How to Reduce Chronic Inflammation
Chronic Inflammation is on the rise in recent generations and is the most common reason people come to see me for treatment as an orthopedic surgeon. It is also the top reason patients ultimately need surgery.
The bad news is our population's general health is worse in many ways than previous generations, but the good news is we now have a better understanding of health and treatment of illnesses beyond medicines and surgeries.
Many of us are aware that certain lifestyle choices increase the risk of diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, and obesity. Most of us are not aware that it also results in chronic inflammation, which will increase your probability of struggling with pain in your musculoskeletal system.
If you wonder why you are frequently injured, slow to recover, and struggling with the aging process it is time to explore how you can decrease chronic inflammation by improving your health.
What is Inflammation?
Inflammation is a natural function of your immune system resulting in redness, swelling, heat, and pain in response to damaged or infected cells and tissue.
After an injury, inflammation is normal and is the first stage of healing. When a body part is injured, blood flow to the area increases, and certain immune/inflammatory cells start the healing process. Signals are also sent to the brain saying that the body part is injured and needs to be protected.
This is called acute inflammation, and this is crucial for proper healing. Chronic (long term) inflammation on the other hand is not useful in healing and is considered a disease process.
Chronic inflammation is essentially acute inflammation that persists for prolonged periods. There are many causes for chronic inflammation, but at the root of many orthopedic ailments is a defect in the process to shut off inflammation.
Chronic inflammation can thus result in…
✓ pain without an injury
✓ pain from routine body movements
✓ pain long after the injury would have typically healed
Through imaging such as X-rays, CT scans, MRIs, or ultrasounds, we can detect tissue damage. However, despite visible damage, many patients experience little to no pain due to reduced chronic inflammation. For instance, individuals may have bone-on-bone arthritis, rotator cuff tears, degenerative knee or shoulder/hip cushion tears, or cervical/lumbar spine issues without experiencing discomfort. While some may have a higher pain threshold, the primary reason for reduced pain is often lower chronic inflammation levels.
The 5 Baskets of Health
Peter Attia M.D.,a lifespan expert and author of Outlive, puts your overall health into 5 baskets: nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress management, and medicines/supplements. If you are struggling with chronic inflammation and want to avoid seeing the doctor on a regular basis, click here to learn about each of these baskets and how you can make lifestyle changes to decrease inflammation.
Are You Ready For Change?
In orthopedics, we see two groups of patients. The first group is generally healthy. They see us with an injury, receive treatment, recover quickly, and then we do not see them again until the next injury or accident.
The second group is not healthy and suffers from chronic inflammation. We see them year after year or even month after month. When one problem is fixed we move on to the next problem. These are our most well known patients and we enjoy treating them and our practices depend on them for success.
The second group has grown in recent decades. We used to think this group was just unlucky, suffering from bad genes often called “piss poor protoplasm “ in orthopedic terms. We now understand that while we don't have any control over the genes we inherit, our lifestyle does control how our genes are expressed. In other words, genes run in your family but you can control to some extent how your genes work. This is known as epigenetics.
If you are interested in jumping from the second group into the first group a change must occur.
Change tends to occur in 4 seasons:
1. You hurt enough and you have to change - if you are sick and tired of being in pain then this could be your season to change.
2. You become inspired - Inspiration can find us at any point. Maybe a family member or friend makes a lifestyle change or perhaps you notice people your age doing things you have not done in years.
3. You have adequate resources to improve your health - Perhaps you receive enough time, money, and even attention from someone to help you work on your health.
4. You learn about your health - With knowledge you have a choice, and you no longer have to be a victim to poor health.
Improving Our Healthcare Starts With Us
The United States has the best Healthcare technology and best trained physicians in the world. This is where people around the world travel to for advanced physician training and advanced treatment.
In discussions about healthcare reform, it is quoted that we rank low compared to other advanced countries and that we spend way too much money. We rank low because we often don’t consider lifestyle in relation to our healthcare system. On average Americans eat an overly processed sugary diet, don’t get enough proper sleep, are over stressed, and are inactive or have manual labor jobs that their bodies aren’t prepared for and often risk injury.
Many Americans depend on this system to put them back together or keep them functioning year after year. The cost adds up for the individual and the country. If we want to improve healthcare spending for our nation, we need to decrease the frequency of people needing the healthcare system.
For the individual, the cost of healthcare can be crushing to personal finances. You cannot wait for healthcare experts or politicians to fix the system and make your healthcare more affordable. Your best option is to live a healthy lifestyle, maximize your epigenetics, and decrease your own healthcare spending.
My hope is you start by looking into the 5 baskets that make up your own health.