Contrary to its negatively perceived connotation, inflammation is a physiological and even helpful necessity in the fight against human illness. When we feel body aches, fever, and other discomfort in the setting of flu-like illness, these are in fact signs that our immune system is doing precisely what it was designed to do when under duress. These symptoms represent the firing off of cytokines, which serve as our immune system’s soldiers. When they fight, it gets heated… literally. And while we’ll tolerate this for a few days in the name of acute inflammation, it’s when the stress response keeps on going… and going… and going – that things can go haywire. While this can obviously occur in well-known autoimmune conditions (eg Crohn’s disease or Lupus), chronic inflammation at a more subtle level is now known to be a primary root cause of everything from cardiovascular disease to dementia to obesity.

WHAT ARE THE TRIGGERS FOR CHRONIC INFLAMMATION? AND WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT THEM?

Emotional Stress

It’s not random that I’ve listed this one first. If stress, anxiety, or low mood are impacting your daily life, consider an intake consultation with BIÂN’s Mental Health Director Dr. Amy Robbins for help in establishing care with a local therapist. Meditation, acupuncture, yoga, and massage therapy can also be enormously helpful in reducing emotional inflammation.

Sugar and Simple Carbohydrates

That little nightly dessert may have a greater impact than people realize. Even natural sugars and carbohydrates in excess (fruit, juice, cereal) can stimulate a toxic systemic response. Cutting down on this specific component of the diet can work wonders for overall health optimization.

Excessive Alcohol Intake‍

While 1-2 drinks on a given night is reasonable, regular consumption of higher amounts of alcohol can shift the liver into overdrive, destroy sleep, increase cancer risk, promote dehydration, and cause premature aging. Keep this in moderation!

Ignored Nutritional Sensitivities

Dairy, gluten, soy, and even the fermentable saccharides (ie FODMAP’s) found in many healthy fruits & vegetables can create a digestive and systemic inflammatory response for some. A consultation with BIÂN’s Naturopathic

Nutritionist Dr. Ben Schuff can be enormously helpful in targeting dietary triggers and optimizing GI microbial health.

Visceral Fat Accumulation

Our In-Body 770 machine, utilized in our concierge medical program and by our personal trainers, provides a surface area estimate of this deeply interwoven abdominal fat. Visceral fat acts as its own unwelcomed hormonal manipulator in the body. It is reducible with successful lifestyle changes but can be an enemy to progress when ignored.

Environmental Toxins

While fear of toxins can become as detrimental as the toxins themselves (please be cautious without becoming paranoid!), choosing organic produce, regularly cleaning your home, limiting intake of Mercury-laden fish to once/week, and maintaining awareness of chemicals in lawn fertilizers, for example, can simplistically reduce exposure.

Others

Insufficient sleep, cigarette smoking, under-exercising, over-exercising, consuming processed foods, and failing to treat known chronic conditions (like hypertension or diabetes), can all promote inflammation.

Within or outside of BIÂN, please remember that maintaining optimized primary health care is at the forefront of disease prevention! Through patient education, lifestyle adjustments, modern medications, and supplemental strategies, inflammation can be stopped in its tracks.

Learn more about BIÂN Medical here.