This month’s AARP Bulletin’s cover story, Could Decreasing Inflammation Be the Cure for Everything? certainly caught my attention. Similar to the movie, The Theory of Everything, this title suggests a fairly comprehensive cure or answer if you will, for the very problems causing all of our body’s metabolic illnesses.
This is huge.
For me, its one thing to have amassed an overload on this topic (while remaining continually open to further research), while realizing the relationship of inflammation to the rampant escalation of obesity, Type II diabetes, cancer and other autoimmune diseases. But to see this in a title: ‘…the cure for everything’ in a mainstream magazine, to say the least, nonplussed me on the one hand, but gave me hope on the other. I believe that indeed, by doing just what the title asks is entirely possible.
But…It’s the HOW TO decrease inflammation that remains a challenge for most people.
So what do the experts believe causes inflammation in the first place?
Difficult infections (i.e., hepatitis C or Lyme disease) &
Genetics (both significant in 20% of the population)
Environment (pollution)
Lifestyle (obesity, unregulated stress, tobacco use, drinking too much, lack of physical activity, lousy sleep & poor diet)
Aging (longer exposure to all of the above)
Looking over this list, while all are definitely relevant, I would suggest that of all those listed I would put poor diet at the top, followed by some of the other Lifestyle challenges & choices, followed by any of the first three listed (if relevant), with Aging the natural end-stage, as this is where all of us are headed whether we like it or not.
When inflammation creeps into our bodies, it may percolate for many years as a low-grade problem, often minimally noticed and/or annoying at first until things escalate.
When cells are in distress, they release chemicals that alert the immune system. White blood cells then flood the scene, where they work to eat up bacteria, viruses, damaged cells and debris from an infection or injury. If the damage is too great, they call in backup cells known as neutrophils, which are the hand grenades of the immune system — they blow up everything in sight, healthy or not. Each neutrophil has a short life span, but in chronic inflammation, they continue to be sent in long after the real threat is gone, causing damage to the healthy tissue that remains. The inflammation can start attacking the linings of your arteries or intestines, the cells in your liver and brain, or the tissues of your muscles and joints. This inflammation-caused cellular damage can trigger diseases like diabetes, cancer, dementia, heart disease, arthritis and depression. (pp. 13-14) [emphasis mine]
So what leads to or finally triggers chronic inflammation and its subsequent effects on your body?
• Something triggers the immune system. Whether it's a chronic disease, an autoimmune disorder, weight gain, psychological stress, poor nutrition, exposure to chemicals or allergens — something puts your body in a state of stress and keeps it there.
• The immune system responds. The body goes into attack mode with its inflammatory response, which also includes blood vessel expansion to increase blood flow to the problem areas. Blood is the primary delivery system for all these substances.
• And responds … and responds … and responds. An endless cycle of pro-inflammatory foods, rampant stress, bad sleep and more keeps this process in constant motion because we never give the body a break. (p. 14)
While I was impressed that this article brought the idea front and center that inflammation leads to illness & disease, it missed the mark regarding the root cause of inflammation itself in terms of HOW FOODS AFFECT US hormonally & metabolically. As such, they have unfortunately overlooked the proverbial the elephant in the room. The elephant in the room, aka the key root cause of inflammation itself is of course the role INSULIN plays with regard in particular to the carbohydrates and sugar it governs, and how those specific foods in a poor diet affect our mitochondria – the power houses of our energy.
We don't fully understand it yet but now we know our gut microbiome, made up of trillions of bacteria, influences physiologic processes throughout the body. We're born with a balance between good and bad bacteria in the gut. When that balance is thrown off — known as dysbiosis — it can lead to trouble. A dysregulated microbiome has been associated with metabolic diseases, pulmonary diseases, nervous system conditions, Alzheimer's — and these associations grow as we learn more and more. (p. 14)
“We don't fully understand it yet…” Really?
While it’s true that we're born with a balance between good and bad bacteria in our gut (we are after all born in a state of mild ketosis, and if breastfed, mother’s milk is rich in the fats and nutrients to continue that balance), and that anti-inflammatory foods are a great place to start for reducing inflammation. But while good-intended, this article and mainstream medicine still don’t openly address the key root cause of the inflammation… what specific foods in a poor diet are causing that - and why??
…too much sugar in your blood damages your body. As your sugars rise, your body will protect you from toxic sugar levels at all costs. How is sugar toxic?
Each sugar molecule attracts nearly 100 water molecules as it floats around your system. This creates a toxic inflammatory state. As your blood sugars rise and rise, so does the level of inflammation. If your system does not reduce sugars, soon every part of your body will swell with inflammation. The end results [in a diabetic for example] are a coma and death due to the swollen inflamed brain led by the toxic amounts of sugar.
[So when you remove the processed carbs, junk food, sugar & grains] Your blood glucose lowers along with the extra inflammation. That toxic level of sugar disappears as does the inflammation.
Bosworth, A. (2018). Anyway You Can, p. 40.
Once it becomes a mainstream narrative that today’s out of control illnesses and diseases (not of a bacterial nature of course) are understood as a negative outcome of our mitochondria’s malfunctioning and insulin’s response to repeated processed carbohydrates and sugar in any form – leading to out of control blood sugar and our gut microbiome becoming off-balance (dysbiosis), creating inflammation (& water retention) raging through our bodies, leading to problems associated with various metabolic diseases (including complaints of feeling fatigue, depression, irritable, general aches & pains) – will doctors be able to implement positive change. When doctors can process and understand how & why these foods in particular are part of the key root cause of inflammation, will they will be able to more effectively and accurately diagnose and treat (rather than manage) their patient’s illnesses and disease. (Rabbit hole alert: doctors are not trained in nutrition.)
“Nobody…ever told me junk food was bad for me. Four years of medical school, and four years of internship and residency, and I never thought anything was wrong with eating sweet rolls and doughnuts, and potatoes, and bread, and sweets.” ~ Dr. Robert Atkins
In fairness, the doctors in this article did mention two of the biggest inflammation culprits such as sugar and fried foods – which I wholeheartedly agree with. But again, and in summary, central to the entire key root cause of inflammation issue, they should have also discussed in greater detail carbohydrate overload, especially processed carbohydrates & grains, and the role pro-inflammatory oils known as PUFAs (polyunsaturated fatty acids) play in our bodies, and how THOSE FOODS (used in virtually ALL PACKAGED & PROCESSED FOOD & RESTAURANTS to FRY & COOK) help to contribute to the root cause of the havoc in our guts and pancreas (where insulin is made), leading to a dysregulated microbiome and inflammation associated with skin problems, metabolic diseases, pulmonary diseases, nervous system conditions, Alzheimer's disease, among others. This is a huge area, but for now, realize that these are the very ‘poor’ foods in our diet at the heart of all our inflammatory metabolic problems. Stop eating them!
With that said, even with the exclusion in this article of the actual key root causes of inflammation itself from these foods (due to havoc they play internally/metabolically), as well as the omission of some of the best bio-available sources of protein and fat known to help support overall good health and sense of well-being (which should have been included with their recommendations to avert inflammatory issues); it was still a valuable contribution in terms of the inflammation-leading-to-illness & disease-connection!
Just for fun – here’s a documentary written and produced by a young mom who was fed up with feeling like s*** and took control to reverse her chronic inflammation: “Through her journey to become well, she learned about a whole new medical world and how to naturally combat America's #1 killer - chronic inflammation.”