We hear this word a lot in the health and wellness space- inflammation. Maybe you’ve seen a headline or two about Inflammation being at the root of many disorders, or the cause behind deadly diseases. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), chronic inflammatory diseases are the greatest threat to human health. In 2014 the RAND Corporation, a non-partisan American nonprofit global policy think tank and research institute, estimated that 60% of Americans had at least one chronic condition and that worldwide 3 out of 5 people die from chronic inflammatory conditions such as diabetes, heart disorders, stroke, cancer, and obesity. Research in this area has been accelerating at such a fast pace, that an entire journal was created, The Journal of Inflammation, to be able to dedicate and focus on all things inflammation. In this article, we break down the definition of inflammation, who may be more susceptible to increased levels of inflammation, and how to decrease your overall inflammatory burden.

Inflammation is what happens when the body defends itself against tissue damage and/or invading bacteria and viruses. This response comes primarily from the body’s immune system in which it releases inflammatory cells that will then attack the invading bacteria or virus and/or begin to heal the damaged tissue. Externally, we can sometimes see or feel this inflammation by ways of redness, swelling, or fever. Internally, inflammatory injuries or damage can often be in places like our gut, blood vessels, joints, or muscles. This type of response from the body is part of our body’s defense system and therefore, a very normal response that can last for a few days or so. Chronic inflammation, however, is usually referred to as a slow, long-term inflammation lasting from a few months to years. The cause of the chronic inflammation depends on the type of injury and the body’s ability to try to heal itself. There are a number of ways the body can end up in a chronic inflammatory state, including:

• Failing to eliminate an acute injury or agent that has resisted your body’s defense system
• By being exposed to low level irritants the body cannot eliminate such as silica dust
• By increasing the load of free radicals, oxidized lipoproteins, advanced glycation end products, increasing homocysteine, etc…which can lead to mitochondrial dysfunction and increase oxidative stress, again increasing the inflammatory burden. Some examples of this would be poor diet, lack of physical activity, sleep deprivation, chronic stress, smoking, social isolation, and increased exposure to environmental toxins.

Unfortunately, chronic inflammation can lead to cancer, cardiovascular diseases, arthritis, autoimmune issues, neurological diseases, and diabetes. Fortunately, there are a number of ways to decrease your inflammatory burden and decrease the risks of developing some of these disorders or diseases.

Although we certainly have the ability to decrease inflammation, many of us can have a genetic make-up that may play a role in our ability to handle inflammation on a cellular level. Have you ever wondered why two people can live nearly identical lives, be equally as active, share the same weight, same levels of stress, and have the same diet, yet one of them develops heart disease or cancer while the other doesn’t? We may not know for sure why this happens, but we do know that some people have SNPs in their genetic make-up that increases, or decreases their risks for developing disease. A SNP, a single nucleotide polymorphism, is a variation at a single base position in a DNA sequence that is different from more than 1% of the general population. Knowing if you have specific SNPs can help you determine if you are perhaps at more or less risk than others in developing certain health issues. For example, certain SNPs in the following genes APOE, CRP, CYP1A1, CYP1B1, DAO, ENOS, FADS1, IL-1, IL-6, MNSOD, TNFA (-238 G>A), etc…have been shown to have an impact on the development of chronic inflammation, among other impacts. Aside from genetics, certain variables may put you at an increased risk for inflammation, such as aging, obesity, smoking, stress, sleep disorders, and a diet rich in saturated fats and refined sugars. In order to know if you may have some chronic inflammation, you can look for symptoms and/or test to see if any inflammatory markers are out of normal lab ranges. Common symptoms include consistent muscle or joint aching, chronic fatigue and insomnia, depression or anxiety, weight gain or loss, weakened immunity or recurring infections, and/or gastrointestinal issues. If you’re unsure, it may be helpful to ask your practitioner about blood testing that includes hsCRP, fibrinogen, and serum protein electrophoresis (SPE). Some functional testing (not likely to be done by your traditional practitioner) could also include IL-6, IL-8, TNFA, stool testing, urine organic acids, and perhaps a fatty acid profile (all of these would be more expensive than your typical blood tests).

