“Inflammation” is everywhere in health & wellness information these days. Everyone wants to ‘lower inflammation’ and looks for ‘anti-inflammatory’ supplements & foods, but do we even know why or where it comes from?

Inflammation is an immune response, and it’s actually the first step in healing! Inflammation calls in more immune support to attack the invader & heal the tissue. Once the threat has been neutralized, we can naturally ‘uninflame’ and things carry on as they should. So, no it’s not all bad. We need it in order to repair & heal.

But (of course there’s a but!) inflammation is no longer a sporadic & helpful process in our bodies. Often due to diet, environmental factors, mental & emotional stress and medication side-effects, inflammation has turned into a chronic reality for many people.

So whether inflammation presents as joint pain, brain fog, autoimmune, insulin resistance or Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, chronic pain, anxiety or depression, PCOS and hormone imbalances, or eczema & hives...nearly every chronic condition ties back to unchecked inflammation.

We know inflammation is a problem, but where does it COME from, when it’s not a physical injury like sprained ankle, bump or cut or an infection?

Turns out, our gut lining and microbiome are largely responsible for chronic inflammation.

A healthy gut microbiome produces important nutrients called ‘short chain fatty acids’ as a product of helping us digest plant fiber, like veggies & fruit. These short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) have anti-inflammatory & benefits themselves, and they also have an important role in nourishing the gut lining.

Keeping our gut nourished with SCFAs is important because a damaged gut lining loses its ability to absorb nutrients and keep everything else OUT. When it’s damaged, it can lose its integrity and become excessively permeable, allowing partially digested food, toxins & bacteria to travel through the digestive tract into the bloodstream (1). Of course the immune system is on guard in the bloodstream, ready to neutralize the toxins, bacteria & undigested food. This triggers some level of inflammation, and as long as you are introducing food, toxins & bacteria to your bloodstream, your body will react. This is chronic inflammation.

As the immune system is on high alert, it begins to recognize certain partially digested foods as invaders, which can lead to food sensitivities.

TLDR; a damaged gut lining & an imbalanced microbiome are two major causes of inflammation in our body.

OK! So anything that (A) damages our gut lining, or (B) disrupts our microbiome can lead to inflammation…

These are things like:

1. Stress (for REAL)

Good ol’ fashion mental & emotional stress (in the form of work, family, finances, food insecurity, race-related stress (2) among other sources) has a measurable impact on inflammatory markers. This is because of the effect that stress has on our microbiome. Mental and/or emotional stress triggers a fight-or-flight response and releases stress hormones like cortisol throughout the body, which ultimately disturbs the microbiota. In the absence of stress, a healthy microbiome produces short-chain fatty acids that exert anti-inflammatory and antitumor effects. This is why stress management techniques that moderate our stress response like meditation, gratitude and deep breathing can have a cumulative benefit on inflammation levels.

2. Standard American Diet

Unfortunately so much of the Standard American Diet (aka SAD) is highly processed, generally low in nutrients, and fruit & vegetables, which can all contribute to imbalances in the gut microbiome & impair the gut barrier.

Highly processed foods like sugar & refined grains can lead to imbalances in the types of bacteria & yeast in our microbiome; promoting the bad more so than the good. Other “foods” that harm our gut microbiome: alcohol, trans fats & seed oils, additives & preservatives all have a negative impact on a healthy gut microbiome.

Our diets are also lower in nutrients & fiber than ever before, but our gut microbiome thrives on micronutrients & fiber. Certain nutrients like omega-3 fats (in cold water fish & pastured meat), and diverse veggies actually feed and FUEL the beneficial bacteria in our gut microbiome.

Without enough food for the good guys, and overfeeding the bad guys...it’s no wonder our microbiome is struggling to keep up. Our imbalanced microbiome isn’t keeping inflammation down with SCFAs, which is weakening our gut barrier as a result.

3. Food sensitivities

In addition to universally problematic & inflammatory foods, many of us have unique dietary sensitivities, driven by our compromised gut health (learn more about leaky gut here). In other words: sometimes healthy foods, like eggs, dairy, corn, or tomatoes for example, might be driving inflammation by triggering an inappropriate immune response. Earlier we said that food sensitivities were a result of inflammation & compromised gut health, and now we know that they’re a trigger too…😩

Eating foods that we’re sensitive to (whether we’re getting noticeable digestive, skin, and energy symptoms or not) initiates that immune response. The immune response who’s ‘first step’ is inflammation. But when we’re constantly eating foods that we’re sensitive to, that first step becomes chronic inflammation.

You can see how this adds up right?

4. Antidepressants, acid blockers & PPIs, NSAIDs like ibuprofen, antibiotics, hormonal birth control and other medications

Perhaps unsurprisingly, these medications all have an impact on the makeup of our gut microbiome & therefore inflammation. For example, ibuprofen dramatically reduces the biomass of the gut microbiome (3)...yes, these are the ones that are designed to LOWER inflammation! Others like oral contraceptives are shown to have significant impacts on our gut as well (4). The effect of medications on our gut microbiome is not nearly well enough studied, considering over 66% of Americans are on prescription drugs, and a far larger portion of the population uses over the counter anti-inflammatory & acid reducing drugs regularly.

Taking care of our gut barrier & our microbiome are some of the BEST ways we can lower & prevent chronic inflammation from taking hold.

So what are some ways we can safe-guard our gut & help reduce inflammation?

Include MORE whole food forms of fiber & micronutrients in the form of colorful vegetables & fruit. This feeds & fuels the good bugs that are producing important anti-inflammatory compounds like SCFAs
Replenish the gut microbiome with more beneficial bacteria! Raw fermented vegetables like sauerkraut, kimchi, beet kvass, whey brined pickles, etc. have dozens of different beneficial bacteria & yeast strains. A diverse microbiome is a marker of a healthy microbiome, so the more the merrier!
Quality probiotics like spore-forming & soil-based formulas can offer important ‘keystone species’, which we do not come into contact with as much (since we’re eating a lot less dirt these days). The keystone species are critical for the health & survival of many other strains that make up a healthy gut as well
You got the low-down on inflammatory foods - that is a GREAT place to start. Remove highly processed, or sugary, or low-nutrient (or synthetic nutrients re-added…) foods
Look for signs of food sensitivities: gas & bloating, reflux or burping, diarrhea or constipation, breakouts or rashes, fatigue or anxiety after eating specific foods. Remove suspected triggers while you give your gut time to rest & heal. For some people, pinpointing foods connected to symptoms can be hard especially if you’re experiencing these things a LOT. There are also some foods, like gluten, which when removed can help expedite healing even if you don’t notice acute symptoms

If you’re struggling with high levels of chronic inflammation and looking for some support to tame the inflammation & calm your immune system, working with a practitioner can be an important first step. Identifying your unique triggers & gut imbalances can expedite the longer process of gut healing & rebalancing. Reach out if you’re looking for this kind of support & want to learn more about working together 1:1!

I’m always here to chat.

Learn more:

Functional Characterization of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Associated Gut Dysbiosis. https://www.cmghjournal.org/article/S2352-345X(16)30001-7/fulltext
How the stress of racism can harm your health—and what that has to do with Covid-19. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/racism-stress-covid-allostatic-load/
Everyday drugs act in surprising ways on the microbiome. https://med.uottawa.ca/en/news/everyday-drugs-act-surprising-ways-microbiome#:~:text=While%20ibuprofen%20radically%20decreases%20the,can%20potentially%20cause%20serious%20infections.
Association Between Long-term Oral Contraceptive Use https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4928680/