Wise choices reduce harmful inflammation
“By making wise choices we can reduce low-grade chronic inflammation in the body and increase our chances of living a healthier and longer life. There is no evidence but there is strong indirect scientific support that this type of inflammation is linked to several different lifestyle diseases.”
Did you know that by reducing inflammation in your body you can increase your chances of feeling both fitter and happier while also living a healthier life? The topic of low-grade chronic inflammation and its effects on and consequences for our health has attracted a lot of attention in recent years. It can easily be viewed as some new trend and many people still dismiss it as hype and controversial, maybe because sometimes a little too much is promised, particularly when it comes to food and inflammation. However, the fact is research conducted in recent years indicates that many of our most common lifestyle diseases – sometimes referred to as welfare diseases – such as depression, anxiety, dementia, asthma, diabetes, certain types of arthritis, cardiovascular diseases and cancer are all adversely affected depending on how much inflammation we have in our bodies. As this is a relatively new field, there are many mechanisms that are yet to be understood and there is no evidence, but there is strong indirect scientific support for a link between many of our lifestyle diseases and inflammation. The good news is that a healthy lifestyle with wise choices can restrict low-grade inflammation and therefore increase the chances of both physical and mental well-being.
Vital inflammation
Inflammation can be good and vital for us. Imagine a thorn from a rose bush tearing a deep scratch in the skin. After a while, the skin becomes red and swollen due to increased blood flow and fluid. It might also hurt a bit. The increased blood flow brings with it, among other things, “soldiers” from the body’s immune system and growth factors to accelerate the healing of the injury. Inflammation that is started by the immune system when we injure ourselves or become infected by viruses or bacteria is good for the body. Sometimes it can even save lives. Once the injury has healed, the skin returns to its normal state again. This type of inflammation helps to keep us healthy and is something we need.
“Did you know that anxiety-related illnesses, depression and dementia, which have now become endemic, are all linked to inflammation?”
Unwanted harmful inflammation
Inflammation can also be bad for us and harm our bodies instead. With autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis, the body’s immune system fails to recognise its own tissue and instead tries to break it down, to put it simply. This creates harmful inflammation that can cause painful symptoms and lead to disease, sometimes serious. Another type of inflammation that we do not want, and which has increasingly been the focus of research in recent years, is so-called low-grade, or invisible, chronic inflammation, which can eventually harm the body and increase the risk of disease. Inflammation which was meant to give us protection instead becomes an “enemy” that helps to break us down, both physically and mentally. Many different factors affect the degree of inflammation we have in our body such as genetics, our health situation and lifestyle. Several different lifestyle choices that we make can either reduce or increase the degree of inflammation and it is positive that we can influence this ourselves to some extent. It is often said that the modern Western lifestyle increases the risk of various lifestyle diseases, and one contributing factor is that it causes more low-grade chronic inflammation.
Inflammaging – a downside of growing older
The causes of aging are an exciting, complex field that is currently subject to a lot of attention research-wise. One of the reasons is that by understanding the underlying mechanisms, we can become better at finding treatment for certain age-related diseases. In addition, lifestyle choices can counteract premature aging. It has long been known that the immune system deteriorates as we grow older. We become more susceptible to infections and receive less protection from vaccines, as we have seen during the coronavirus pandemic, for example. Something else that also happens as we grow older, and which research suggests is likely an important factor in many lifestyle diseases, is low-grade chronic inflammation. This type of inflammation increases with age and has therefore been dubbed “inflammaging”. The degree of inflammation in the body can be measured by various markers in the blood, for example, such as CRP (C-reactive protein) and fibrinogen.
“The best treatment is prevention by staying one step ahead. But it’s never too late to switch to healthier habits.”
Regular healthy habits are the best way of reducing low-grade inflammation
Genetics and age affect our degree of inflammation, but many of the factors that increase the degree of inflammation in the body are things that we can influence ourselves. This is positive and can be a great inspiration for wanting to choose a healthy lifestyle in the long run. It gives us the opportunity, through wise little everyday habits, to increase our chances of a lower level of low-grade chronic inflammation and thereby reduce the risk of certain types of lifestyle disease. These factors are the same factors that have a positive impact on our health and well-being in other ways too. Some of them do not require any major effort if we make sure that they become a natural habit.
Sleep – The role sleep plays in our physical and mental well-being is increasingly coming under the spotlight, especially as modern technology can increase the risk of problems sleeping. It is important to prioritise sleep for many different reasons. One reason is that a lack of sleep and a disrupted circadian rhythm contribute to the formation of substances that increase the degree of inflammation in the body. Even if you feel that you can “manage” on less sleep, there is a high risk of invisible inflammation spreading and contributing to injuries that may suddenly cause problems later on. For the vast majority of people the goal is to get at least seven hours’ sleep a night. This should be high up on everyone’s list of priorities so that they can benefit from sleep’s healing and repairing effects on the body.
