I’ve been talking a lot about “inflammation” lately. How chronic inflammation can lead to serious health issues, and make it nearly impossible to lose weight.

When I suggest that someone begins to think about reducing the inflammation in their bodies, they nod their head because it’s something that we’ve heard again and again, but do we really understand what inflammation is?

Inflammation is essential to life since, without it, infections and wounds would never heal. A healthy immune system will turn on the inflammatory response when needed and turn it off when it has done its job. Inflammation doesn’t necessarily mean there is an infection but can be caused by a number of reactions triggered by the immune system.

As children the most common form of inflammation we encountered was from injuries, infection and severe allergic reactions. These ACUTE examples are what most people think of as adults when they hear the word “inflammation”. So often times people dismiss this concept because they don’t present with the signs and symptoms associated with acute inflammation that they remember from childhood (redness, immobility, swelling and heat).

Sound familiar?

There are two different types of inflammation as well. The first is innate inflammation. This is the specific defense that is naturally present and that we are all born with. The second type is adaptive, which is generally developed after an infection, vaccination or when the body must fight off a specific infections agent.

So fast forward to adulthood and you begin to experience a slew of health problems from aches and pains, cancers, heart disease, new food sensitivities, to headaches, insomnia, recurrent infections or illnesses and the inability to lose weight. Many times these are also the conditions doctors can’t quite pin point, and are dealt with by treating the symptoms individually but not getting to the root cause of the problem.

So how are those things associated with inflammation?

Chronic inflammation is when the body “turns on” the immunity response of inflammation but is unable to turn it back off. The symptoms may present itself in a different way than the swelling, heat and redness we automatically think of. Fatigue, mouth sores, weight gain, chest, joint or abdominal pain, fever and rash are some possible symptoms of chronic inflammation and these can last for several months or even years.

Chronic inflammation can result from the inability to remove what caused acute inflammation in the first place, or exposure to a low level irritant over a long period of time (preservatives, chemicals, foods you may be slightly sensitive to etc). This can lead to diseases and conditions such as some cancers, rheumatoid arthritis, and atherosclerosis or even simply periodontitis or hay fever!

So how does this relate to food?

Before I get into the “anti-inflammatory” foods that you can add to your diet, let me explain how food alone can cause inflammation in the body.

If you imagine the lining of the gut as a similar structure to your external skin, you’ll know that it’s very thin, and very powerful. It allows nutrients to be absorbed through, from the intestine to the rest of the body and keeps the toxic things from passing into the blood stream through elimination. However, after years and years of exposure to chemicals, diet products, processed foods, GMO foods, sugar, alcohol on top of stress, lack of sleep and other unhealthy lifestyle choices, the very thin lining of the gut begins to separate on the cellular level. The tightly woven cells begin to pull apart, allowing other things to pass through into the blood stream and the rest of the body. This is also referred to as Leaky Gut Syndrome or Intestinal Permeability.

Sound familiar?

These “other things” are foreign to the immune system which in turn alerts the body to attack and remove that foreign body. This attack is an example of an inflammatory response, which is what we want. We want our bodies to know to remove these foreign, potentially harmful or toxic substances.

But we also want it to turn off.

Now think again of that compromised intestinal wall. If the cells have separated enough to allow things through it shouldn’t, it will do that each and every time we eat. Which is often…. daily…hourly!? If you are constantly feeding your body, your body is constantly allowing foreign things through the barrier into the body. So your body then is constantly fighting off these foreign bodies and is in a constant state of chronic inflammation. This type of chronic inflammation is what will lead to diseases, from cancer to alzheimer’s, from arthritis to ADHD and autoimmune disorders, food allergies and sensitivities. This will also make it difficult for people to lose weight.

So, what can you do?

Healing the gut is a lengthly, complicated journey of removing the foods causing the problem, fixing the dis-biosis, or the imbalanced microbiome, and re-populating the gut with the healthy, “good” bacteria we need to function properly and to change the diet to reduce further damage to the lining of the gut.

The easiest thing you can do at home, is to remove as many processed foods as possible, reduce your toxic load by switching to all natural products and by eliminating foods that commonly cause irritation to the lining of the gut and reintroducing them slowly and individually to see if they cause problems. Getting enough sleep, reducing your perception of stress and participating in stress reducing activities such as meditation is also helpful.

If you feel like you may be experiencing this and don’t know where to begin, consider speaking to me so I can help guide you as you take this journey, hold you accountable and support your healing. In my coaching programs I will teach you how to live the healthiest way you possibly can while still enjoying you life.

www.amyhedges.com