Inflammation Got You Feeling Down?
When you think of inflammation, you might think about an injury or allergic reaction. You hit your head on the cabinet and end up with a painful, red, swollen welt on your forehead. Or you get hives after eating peanuts.
But it’s a bit more complicated than that. Let’s take a closer look, so we understand how diet, inflammation, and chronic disease are intertwined.
Our Immune System
First, let’s review the basics so when I get to the good part, you know what I’m talking about.
Why Inflammation Occurs
Inflammation occurs in response to infection, injury, or exposure to contaminants. It’s one of the signs our immune system is working properly, an essential process necessary for our survival(1).
Infection
Infections occur when a bacteria or virus enters the body and begins to replicate. Once our bodies sense the presence of a foreign cell, our immune system is triggered, and a cascade of events, which are outlined in some detail below, begins.
Some bacteria and viruses are more aggressive than others (often referred to as virulence), but once the rate of replication exceeds the ability of our immune system, we officially have an active infection.
Active infections are often accompanied by outward signs of the immune response. These include cough, fever, swelling, redness, pain, or puss from an open wound. If symptoms don’t resolve on their own or get worse, one should seek medical care. Doctors can prescribe medications (antibiotics) that will help your immune system fight off those little buggers.
Injury
Injuries can be minute or major. They can be small scratches to the skin or broken bones from a fall, or a pulled muscle from an intense workout at the gym. In these types of events, there is damage to our soft tissues, and damage to our cells will signal the immune response cascade.
The result is redness, swelling, and pain (aka inflammation) at the injury sight. Generally, with time and care, injuries will resolve on their own, but there are occasions when you should seek advanced medical care. Any head, neck, and spine injury should immediately be referred to advanced medical care, as should any major falls or accidents. Injuries from these types of events can be life-threatening.
Food and Non-Food Contaminants
Taking something into our body, including both food and non-food items, can also result in inflammation.
Foods
Believe it or not, the foods we eat can cause inflammation, and, unlike infections or injuries, sometimes there are no outward signs that you’ve activated your immune system.
For example, allergic reactions to the foods we eat. During an allergic reaction, our bodies recognize certain proteins in foods as foreign objects, and thus, our immune response is activated. Outwards signs of an allergic reaction might be swelling of the lips, scratchy or fuzzy feeling in the mouth, or bloating as it moves its way through the intestine. In some cases, this reaction can be fatal.
Food allergies can be somewhat unpredictable and range from uncomfortable to downright scary. Until the allergen has exited the body, the body will continue to react unless we suppress our immune system (usually with Benedryl or epi-pen in the case of anaphylaxis).
Other examples of how diet can trigger our immune response are:
- consuming foods using dirty hands can introduce harmful bacteria or chemicals
- consuming a product made with an unnatural preservative or that has gone rancid
- consuming too much of a good thing (sugars or fats)
Poor dietary choices can lead to high glucose (blood sugar), triglycerides (free-floating fats), or cholesterol, which can damage our blood vessels. Think of these like very small crystals floating through our blood and bumping up against the wall. Each time it bumps into the wall, a small cut or scrap is made, triggering an immune response and subsequent inflammation.
The immune system is a fairly complex process, and as time goes on, we learn more about how it may become dysregulated and the toll it can take on our bodies. Theories for how it comes dysregulated include things such as exposure to certain diseases, medication and drug use, gut microbiome, and stress.
Acute vs. Chronic Inflammation
Acute Inflammation
Inflammation can come on fast in response to injury or illness and lasts up to 3-4 days. This is called ‘acute’ inflammation. Some examples of acute inflammation include the common cold, headache, allergic reaction, or pain. You can usually see or feel this type of inflammation.
Chronic Inflammation
Chronic inflammation can last for years and happens in response to low-intensity irritants or toxins. Examples include minor internal injuries over a long period, created by infections or chemicals we either ingest or our bodies make in response. Another name is systemic inflammation.
Chronic inflammation has a bidirectional relationship with various conditions. Autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis or multiple sclerosis can cause chronic inflammation. And chronic inflammation, not related to autoimmune disease, can lead to developing diseases like type 2 diabetes or cardiovascular disease.
Many times we feel nothing, or what we feel has become the norm. Signs you might have chronic inflammation include:
- joint stiffness
- muscle aches
- bloating
- fatigue
- insomnia
- depression, anxiety, and mood disorders
- gastrointestinal complications like constipation, diarrhea, and acid reflux
- Weight gain or weight loss
Physiological Effects of Chronic Inflammation
Most of the time, the immune response is helpful. We heal, or we start to feel better and continue on with our lives. Other times, we might begin to experience new or worsened symptoms.
If there are no obvious reasons for new symptoms, doctors may suspect and test for inflammation. They will order laboratory tests that can detect the presence and amount of inflammatory markers. Markers of inflammation usually include C-reactive Protein (CRP), which is synthesized in response to the presence of cytokines.
Cytokines
Cytokines are a protein released when tissue is damaged. They include interleukins, interferons, tumor necrosis factors, and growth factors, which moderate the cascade of events that make up our immune response, orchestrating the immune response by recruiting other immune cells to the site of infection, triggering the production of new cells and controlling cellular communication.
