Modify Lifestyle Factors: Eliminate inflammatory symptoms
Chronic pain is complex and can be triggered by emotional as well as physical stress, trauma and injury. It's often very difficult to treat because it can persist well beyond the original trigger and area, and can evolve over time.
Pain can both trigger inflammation and arise as a result of having it. Common types of pain arising as a result of inflammation include body pain, joint pain, and muscle pain.
Pain can become worse when we're, for example, emotionally or physically stressed or diseased, when consuming a pro-inflammatory diet, when chronically sedentary, or due to sleep deprivation caused by insomnia or medications.
Individuals with irregular sleep schedules are more likely to have chronic inflammation than consistent sleepers who manage to achieve 7 to 8 hours of sleep per night. Sleep disorders are also considered to be one of the independent risk factors for chronic inflammation.
Getting enough sleep will be important for managing stress, reducing injury and illness, and preventing/reversing inflammation. Sleeping restores, replenishes, and reenergises. It regulates appetite, helps maintain a healthy body weight, and prevents/reverses hypertension.
Each time we experience a situation we find slightly challenging or difficult we experience a stress response. This response triggers our hormones to release dopamine which increases our blood pressure and gives our muscles a boost of oxygen, epinephrine (adrenaline) which releases energy, and cortisol which boosts energy levels, and gives us reduced pain sensitivity and increased mental awareness.
The stress response, also known as the fight or flight response, is our survival driver and is a natural response to get us motivated, protect us, and keep us safe. However, experiencing this in an ongoing way is expensive to our body as it’s not designed to sustain this response over time. The physical response to stress dramatically changes as the source of stress goes from acute to chronic.
Prolonged release of cortisol due to chronic stress increases blood pressure, creates blood sugar imbalances, storage of visceral fat, weight gain, lower immunity, bone density and muscle tissue, and insomnia.
We know obesity and being excessively overweight for example, carries some serious health consequences such as cardiovascular disease (mainly heart disease and stroke), type 2 diabetes, musculoskeletal disorders like osteoarthritis, and some cancers (endometrial, breast and colon), so there are some life threatening and mitigating potentially life ending reasons to eliminate dietary harm & overconsumption.
Many dietary and lifestyle changes can help in eliminating and reversing chronic inflammation. For example incorporating whole plant foods such as whole grains, legumes, unrefined carbohydrates, fruit & vegetables, nuts, and seeds and low oil. In addition, eliminating saturated fat, trans-fats, or refined sugar as found in processed foods, meat, and dairy, which contain higher levels of pro-inflammatory molecules, especially in individuals with diabetes or overweight.
Once our diet has improved, and we're feeling healthier i.e.., less stressed, reduced weight, have healthy sleep patterns, and we’re eating healthier, we are in a better position to notice a significant reversal of our chronic inflammatory symptoms and reduced negative symptoms.
Alcohol, alongside asbestos, radiation and tobacco has been classified as a Group 1 carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, causing at least seven types of cancer, including the most common cancer types, such as bowel cancer and breast cancer.
Cigarette smoking is associated with lowering the production of anti-inflammatory molecules and inducing inflammation. It's responsible for increasing acute blood pressure which can last up to 20 mins post cigarette, causing damage to the artery walls leading to atherosclerosis, increased risk of clot formation, and reduced blood oxygen levels.
As well as many other health benefits, eliminating alcohol and smoking, including second hand smoking, will significantly help to reverse chronic inflammation and prevent disease.
Increased reliance on pro-inflammatory habits often result in response to increased stress or anxiety levels, so addressing the triggers to stress is most likely to lead to a reduced reliance on cigarette and aclohol use.
