Inflammation is usually seen as the gremlin of health. It’s been linked to most chronic health issues, like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and even depression.
And yes, there are times when inflammation is a problem and is causing more harm than good…but there are lots of times when inflammation is really helpful and is an important part of healing!
The difference between helpful and harmful inflammation is balance.
The important question is - can the body use inflammation when it needs it, and can it clean it up when it doesn’t need it anymore? When there’s a breakdown in this process inflammation can wreak havoc in the body.
So, let’s look at the role inflammation plays in healing, what causes inflammation to go out of balance, and what we can do to support your natural inflammation process. Woo!
The healing kind of inflammation (Acute inflammation) –
Your immune system is amazing. Without an immune system, we’d have to live in a germ-free bubble, with no contact with any other people, animals, and nature.
We don’t want to be a bubble person! (yes, I may have been watching Seinfeld reruns lately… :)
Our immune system has 2 main jobs – to heal and to protect.
It heals wounds and injuries all over the body and can make our body look and work like new again. It also protects against invaders, like viruses and bacteria so they don’t take over the body.
Inflammation is an important part of both healing and protecting.
When we get injured, like a cut on our skin, our body first sends inflammation to the area to increase warmth and blood flow. Rogue bacteria can’t survive in a warm environment and the extra blood brings other immune cells like white blood cells, to heal the wound.
When a virus or bacteria invades our body, like a cold or flu virus, our body also uses inflammation to warm up the body (a fever) to make the environment less appealing to that virus. It then sends macrophages and natural killer cells to the area to kill and eat those bad cells.
Once the wound is healed or the virus is defeated, our immune system should then down-regulate and send out anti-inflammatory prostaglandins to clean up the inflammation and calm down the immune system.
Chronic inflammation – when the healing process gets out of control
Sometimes, the immune system struggles to clean up the inflammatory reaction after the healing is complete.
In some cases, it’s because it’s missing the building blocks of the anti-inflammatory prostaglandins. Other times, it’s because the immune system is constantly being prodded to attack and it gets overwhelmed.
One immune system trigger is an underlying food sensitivity.
Undigested protein can leak through the small intestine (due to a leaky gut) into the bloodstream. To the immune system, this bit of undigested dairy, gluten, or other types of protein looks just like a virus or a bacteria.
So the immune system ramps up to fight it. It can take up to 5 days for this reaction to calm down, so eating that food even just once or twice a week can cause a chronic reaction…which triggers chronic inflammation.
Another way the immune system gets triggered is through our gut bacteria.
Our gut bacteria are foreign cells…but they live inside our body. For the bacteria to survive it needed to do something pretty special. It needed to take control of the immune system.
The bacteria in our gut are like the conductors of the immune system. About 80% of the immune system lives around the gut and its in constant communication with it. This colony lets the immune system know when an invader is coming in…and also when something benign is entering the bloodstream.
Basically, if the gut bacteria says “jump”, the immune system jumps. But, over the last few generations, our gut bacteria have been under assault.
The lifesaving antibiotics that were discovered last century has weakened our microbiome enormously. Our diet is also lacking in important fibre and is pretty monotonous…which starves our gut bacteria and reduces their numbers and their diversity.
Research is finding that the strength of our gut bacteria is linked to the balance of our immune system. If our colony is weak then our immune system struggles to stay calm, which can be connected to inflammation (and testable inflammatory markers in the blood).
Wanna know how to keep your immune system healthy and happy? Start here -
Optimize your Omega-6: Omega-3 ratio
Your immune system needs 2 essential fats to work properly – omega-3 & omega-6.
Omega-6
Omega-6s generally helps the body make inflammation, which is essential for healing, and Omega-3 help the body clean up inflammation.
Omega-6 is usually the forgotten one because although it’s essential, we usually consume plenty of it. But, we don’t always eat an important form of Omega-6 called GLA.
This is a special type of fat that has a special power – it can become either an inflammatory prostaglandin or an anti-inflammatory one, depending on what the body needs. GLA is especially good at reducing skin inflammation, like psoriasis and eczema and can help balance female hormones.
Good sources of omega-6 – hemp seeds, sesame seeds, free-range eggs, and many whole grains.
Good sources of GLA omega-6 – hemp seeds and hemp seed oil, evening primrose oil, borage oil, black currant seed oil, oats, barley, and spirulina
Problematic sources of omega-6 (reduce in your diet) – all highly refined vegetable oils, including corn oil, soy oil, and all forms of margarine (including the ones that advertise that they’re healthy)
Omega-3
We need omega-3s in our diet every day…but that’s hard to do in our westernized diet. Processed omega-6 fats are abundant and gently processed omega-3 fats are hard to find.
This has caused a BIG imbalance between these 2 fats. 100 years ago our omega 6:3 ratio was 1:1 or 2:1, but today the average healthy diet is closer to 4:1 and diets that are high in processed food is closer to 40:1!
This is why fish oil is a very popular supplement, it fills in the omega-3 gap.
Good sources of Omega-3 - cold-water wild fish (cooked below 350 degrees), fresh walnuts, hemp seeds, chia seeds, organic/grass-fed butter, and flax seeds.
Important note – omega-3 fats go rancid very easily, so don’t heat up your omega-3 foods and oils, and cook your cold water wild fish (like salmon) in the oven at a very low temp (under 350).
Supplementing with essential fats –
Omega 6 – eat healthy sources of Omega-6, and consider supplementing with a source of GLA if you have eczema or psoriasis
Omega 3 – fish oil or a vegan omega-3 oil is a good way to balance out your fats. Fish oil, enjoy at least 1000mg of EPA/DHA or take 1 – 3 tbsp of a vegan omega-3 oil (like Udo’s oil or flaxseed oil) each day.
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