Over time, cytokines can build up, which does more damage than good. Excessive cytokines accumulate in tissues, bind with cell wall receptors, and impede signaling and communication pathways. Ultimately leading to discomfort, tissue damage, tissue death, and organ failure.
Each body system is affected by inflammation differently. The outcome can be minor things like premature aging to catastrophic things like heart attacks or even death.
Altered Permeability
As I’ve alluded to, the cardiovascular system takes the worst hit. Our capillaries, our tiniest blood vessels, can be easily damaged; over time, this damage will lead to scarring, narrowing of blood vessels, and changes in permeability.
Permeability refers to how nutrients, and other biological compounds, travel across a barrier or, in this case, a blood vessel wall. It’s how oxygen gets to muscle fibers during exercise or how alcohol alters our thoughts/actions.
Impaired permeability might allow the wrong materials in and/or prevent the right materials from crossing over. This could lead to disruptions in physiological processes, damage to cells, and an overall sense of unwell.
Chronic Inflammation and Our Mental Health
Many conditions cause or result from chronic inflammation but since we’re talking about improving our mental health in this space, let’s focus on inflammation in the brain.
Inflammation and The Brain
Chronic inflammation can influence our brains in two ways.
1. Vascular Damage
2. Excessive cytokines
Altered permeability affects the blood-brain barrier, restricting the flow of nutrients to the brain and/or giving ‘toxic’ materials to access our brain. Included in these toxic materials are cytokines.
Excessive cytokine activity upsets our neurons and impairs neurotransmitter synthesis, reuptake, and release, all of which are implicated in mood and cognition.
In both cases, chronic inflammation will result in poor mental performance, mood dysregulation, and cognitive decline.
No beuno!
Avoiding Chronic Inflammation
The good news is that we can make lifestyle choices that abate chronic inflammation. Regular exercise, a healthy diet, and rest/relaxation can have a positive effect on our body’s immune response.
Anti-Inflammatory Diet
The anti-inflammatory diet is one way of eating that helps prevent and reduce inflammation. Similar to the Mediterranean Diet, it includes loads of legumes, fresh fruits and vegetables, lean proteins, nuts and seeds, seafood, and fermented products.
These foods are often low-calorie and contain nutrients that are known to have antioxidant or anti-inflammatory properties.
For example, omega-3s, found in fatty fish, exert anti-inflammatory properties through their role in cellular communication. Read more about Omega-3s in Be Free with Omega-3s.
Dark leafy greens contain vitamin C and polyphenols, which are potent antioxidants that help to offset damage to DNA.
Fermented foods, like kimchi, miso, pickles, and sauerkraut, also offer anti-inflammatory benefits through their role in gut health.
Regular Exercise
Regular exercise helps to manage inflammation through several mechanisms.
- It helps to increase our metabolism, the rate at which our bodies process nutrients, and forces our body to use up andy excess fat and glucose.
- It aids in weight management, a known pro-inflammatory state.
- It also promotes the movement of fluids around the body and might help to clear any compounds that have built up over time (i.e., cytokines within joints).
Aim for 30 mins most days of the week. It can be broken up throughout the day but make sure you’re pushing yourself a little beyond your comfort zone each time. For middle-aged women, it’s important to include both cardiovascular exercise (i.e., walking/running) and weight-bearing exercise (lifting weights).
Rest and Relaxation
Getting adequate rest and relaxation is so important, yet the hardest one to do. It is for me, at least.
Allowing our bodies and minds the time it needs to repair and regenerate is essential to maintaining our overall health and well-being. Seven to nine hours of sleep each night is what most professional organizations recommend. This is the amount of recovery time your body needs for optimal performance.
Completing daily mindfulness activities, like yoga or meditation, can also reduce both emotional and physical stress. Stress, which I hadn’t touched upon, is a pro-inflammatory state. The physiologic response to environmental stress and anxiety can promote inflammation due to the release of certain chemicals (i.e., cortisol), which induce our immune response.
Tell me!
Do you think you suffer from chronic inflammation? What will you choose to do differently to reduce or avoid inflammation?
Eat up, Witches!
References
- Osimo EF, Baxter LJ, Lewis G, Jones PB, Khandaker GM. Prevalence of low-grade inflammation in depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis of CRP levels. Psychol Med. 2019 Sep;49(12):1958-1970. doi: 10.1017/S0033291719001454. Epub 2019 Jul 1. PMID: 31258105; PMCID: PMC6712955.
- Lee CH, Giuliani F. The Role of Inflammation in Depression and Fatigue. Front Immunol. 2019 Jul 19;10:1696. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2019.01696. PMID: 31379879; PMCID: PMC6658985. Full-text link.
- Beurel E, Toups M, Nemeroff CB. The Bidirectional Relationship of Depression and Inflammation: Double Trouble. Neuron. 2020 Jul 22;107(2):234-256. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2020.06.002. Epub 2020 Jun 17. PMID: 32553197; PMCID: PMC7381373. Full-text link.