Blood Sugar, Not Magik
Firstly, I want to differentiate between two things: acute and chronic inflammation. The former will help you and the latter could hurt you.
Acute Inflammation
The word acute comes from the Latin acutus, which translated means pointed, or we would say targeted.
Our body triggers acute inflammation through inflammatory cytokines (messengers) that surround an infection or damage in our body to allow it to heal. It is temporary, targeted and helpful.
Chronic Inflammation
From the Latin chronikos which means time or can be interpreted as lasting a long time.
Chronic inflammation occurs when the triggers for inflammation persist and it points to signs of dysfunction in the body. This type of inflammation is unhelpful and needs to be addressed.
Chronic inflammation can cause tissue damage to our skin, organs and skeleton that can cause debilitating pain, reduce joint mobility, and create neurological problems.
You can listen to more about acute and chronic inflammation on my interview with the Yes 2 Life Charity’s podcast with Robin Daly MBE and Amanda King ND here.
Drivers of Inflammation : A Conversation with Robin Daly, Amanda King ND and Nick Walton-Cole (full episode)
Yes to Life is the UK’s integrative cancer care charity—providing support, knowledge, and financial assistance for people looking to combine complimentary and standard care.
Yes to Life is the UK’s integrative cancer care charity
Causes of Chronic Inflammation
Autoimmune Conditions
Auto-immunity is when the body has an immune reaction to itself. When this happens, our immune system triggers an inflammatory response against our bodies. The “threat” (our body) never goes away, and so the inflammation becomes chronic.
Lupus – the immune system attacks various tissues, including skin, joints, kidneys, and sometimes blood cells.
Ankylosing Spondylitis – the immune system attacks spinal tissue.
These are just two examples but there are many more. What links them is that the immune system keeps firing because it never stops seeing a threat.
Photo by Zak Neilson on Unsplash
Stress
This is the largest contributor towards chronic inflammation. One study found that participants with chronically elevated stress had their CRP levels raised over four times. CRP is a key indicator of elevated inflammation.
So why does stress cause so much inflammation?
It comes down to two things: blood sugar and cortisol. When you are stressed, your adrenals pump out cortisol. Cortisol is actually anti-inflammatory, it is one of your body’s natural brakes on inflammation. So where does it all go wrong?
Chronic stress. When cortisol stays high day after day, your cells start tuning it out. The receptors on your cells become less sensitive to the signal. It is like living next to train track, eventually it becomes white noise. This is cortisol resistance. Your body is still making cortisol, but your cells are not listening anymore. That anti-inflammatory brake is gone. Inflammation runs wild.
Photo by Elena Leya on Unsplash
High Blood sugar
Chronically elevated blood sugar can cause inflammation in the following ways.
AGEs (Advanced Glycation End Products)
When we have excess glucose in our bloodstream over an extended time, it becomes bonded to proteins. Think of the glucose as caramelising in the tissues of our bodies and bonding with proteins. When they do, they harden and create hardened structures (AGEs). This can mean that skin and other tissues lose their elasticity, damaging them and creating inflammation.
Damage to Our Mitochondria
The mitochondria is where our bodies produce the ATP (adenosine triphosphate) that power us. Glucose is one raw ingredient that our bodies can use as a substrate for the chain that creates ATP. Too much glucose however can cause the chain to be clogged. This creates damage and, you have guessed it, more inflammation.
Image created by Nick Walton-Cole
But reducing our glucose intake alone isn’t enough. Chronic stress keeps your blood sugar elevated even when we limit our glucose intake. Our body has this incredible, MacGyver-like ability to make glucose even when we reduce our glucose intake. This is called gluconeogenesis, where the body creates glucose from amino acids, basically protein. Cortisol then tells your liver to dump that glucose into your bloodstream so you have energy to fight or flee. When stress never turns off, that glucose keeps coming, independent of diet. So now you have high blood sugar and no brake on inflammation. That is how chronic stress becomes a driver of chronic inflammation.
All of the good work someone is doing with their diet can get undone by their inability to control their stress levels. Unfortunately, our bodies do not reward good intentions.
The Medical Approach
The medical approach to reducing inflammation is through biological drugs such as Humira. These shutdown our inflammatory response by introducing modified hamster ovary cells with a recoded immune reaction, these are injected and dampen our bodies immune response. This can however be a bit like throwing the baby out with the bathwater and reducing our overall immune response, which can mean that our bodies ability to mount acute inflammatory responses can be reduced too. This in part explains why the manufacturer AbbVie list an increased risk of lymphoma as a potential side effect.
On balance biological drugs can be incredibly effective but the risks should be discussed with your GP and considered carefully. In addition we can support our bodies through natural methods with some easy adjustments to our nutrition and lifestyle.
The Natural Approach
Omega 3: Omega 6 Ratio
Thankfully the scientific world has now widely accepted that our balance of omega 6:3 ratio is important. While essential for our immune function, omega 6 fatty acids are pro inflammatory when not combined with the correct amount of anti inflammatory omega 3 oil.
Omega-6 fatty acids themselves are not inherently inflammatory. Your body actually converts some of them into anti-inflammatory molecules. The problem is that omega-6s and omega-3s compete for the same enzymes. When your ratio is heavily tipped toward omega-6, the pathway shifts toward producing more pro-inflammatory molecules.
The Paleo Diet
In a 2021 meta-analysis of 10 randomised controlled trials, the Paleo diet reduced C-reactive protein by an average of 0.84 mg/L in people with metabolic disorders. The paleo diet has a focus on organically raised meat, vegetables, fruit, eggs, nuts and removing refined carbohydrates and grains. Pairing protein and fat with everything slows down gut motility and increases satiety so that we do not overeat—think of it like a natural dose of Ozempic. This reduction in carbohydrates, along with protein and fat pairing and a focus on anti-inflammatory omega-3 fats, keeps blood sugar stabilised and the right balance of anti-inflammatory fats in our diet.
Lifestyle
Controlling your blood sugar is not just about your diet. Blood sugar can remain elevated even when carbohydrate intake is moderated, I have seen many blood glucose tests to support this. I’ve listed some of the best researched ways to reduce inflammation through lifestyle management below.
Exercise
As well as as helping to stabilise blood sugar exercise also floods your body with endorphins, your body’s natural morphine. They kill pain, lift mood, and reduce inflammation.
When it comes to exercise, the intensity matters. Aim for moderate exercise at about 65–75% of your maximum heart rate, four times a week. If you use a fitness tracker, that is zone 2–3. One study found this level of exercise reduced baseline CRP levels by about 10%.
If there are any endurance athletes reading, here is something to keep in mind. Your CRP may spike as much as six-fold after a big event, but your baseline CRP could be as much as 73% lower than someone who is sedentary. The takeaway? Exercise four times a week and keep the effort in zone 2, a brisk walk or a moderate run. If you are more of a weekend warrior or endurance athlete pushing into zone 3 and 4, just make sure you recover properly. Give your body time to let CRP return to baseline and inflammation settle down.
Meditation
This is not the same anti-inflammatory pathway as exercise. One does not replace the other. Exercise works on your blood sugar, your muscles. It pulls glucose out of your blood, helps to regulate blood sugar and improves mood. Meditation works on your para sympathetic nervous system. It tells your brain to stop sounding the alarm that triggers the release of cortisol at the source. They are two different levers. If you only exercise, you are still walking around with a stressed-out nervous system. If you only meditate, you are missing the blood sugar piece. You need both. They work together. One makes the other stronger.
Main – Photo by Nikola Johnny Mirkovic on Unsplash
About the Author: Nicholas Walton-Cole (NA. Dip)
