptoms…can be quite disruptive and include joint pain, stomach pain, fatigue, rashes, and brain fog.” From personal experience, testing for food sensitivities and removing dairy, soy, and corn from my diet led to a major improvement in my quality of life and virtually eliminated my Lyme disease symptoms. While I tested for sensitivities with my nutritionist, companies like Everlywell are now making at-home testing easy and fairly reliable.
#3. Emotional Stress Can Trigger Inflammation
“It may be said without hesitation, that for man the most important stressors are emotional.”-Hans Selye
Though Hans Selye, the researcher who first coined the term “stress” in the 1940s, was well aware of the connection between emotion and stress, it’s only recently that researchers have begun to understand the nature of this link. In his fantastic book, “When The Body Says No,” clinician Gabor Mate reviews research on the association between emotional patterns and various chronic illnesses- such as cancer, ALS, and rheumatoid arthritis- to highlight the relationship between emotional stress and inflammatory symptoms. Many of the studies Mate shares are jaw-dropping, especially the following: A ten-year study on lung cancer risk conducted in the former Yugoslavia. The goal was to investigate the relationship of psychosocial risk factors to mortality:
In the studies linking emotional stress to inflammatory illness, the relevant factor is almost always whether emotion can be expressed in a healthy way- if social conditioning and circumstances allow emotions like anger and frustration to be released or whether they’re turned inwards against the patient.
#4. Everything We Currently Know Is Incomplete- And Maybe Wrong
In 2014, Dutch “Ice Man” Wim Hof shocked the scientific community when he demonstrated control over his inflammatory response- and then taught others to do the same. A group of researchers who studied Hof and his trainees wrote:
“The present study demonstrates that, through practicing techniques learned in a short-term training program, the sympathetic nervous system and immune system can indeed be voluntarily influenced. Healthy volunteers practicing the learned techniques exhibited profound increases in the release of epinephrine, which in turn led to increased production of anti-inflammatory mediators and subsequent dampening of the proinflammatory cytokine response elicited by intravenous administration of bacterial endotoxin. This study could have important implications for the treatment of a variety of conditions associated with excessive or persistent inflammation…”
What is notable about Hof and his trainees’ demonstration is that their bodies were able to respond to a toxin without a major accompanying inflammatory response. Though inflammation was previously considered an inevitable part of healing, it appears we may have more control over it than previously thought.
While Hof proved that it’s possible to influence levels of inflammation, some health experts are asking broader questions about the role inflammation plays in health. PT Deanna Hansen, who has spent her career studying fascial tissue, challenges the perception of inflammation as a negative in her book “Unblock The Body”:
“Inflammation contains all the nutrients required for healing and rebuilding tissue, but if it becomes stagnant, it creates more problems. Keeping the flow moving is the key to using inflammation to your advantage.”
Though coming from different fields, Hof and Hansen are among many who are starting to suggest that what we know about inflammation now is just the tip of the iceberg. As we learn more, my hope is that we’ll become more conscious of how our bodies heal and in what ways we can support them.