Physical activity – Through exercise and by being less sedentary in general, we can reduce the degree of inflammation. Exercise has many positive effects, such as strengthening the cardiovascular system, muscles and skeleton. One positive effect that is talked about less often is that it reduces the degree of inflammation. This is both because exercise makes it easier to maintain a healthy weight and because substances are produced that positively affect the degree of inflammation. A study from San Diego in 2017 showed, for example, that substances that counteract inflammation are produced after only one 20-minute session of moderate aerobic exercise. The natural movement that makes us less sedentary also significantly affects the degree of inflammation and is one of the easiest ways of increasing the body’s own ability to counteract inflammation.
“Our study is among the first to link a food-based dietary inflammatory index with long-term risk of cardiovascular disease”
Diet – Modern research shows a link between what we eat and our degree of inflammation. In recent years, it has been possible to observe an indirect link to various inflammatory diseases. For example, a study was published in November 2020 that showed a link between a diet that counteracts inflammation and a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke. People who ate a diet that stimulates inflammation had a 46 per cent higher risk of heart disease and a 28 per cent higher risk of stroke than those who ate a diet that counteracts inflammation. Many diets claim to have a positive effect on the degree of inflammation, which is not always true. Links to lower inflammation can be seen with a plant-based diet that is high in fruits, vegetables and berries, along with wholegrains, beans, lentils, nuts, seeds, oily fish, chicken and healthy fats, such as olive oil, and low in, for example, fatty dairy products, red meat and highly processed food. This is the type of diet often seen around the Mediterranean, for example. It is interesting to note that two of the five places in the world where the people live the longest and are the healthiest well into old age (the so-called blue zones) are in the Mediterranean – the Greek island of Icaria and the Italian island of Sardinia. One exciting effect of this type of food is that it helps to create a good environment for our intestinal bacteria and increases the chances of a rich mixture of good bacteria. It is exactly this that recent years’ research has been able to link to a lower degree of inflammation in the body. Other substances in food linked to lower levels of inflammation are omega 3 fatty acids, antioxidants and healthy fats. Eating regularly and not constantly snacking can also have a positive impact on the degree of inflammation.
“Many experimental studies have shown that substances in food and drink can have an anti-inflammatory effect”
Dr Frank Hu, professor at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Weight – It is already well-known that being overweight increases the degree of inflammation in the body. Fat cells produce substances that stimulate inflammation, which is most noticeable among fat cells in the belly.
Stress – Most people have heard at some point in their life that short-term stress can improve performance. This dates back to the time when we were hunters in the savannah and exposed to danger. But long-term stress, both emotional and physical, which more and more of us are exposed to over a long period of time, is often due to the lifestyle we have chosen and is something that can increase the degree of inflammation in the body. Long-term, or chronic, stress is harmful to us in many ways, one being that it leads to a higher level of inflammation, which increases the risk of illnesses such as depression and cardiovascular disease. Meditation, yoga and tai-chi are all activities that reduce the levels of harmful stress hormones and can therefore affect the degree of inflammation. Someone else may achieve the same effect by going for a walk in nature or becoming engrossed in a good book.
Social life – The results of modern research indicate that loneliness and isolation have a negative impact on the immune system that increases the degree of inflammation in the body. A meta-analysis, i.e. an examination of several different studies, from 2020 has, among other things, observed a link between loneliness and isolation and an increased degree of inflammation in the body, which can be measured in the blood. Building friendships that provide social companionship is therefore something that can probably help you to reduce inflammation in the body.
My advice:
What we know about inflammation and its link to lifestyle diseases shows the importance of taking a holistic view, an overall view, of health. Every good habit that you choose and manage to incorporate into your everyday life contributes to the whole. So instead of going all-in in one area, such as diet, try to strike a balance and take small steps that become lasting. Sleep, physical movement, different ways of unwinding and time for socialising are also very important areas that need to be given time. Try to come up with an average day that is doable in the long run and enhances many different areas, and remember that it takes time to build this lifestyle. Furthermore, the different good habits reinforce each other, which both makes it easier and contributes to our well-being. And remember that everyone’s lives are different, so don’t allow yourself to be stressed by other people’s successes. It’s not about performance but about feeling good! Not everything shown in pictures and marketed as healthy necessarily has anything to do with health.
