Inflammation may be one piece of the puzzle impacting your overall health and wellbeing by presenting itself in various symptoms such as chronic fatigue, body aches, skin issues, or gastrointestinal (GI) issues. Working with a functional practitioner will help to address the root causes of your symptoms.

What Is Inflammation?

Inflammation is the response to an illness or injury to allow your body to heal and fight off infection or anything it deems as foreign. The healing response is the body’s defense mechanism towards anything it deems harmful to the human body aiming to return it back to a state of balance.  It is the process by which the immune system recognizes and removes harmful and foreign invaders and begins the healing process. Acute inflammation typically occurs during sudden illness or injuries and typically lasts for a few days. Chronic inflammation often persists for weeks if not months to years using the same healing process for a prolonged time leading to tissue damage and causing an increased risk in chronic health conditions such as arthritis, diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease. Addressing root causes of chronic inflammation is a complex process that requires a multifaceted approach that includes diet and lifestyle changes, stress management, sleep optimization, as well as decreasing overall daily toxin exposure.

Conditions Associated With Systemic, Chronic Inflammation

• Arthritis
• Metabolic syndrome
• Obesity
• Cardiovascular disease
• Autoimmune conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)

Symptoms With Inflammation

• Chronic fatigue
• Body aches
• Skin issues such as acne, eczema, and psoriasis
• Gastrointestinal (GI) issues

Root Causes Of Inflammation

• Chronic stress
• Lack of a nutrient dense diet
• Chronic exposure to environmental toxins
• Obesity
• Oxidative stress leading to hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) and dyslipidemia (high lipids/fats)
• Gut dysbiosis or imbalances in the gut microbiome
• Lack of physical activity
• Sleep deprivation
• Social Isolation
• Smoking

Lab Testing

Labs to look at for inflammation:

• C-reactive protein: (CRP) Elevated CRP levels are commonly used as a marker of inflammation.
• hsCRP
• Cortisol
• Homocysteine
• Uric acid

My storefront is linked here to order functional labs, which is signed off by a nationally-licensed physician, to assess for gut imbalances, hormonal imbalances, or vitamin/mineral deficiencies. If you need help creating a personalized functional nutrition care plan based on the interpretation of any of the above functional labs, you can work with us here.

Functional lab testing would be a good idea if you really wanted to hone in on the specifics of gut microbiome imbalances, hormonal imbalances, vitamin/mineral deficiencies.

Conventional Lab Ranges vs Optimal Lab Ranges for Inflammation

Standard lab ranges represent the average population and does not necessarily refer to the optimal level to remain at the highest level of health. Optimal ranges are obtained from clinical studies and limited research so it may vary here and there.

C-reactive protein: (CRP):

• conventional lab range:
• optimal lab range:

hsCRP:

• conventional lab range: 0-3.0 mg/L
• optimal lab range: 0.0-0.55 mg/L

Cortisol:

• conventional lab range:

AM: 6.2-19.4 ug/dL

PM: 2.3-11.9 ug/dL

• optimal lab range:

AM: 6.2-19.4 ug/dL

PM: 2.3-11.9 ug/dL

Homocysteine:

• conventional lab range: 5-15 µmol/L
• optimal lab range: 5-8 µmol/L

Uric acid:

• conventional lab range:

Male: > 8 mg/dL

Female: > 7 mg/dL

• optimal lab range:

Male: > 5 mg/dL

Female: > 4 mg/dL

What to Increase and Limit In Your Diet

Increase:

• Include omega 3 fatty acids rich foods
• Include polyphenol rich foods
• Include fiber rich foods

Limit:

• Remove or reduce refined sugars such as white sugar, brown sugar, high fructose corn syrup, cane sugar, corn syrup, etc
• Remove or reduce refined grains such as white processed bread, white rice, white pasta made with refined flour, pastries made with refined white flour and refined sugar, etc
• Remove or reduce pro-inflammatory foods such as ultra processed foods, excessive intake of refined sugars, and excessive omega 6 fatty acids commonly found in highly processed vegetable oils such as canola, soybean oil, sunflower oil, and safflower oil.

Tip: opt for higher quality oils for everyday cooking such as 100% pure avocado oil or extra virgin olive oil.

Probiotic Strains To Reduce Inflammation

• Lactobacillus strains
• Bifidobacterium strains

Adding various or specific probiotic strains to ferment in yogurt allows them to multiply and digest easier as well survive intestinal transit ensuring optimal nutrition. I have the recipe linked here!

Medicinal Herbs & Adaptogens To Reduce Inflammation

Adaptogens are herbs that help the body adapt to stress, regulate cortisol levels, maintain a healthy nervous system, promote relaxation leading to overall health and wellbeing.

• Ashwagandha
• Turmeric

Supplements To Reduce Inflammation

Targeted Supplements to help reduce overall inflammation:

• B-complex
• Omega 3 fatty acids
• Turmeric (curcumin compound)
• Green tea (EGCG compound)

Make sure to order from a high quality and third party tested brand instead of purchasing from Amazon where practically anyone can sell anything without any rigorous testing. To make it easier for you, you may order from my supplement dispensary below through Fullscript’s catalog where each brand and product meets strict top quality standards. You can learn more about third party testing here.

My supplement dispensary is linked here and you do not need to be a client to place an order.

Stress Management Tools To Reduce Inflammation

Stress management tools, such as breath work and meditation, are listed here that will help reduce overall inflammation. Both physical and emotional stress is associated with inflammatory cytokine release and if prolonged will lead to being in a state of chronic inflammation.

Sleep

Sleep is essential for reducing inflammation: aim for 7-9 hours of quality, deep sleep. Both physical and emotional stress is associated with inflammatory cytokine release. Stress can also cause sleep disorders. Since individuals with irregular sleep schedules are more likely to have chronic inflammation than consistent sleepers, sleep disorders are also considered as one of the independent risk factors for chronic inflammation.¹

Referrals

References:

1. Pahwa R, Goyal A, Jialal I. Chronic Inflammation. [Updated 2023 Aug 7]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2024 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK493173/ ↩︎