This video provides the basic knowledge of common dietary sources of inflammation.
Could the food you are eating be causing inflammation and pain?
The hidden sources of dietary inflammation
For those of you not familiar with the inflammatory response. Inflammation is a complex local immune response to tissue injury. The end goal of inflammation is to restore the damaged tissue. Characteristics of inflammation include: pain, redness, heat, swelling, and loss of function.
Multiple factors commonly stimulate chronic pain. For example, a chronic headache may reduce sleep and activity levels. Both of these factors are crucial at reducing chronic pain in the future. As chronic pain levels worsen, so does the sleep quality and exercise levels. This becomes a “sink hole” of continued pain making it more difficult to end the cycle.
A toxin is any substance that damages tissue. Even natural substances can cause tissue damage in high doses. There are two basic dietary toxins to be aware of: industrial seed oils & refined sugars. While in small amounts these substances may not be harmful. As you will see, we are not currently eating refined sugars and seed oils in low to moderate amounts.
We consume well above the recommended amount of daily sugar intake from the combined effects of food and beverage sweetened products. Toxicity is effected by the rate of absorption and sweetened beverages will absorb more quickly than sweet foods. Besides the clear connection between sugar intake and diabetic diseases, sugar over consumption has a connection with a myriad of other conditions. For example, excessive sugar also impacts the gastrointestinal tract and can increase the risk of Chron’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
Industrial seed oils have been introduced into the human diet recently. Seed oils are rich in the omega 6 fat linoleic acid. While consumption of linoleic acid is nothing new, anthropological research suggests humans consumed omega 3 and omega 6 oils in a 1:1 ratio. The average American currently over consumes omega 6 in a 10:1 ratio. This is a drastic increase in the amount of linoleic acid consumption. What is the overall impact of increasing omega 6 fat consumption by 10? The ratio of omega fats has been demonstrated to be protective against chronic degenerative diseases. A divergence from this ratio has been associated with an increase in all inflammatory disease with the best research pointing to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and depression.
A major aspect to chronic inflammation is chronic pain. Unfortunately, Chronic pain in the United States affects more people than diabetes, heart disease, and cancer combined. With the rise in chronic pain, opioid drug use for chronic pain has also increased. This has lead to an increase in opioid addiction related deaths. The burden of chronic disease treatment cannot fall on the pharmaceutical industry alone. Especially since we see major societal contributors to chronic inflammation and pain that are not deficiencies in drugs but rather food toxins. I hope that this short video was able to give you two basic areas of focus that can help you reduce your overall inflammation through simple lifestyle modification.
A Quick Blurb About Myself…
I have my doctorate in acupuncture with a focus on integrative medicine and my practice focuses on both functional and traditional medicine. At our office we help patients with chronic disease. This includes the treatment of chronic pain and recurring mysterious chronic conditions. If you are suffering from a chronic condition consider seeing me at my private office in Wheat Ridge Colorado, Caldwell Chiropractic.
More resources:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19022225
https://nancyappleton.com/141-reasons-sugar-ruins-your-health/
