The storm of inflammation is here. Many are already suffering the consequences, but do not known what to blame it on, or understand the cause. They describe a feeling of malaise, or unwell.
In Dr. Will Cole’s Book, The Inflammation Spectrum, he identifies the Spectrum of chronic
Inflammation that is plaguing Americans today. Inflammation is the process by which our body’s white blood cells, and the substances that they make, protect us from outside invaders, such as bacteria and viruses. This sounds like a good thing, right? Yes, when it is in the acute phase, but not when it becomes chronic and does not shut itself off. This leads to chronic inflammation, a cause of many diseases.
At least sixty percent of Americans have a chronic disease, and forty percent of Americans have two or more chronic inflammatory related diseases. Fifty million Americans have an autoimmune disease. Chronic inflammation is thought to be the root cause of some types of Cancers, pre-diabetes and Diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, Arthritis, Alzheimer’s, and autoimmune diseases. Chronic inflammation is also thought to have a causative effect to cognitive decline and depression as a result of leaky gut and then leaky brain. One in 5 children around the world are having a diagnosable, mental disorder.
Certain environmental factors and substances, we either put on our bodies as lotions and soaps, chemicals we use to clean our environment, kill pests, and found in our food we ingest, can have inflammatory effects and act as endocrine disrupters.
These environmental, exogenous, endocrine disrupters confuse our own hormonal pathways, and can disrupt or “hijack” our normal metabolic processes, causing disharmony, inflammation and dysbiosis, a microbial imbalance on or inside the body. The specie and the health of these 100 trillion bacteria, and other microbes, are what can predict our health. The study of the body’s, either natural or changed microbiome is exploding. We can look forward in the future, to more information coming out about the relationship to our health, as the studies become published in mainstream communication.
You need to be able to tune into your own body’s 8 different systems and look for the signs and symptoms of inflammation which can be absent, mild, or severe.
1.Brain and nervous system
- Digestive tract
3.Liver, Kidney, and lymphatic system
4 Liver, Pancreas, and cellular insulin receptor sites
5.Endocrine system
6.Muscle, joint and connective tissue,
7.Immune system.
8.Poly inflammation. (more than one area.).
You want to see where you have abnormal symptoms in these systems and target these areas.
The goal is to identify your own personal problems, and eliminate your own systemic inflammation, before permanent damage occurs. Signs and symptoms of inflammation can include, migraines and foggy brain, achy joints, skin rashes and inflammation, multiple food sensitivities, dry eye, unrelenting fatigue, trouble losing weight, elevated blood sugars, digestive problems, and the list goes on. What you do or don’t do, will increase or decrease your personal inflammation, this is called bio individuality. You have control once you understand your personal profile.
When looking at the food we ingest, as a lifestyle factor, it is important to consume food that is free of any endocrine disruptors.
The Elimination diet is really the only way to pinpoint foods that are causing your personal reaction and your spot on the inflammation spectrum.Functional medicine practitioners consider the whole picture and see food as medicine in a method to manage chronic disease. The goal is to calm inflammation, with food and lifestyle factors. We are all on a spectrum of inflammation, no size fits all. Our own genetics and the expressive of your genes in your environment, will result in your spot on the Inflammation. Spectrum, again absent, mild, moderate or severe.
The Elimination diet is really the only way to pinpoint foods that are causing your personal reaction and your spot on the inflammation spectrum.
When looking at the food we ingest, as a lifestyle factor, it is important to consume food that is free of any endocrine disruptors.
Functional medicine practitioners consider the whole picture and see food as medicine in a method to manage chronic disease. The goal is to calm inflammation, with food and lifestyle factors. We are all on a spectrum of inflammation, no size fits all. Our own genetics and the expressive of your genes in your environment, will result in your spot on the Inflammation. Spectrum, again absent, mild, moderate or severe.
The Elimination diet is really the only way to pinpoint foods that are causing your personal reaction and your spot on the inflammation spectrum.
The foods that are most commonly causing inflammation are:
- Grains: Wheat, corn, rye, barley
- Chronic use of simple sugar, and foods that have these as an ingredient.
- Chronic consumption of junk food
- Dairy products: Milk, cheese, from cows, goats, or sheep.
- Non-nutritive sweeteners.
- Industrialized processed oils: corn, canola, soy, safflower, grape seed, rape seed
Note: However, one person’s health food, may be inflammatory for another, due to your own bio individuality.
There are steps you can take, to start to get a handle on this process to reduce your inflammation factors. Here are recommendations for types of foods that can be less inflammatory
1.Grass fed meats, and chickens that produce eggs.
- Oils: Avocado, Coconut, olive oil, and ghee
- Eliminate junk food
- Drink plenty of filtered water, teas, and other non-sugary drinks: 30-35 cc/kg body weight
- Avoid non-nutritive sweeteners
- Eat more non-starchy vegetables
- Consume more deep green leafy vegetables
- Consume organic foods whenever possible: Pesticide and hormones found in our food chain are considered endocrine disruptors.
- Consume Omega -3 fatty acid containing fish (low or mercury free sources.)
- Consume Whole foods, and less processed.
- Look for and consume food free of non-genetically modified organisms (GMO)
- Consume Fresh foods, to control histamines
- Positive Lifestyle changes, and consuming healthy food, are the two main factors that we can do, to calm our chronic inflammation.
On my website I have provided free tools, to help you. If you choose, you can go to the anti- inflammatory recipe tab to find recipes you can make that are anti-inflammatory. Also, on the information tab there will be other tools to help you make better food choices. Investigate and use the affirmations on the Monthly Affirmations tab. Daily use of positive Affirmation is a tool to reduce limiting beliefs by reprograming your subconscious.
I have a 4- and 8-week on-line program to help you identify your chronic inflammatory challenges. I will provide potential customizable nutrition and lifestyle changes to reduce the toxic effects of chronic inflammation.
Stephanie Larmour Sanders MSRDN, CDE