There are many ways to decrease your overall inflammatory burden through lifestyle modifications. Although you should always ask your practitioner first prior to making changes to your diet and lifestyle, here is a list of some general recommendations:

• Moderate intensity exercise.
• Low glycemic diet
• The inclusion of fruits and vegetables high in phytonutrients/antiinflammatory properties, herbs and spices. For example, berries, walnuts, wild-caught fatty fish, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, olives, cocoa, turmeric, cherries, nuts, avocados.
• Green and black tea polyphenols
• Favor unsaturated fats (cold pressed olive and avocado oil, salmon,
  sardines)
• Include more fiber your diet as a whole, as well as prebiotic fibers (garlic,
  onions)
• Eliminate trans fats.
• Ideally, at least 7-8 hours of sleep
• Minimize stress by including yoga, meditation, QiGong, massage, etc…
• Intermittent fasting

While many inflammatory conditions can be prevented, there are also many chronic inflammatory conditions that do not have a cure. Some of you may have a condition that can only be treated by life long anti-inflammatory medications. Inflammation and its relation to disease is a rapidly growing field of research. Whether you are coming from a stance of prevention or looking to manage an already existing chronic inflammatory condition, keep investigating this field as it is accelerating in areas of prevention, natural treatments and prescription medications.

I get it. It seems like every other week there’s a new trend in the nutrition space…curcumin, Omega-3s, black seed oil, probiotics and psychobiotics, etc…It can be confusing and hard to keep up. Recently, clients have been asking about postbiotics…what are they, when do you take them, why do you take them and what do they help with? So here we go…a brief explanation of the current research!

To begin, let’s take a step back to review what prebiotics and probiotics are to help tie in postbiotics and how they may be useful. Probiotics are live microorganisms that can have a beneficial impact on your health if consumed in adequate amounts. According to the National Institutes of Health, there are an estimated 100 trillion different microbial cells living in our gut. These microorganisms can be bacteria, viruses, fungi, helminths, and archea, however bacteria comprise the majority of the microbiota. Most of these bacteria are harmless, while others are either helpful or can cause disease. The helpful or beneficial bacteria can influence your metabolism (weight loss), enhance your immune function, improve your digestion and the health of your skin, and reduce the risks of some diseases. The harmful bacteria can be ok as long as they stay in smaller numbers. However, when their numbers increase and the amount of the beneficial bacteria decreases, the harmful bacteria can begin to exert their negative effects on your health. Harmful bacteria have been linked to a number of diseases that include inflammatory bowel disease, metabolic syndrome, obesity, heart disease, colorectal cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease. A healthy microbiota strengthens the integrity of the gut and therefore, strengthens our overall health.

How then, you may wonder, do these numbers of helpful vs harmful bacteria get out of balance? Or, how does the harmful bacteria increase and cause disease? There are a number of reasons this can happen. Our diet has a huge influence on the landscape of our gut and the organisms that reside there. You can ingest probiotics by choosing to consume foods that contain them, such as yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, tempeh, kimchi, miso, natto, and traditional (not cultured) buttermilk. You may also choose to take probiotic supplements. Choosing a probiotic supplement can be overwhelming, as there are a large number of products to choose from. Knowing which probiotics are helpful for a specific condition can help you narrow your products. Or, you may choose a multi-strain probiotic supplement. Either way, when choosing a supplement, know that they are not regulated by the FDA. So, be careful of false claims, ask your nutritionist or health care provider if the supplement looks like a good choice, and try to find brands that use third party testing. If you have ever taken antibiotics, especially for longer lengths of time, you may have noticed some unpleasant symptoms such as diarrhea. Usually this occurs because the antibiotics kill the harmful and commensal bacteria in your GI tract, which throws off the gut balance. Eventually, the effects of antibiotics may allow harmful bacteria to thrive.

Prebiotics are sometimes confused with probiotics, however prebiotics are the foods that fuel the microflora . Prebiotics are usually in the form of fiber…they are non-digestible carbohydrates found in foods like bananas, onions, garlic, soybeans, artichokes, chicory root, leeks, asparagus, barley, oats, apples, and cocoa. Beneficial microbes can then ferment these prebiotics, which leads to the production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) that can have multiple beneficial effects throughout the body.

And finally, we have postbiotics. The term postbiotics has been defined by the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP) as “a preparation of inanimate microorganisms and/or their components that confers a health benefit on the host.” Basically, this refers to the left over waste created from your body digesting both prebiotics and probiotics. Because evidence of postbiotics health benefits to the host/human has been accumulating, the interest in developing postbiotic products as foods, therapeutics, etc…has also been increasing. However, while we wait for the scientific community to guide us on how to use these products in the future, for now the best way to increase the amount of postbiotics in your system is to increase your intake of fermented foods and foods containing probiotics.
N. Zastrow