It Starts With Food: Discover the Whole30 and Change Your Life in Unexpected Ways by Melissa Hartwig, Dallas Hartwig Page A
Authors: Melissa Hartwig, Dallas Hartwig
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that high cholesterol caused heart attack, that high blood pressure caused stroke, and that maybe diabetes caused obesity too, but there was no unified theory to put all of these pieces together.
Today, while there are still multiple theories about how to explain these associations, some significant relationships have been established. More specifically, we’ve learned that systemic inflammation contributes directly to insulin resistance and diabetes, cardiovascular disease, stroke, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high triglycerides, chronic inflammatory diseases (like IBS and asthma), bone and joint disease (like osteoporosis and arthritis), neurological conditions (like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s), and most certainly weight gain.
This makes chronic systemic inflammation a very big deal.
Managing your inflammatory status profoundly impacts your quality of life.
Having any one of these symptoms or conditions—or more than one, which is all too common when it comes to metabolic syndrome—will seriously affect your quality of life today, tomorrow, and for years to come … even if you exercise regularly, eat “pretty healthy” and aren’t overweight. Remember, it’s called silent inflammation. And it’s why 40-year-old men drop dead of a heart attack while running marathons.
But what if you’re young, healthy, active, and lean? Surely this stuff doesn’t apply to you!
Of course it does, but you’re probably too young to realize it. It’s OK—when you’re 20, conditions like heart disease and stroke don’t even register —they’re diseases “old people” get.
We were 20 once. We understand.
So let’s bring this one home for you younger folks.
Chronic systemic inflammation plays a key role in more than just age-related diseases. Inflammation contributes to a long list of conditions that you may be dealing with right now. Like asthma, allergies, acne, eczema and other skin conditions, depression, ADHD, and mood swings.
Do we have your attention now?
EXERCISE AND RECOVERY
Chronic systemic inflammation affects your physical fitness, whether you play a sport, are a “weekend warrior,” or are just a regular gym-goer. Think of exercise as microscopic structural injury—a stressor that forces your body to adapt, making you stronger and healthier. The exercise itself isn’t the most important part—you get fitter when you are recovering from that exercise. Giving your body enough time and resources to repair damage and build new tissue is critical to becoming stronger, faster and healthier. If you have chronic systemic inflammation, your body isn’t as good at recovery and maintenance—including repairing the structural damage caused by exercise. Which makes you more likely to get injured or overtrain, and definitely means you won’t be as strong or fast as you could be. Systemic inflammation ruins everything , doesn’t it?
BUT IT’S SILENT!
At this point, you’re probably wondering, “If this stuff is silent, how do I know if I have it?” That is a very good question—and we’ve got the answer.
First, if you are eating any of the foods we’re about to discuss in the next section, there’s a pretty good chance that you have some chronic systemic inflammation. These foods elicit inflammation both directly and indirectly, and their effects are largely universal.
If you’re overweight, you are also systemically inflamed. (You don’t have to be overweight to be inflamed, but pretty much everyone who is overweight has some inflammation.) Adipose tissue (body fat) is largely regarded by the scientific community as a separate endocrine organ, producing a number of different biologically active messengers. When fat cells are damaged by being overfilled, certain immune cells are summoned to fat tissue to help repair and clean up the damaged cells. These immune cells then secrete additional immune-reactive substances that increase inflammation in the fat itself as well as elsewhere
Today, while there are still multiple theories about how to explain these associations, some significant relationships have been established. More specifically, we’ve learned that systemic inflammation contributes directly to insulin resistance and diabetes, cardiovascular disease, stroke, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high triglycerides, chronic inflammatory diseases (like IBS and asthma), bone and joint disease (like osteoporosis and arthritis), neurological conditions (like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s), and most certainly weight gain.
This makes chronic systemic inflammation a very big deal.
Managing your inflammatory status profoundly impacts your quality of life.
Having any one of these symptoms or conditions—or more than one, which is all too common when it comes to metabolic syndrome—will seriously affect your quality of life today, tomorrow, and for years to come … even if you exercise regularly, eat “pretty healthy” and aren’t overweight. Remember, it’s called silent inflammation. And it’s why 40-year-old men drop dead of a heart attack while running marathons.
But what if you’re young, healthy, active, and lean? Surely this stuff doesn’t apply to you!
Of course it does, but you’re probably too young to realize it. It’s OK—when you’re 20, conditions like heart disease and stroke don’t even register —they’re diseases “old people” get.
We were 20 once. We understand.
So let’s bring this one home for you younger folks.
Chronic systemic inflammation plays a key role in more than just age-related diseases. Inflammation contributes to a long list of conditions that you may be dealing with right now. Like asthma, allergies, acne, eczema and other skin conditions, depression, ADHD, and mood swings.
Do we have your attention now?
EXERCISE AND RECOVERY
Chronic systemic inflammation affects your physical fitness, whether you play a sport, are a “weekend warrior,” or are just a regular gym-goer. Think of exercise as microscopic structural injury—a stressor that forces your body to adapt, making you stronger and healthier. The exercise itself isn’t the most important part—you get fitter when you are recovering from that exercise. Giving your body enough time and resources to repair damage and build new tissue is critical to becoming stronger, faster and healthier. If you have chronic systemic inflammation, your body isn’t as good at recovery and maintenance—including repairing the structural damage caused by exercise. Which makes you more likely to get injured or overtrain, and definitely means you won’t be as strong or fast as you could be. Systemic inflammation ruins everything , doesn’t it?
BUT IT’S SILENT!
At this point, you’re probably wondering, “If this stuff is silent, how do I know if I have it?” That is a very good question—and we’ve got the answer.
First, if you are eating any of the foods we’re about to discuss in the next section, there’s a pretty good chance that you have some chronic systemic inflammation. These foods elicit inflammation both directly and indirectly, and their effects are largely universal.
If you’re overweight, you are also systemically inflamed. (You don’t have to be overweight to be inflamed, but pretty much everyone who is overweight has some inflammation.) Adipose tissue (body fat) is largely regarded by the scientific community as a separate endocrine organ, producing a number of different biologically active messengers. When fat cells are damaged by being overfilled, certain immune cells are summoned to fat tissue to help repair and clean up the damaged cells. These immune cells then secrete additional immune-reactive substances that increase inflammation in the fat itself as well as elsewhere
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