Inflammation is a hot topic in just about every form of medicine. It is generally regarded as the enemy of health. However, is there any real truth to this? Today we are going to investigate what inflammation is and what you can do about it right now.
What Is Inflammation?
Inflammation is the body’s first response to an injury or infection. When an inflammatory response is triggered due to damaged tissue or other harmful stimuli, chemical messengers called cytokines are released.
Cytokines are proteins produced naturally by the body and they have several functions such as cell signaling, maturation, growth, and responsiveness of particular cell populations.
The location where they’re released will undergo a dilation of the blood capillaries. This is what causes the reddening of skin that you notice when you get an injury on infection.
Tests For Inflammation
Getting blood work done by your physician is extremely important. I’m amazed how many people will see their family physician for their annual check up and the physician will not even bother to take a blood or urine sample for analysis. This is something you should always request.
With regards to today’s topic of inflammation, you should have your physician test your highly sensitive c reactive protein (hs-CRP). C-reactive protein is made in the liver and increases when there is inflammation in the body. People with arthritis will often have elevated levels of this inflammatory marker.
When you get this test done, it should be the highly sensitive marker you’re looking for. A regular c-reactive protein test in a healthy person should be very low or undetectable (unless you’ve got massive inflammation issues).
Although this test was made to examine risk factors from autoimmune diseases or heart disease, studies have found that it can detect far more than that. One interesting study performed last year demonstrated that decreased levels of highly sensitive CRP could have a tremendous impact on a person’s recovery from a back surgery. Knowing your hs-CRP reading is critical with regards to joint recovery and inflammation!
Inflammation Can Actually Help You
Inflammation isn’t all bad; in fact it is an indicator to you that your body is attempting to heal itself. It is part of our innate immunity. By innate immunity, this means that this is something that we are born with. Adaptive immunity is something that our bodies learn through a response, such as a vaccination.
Even though it’s a natural part of your body’s defense mechanisms, inflammation must be controlled. There are 3 stages of the healing process, which you should always remember:
- Inflammation
- Proliferation
- Repair
Controlling inflammation permits your body to proceed to the later other stages of healing.
“inflammation isn’t all bad; in fact it is an indicator to you that your body is attempting to heal itself”
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Acute vs. Chronic
If you talk to any self-respecting rehab specialist, you’ll notice that when they talk about injuries or pain, this subsection is almost always brought up. Well when it comes to inflammation the story is no different, as not all types of inflammation are alike.
Acute inflammation starts quite rapidly and is very symptomatic but is usually only present for a few days. Examples would be a runny nose for a cold or flu, a minor cut or even intense physical training (even gotten really sore?).
Chronic inflammation can last much longer. It is asymptomatic and usually has major cells in your body involved such as macrophages or lymphocytes. Conditions such as types of arthritis or asthma are examples of this type of inflammation.
What is pain? (1)
When people have inflammation it often hurts. They feel pain, stiffness, discomfort, distress and perhaps agony, depending on the severity of it. Pain can be constant and steady, in which case it is often referred to as an ache. Pain can be of a throbbing type, a pulsating pain, or it can be a stabbing or pinching pain.
Pain is a very individual experience and the only person who can describe it properly is the one who is feeling it.
Pain can be acute or chronic. It can also be:
- Nociceptive pain – specific receptors are stimulated for us to feel this type of pain. These receptors sense changes in temperature, vibration, stretch, and chemicals which damaged cells release. “Nociceptive” means causing or reacting to pain – the cause of the pain comes from outside the nervous system, and the nervous system reacts to it. “Non-nociceptive” means the pain comes from within the nervous system itself.
- Somatic pain – this is a kind of nociceptive pain. The sensation is felt in muscles, joints, bones, ligaments, and on the skin. Musculo-skeletal pain is somatic pain. Pain receptors are sensitive to stretch in the muscles, vibration, temperature, as well as inflammation. When there is a lack of oxygen there may be painful ischemic muscle cramps.
- Visceral pain – this is a kind of nociceptive pain. Pain is sensed deep down in the body, in the internal organs and main body cavities, such as the heart, lungs, bowels, spleen, liver, kidneys, bladder, uterus, and ovaries. The nociceptors (pain receptors) sense oxygen starvation (ischemia), stretch, and inflammation. It is harder to localize visceral pain than somatic pain. The pain is usually described as a deep ache. Cramping and colicky sensations are examples of visceral pain.
Three Tricks That Can Help You Reduce Inflammation:
1. Decrease your body fat percentage. Yes, it’s that simple. I remember a patient who I was performing a body fat test on; he looked to me and asked, “Why does it matter how fat I am?” I’m guessing a lot of people, if not most people think body fat percentage is all about aesthetics, not general health.
Well here’s something interesting about you should know: a recent study found that men with higher body fat percentages had raised levels of white blood cells, which is a marker for inflammation and believed to raise the risk of other nasty things like heart disease. If you’re a man, a healthy body fat percentage is anywhere from 12 to 20 percent. For women, it should be higher, anywhere from 22 to 29 percent.
The best way to get started, is to sign up for our Free Fat Loss Course if you haven’t already done so — it’s designed to help you drop 5lbs in about 2 weeks. The great thing about this course is that you don’t need a gym membership, it includes a full meal plan with easy to make recipes, the workouts are only 15 minutes long, and there are no supplements to take.
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Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t want you to get obsessed with losing too much weight. Having a healthy amount of bodyfat is IMPORTANT — especially for women. I explicitly state this because I can’t believe how many women to this day are still fat phobic. Ironically, the women that should be fat phobic are the ones that think they’re just “curvy and attractive”. Think again. More body fat means more inflammation. It’s not just looks — aim to be in the recommended percentages I listed above, and you’ll reap the benefits.
2. Sleep. I think I could probably write an entire book about the importance of sleep. It amazes me how many people still think it’s unnecessary. A patient once told me that she thought sleep was bad because when you sleep you’re not burning calories or doing anything productive.
Yeah, she couldn’t be further from the truth. Interlukin 6 and highly sensitive C reactive protein are markers used to measure inflammation in the body. In healthy participants that were sleep deprived, BOTH of these markers were elevated. Just get some more sleep.
3. Alcohol. Oh, I bet most people didn’t see this one coming. I’m sure this won’t deter many people, but here’s a couple of interesting facts about alcohol: A few years ago people demanded that trans-fats be labelled on all the junk food they love to purchase because of how dangerous they were. Trans fats are dangerous because not only do they increase insulin resistance, they also destroy the body’s ability to process healthy fatty acids.
You know what else does something similar to trans fats? Alcohol!
Here’s something else you’ll find interesting: men, if you want some more estrogen, drink more alcohol. Women, if you want a testosterone boost, drink more alcohol. it’s amazing how differently men and women metabolize it! Alcohol doesn’t just damage your liver, so careful!
I hope you all enjoyed and learned some valuable lessons. More to come on inflammation in the near future. If you have any questions, feel free to drop them in the comment section below and I’ll try and respond as soon as I can.
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References
- http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/248423.php
- http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/managing_inflammation
- http://ajs.sagepub.com/content/35/1/93.abstract
- http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/126013.php
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1978405/
- http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/managing_inflammation
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4137511/
One Comment
Whenever I feel inflammation in my body, I usually resort into eating foods that are anti-inflammatory to reduce the pain I’m experiencing. I love eating hot pepper with broccoli in a soup and berries as my fruit.