How to Reduce Inflammation

Inflammation is the root of many disease processes, but it is an important part of our healing mechanism. How we keep it within healthy limits is what we will examine here.

An antiinflammatory Lifestyle

 

Start With the Basics

• Moderate Exercise
• Clean water
• Clean air
• Organic, fresh food
• Sunshine
• Restful sleep
• Reflection/Prayer/Meditation

An Antiinflammatory Diet

Morning hydration is important to start the day off right since you become dehydrated at night. Consider a glass of water, waiting for you beside your bed. Most people start off with a cup of coffee which dehydrates them even more. A 16 oz glass of water first thing is a better choice for your first morning beverage.

A healthy diet has lots of dark green leafy vegetables as well as other colorful vegetables and fruits. Eating vibrantly colored food means you are eating a diet high in polyphenols. Polyphenols provide antioxidants to help decrease inflammation. Polyphenols have been shown to decrease a variety of inflammatory disease processes.  I would stress that fresh, raw food should also be eaten at every meal. So make sure you include salads and fresh uncooked fruit as often as possible. They provide nutrients you do not always get in a cooked meal.  Don't forget to include a healthy source of protein which means grass fed animals with room to roam, healthy seafood (getting harder to find) or a mix of complex carbohydrates and legumes.

The Gastrointestinal Chapter of my book "Herbal ABCs book" has a review of a general healthy diet that will help decrease inflammation. A low carbohydrate diet is often useful for "O" blood types and sometimes for other people who are having gastrointestinal inflammation. Carbohydrates in the diet should be complex carbohydrates. These can be healthy for many people, but simple sugars are generally inflammatory.

What we don't eat is as important as what we eat. Remove any food sensitivities, allergens and unhealthy foods from the diet. Elimination diets are a good method to find offending foods. Reducing your intake of fried fatty foods is also helpful.

Supplementing Key Nutrients

Additionally, supplementing basic nutrients may be necessary  to support the diet. Supplements to lower inflammation might include omega 3 fatty acids, B vitamins, vitamin D,  vitamin C, and magnesium. Additionally, supplements that support the bodies biotransformational (detox) system can be key in keeping inflammation under control. Glutathione is an important factor in making sure this detoxification system is well oiled. Supplements that either replace glutathione such as acetyl glutathione or those that help support healthy glutathione levels such as cysteine or alpha lipoic acid can also be beneficial. (More to come on glutathione.)

Healing the Gut

Heal the gut with gut healing herbs such as Calendula, Marshmallow, Turmeric and Chamomile. You can also see the digestive System chapter of "Herbal ABC's" for more ideas on herbs to heal the gut. 

Calendula officinalis

Matricaria chamomilla

Eradicate Infections

Bacteria can increase or decrease inflammation depending on who you feed in your large intestine. Think about increasing biodiversity of good gut bacteria. Support healthy gut bacteria with  water soluble fiber and use fermented foods or if you can't make or get fermented foods, add a variety of probiotics to the diet. The idea is to enhance biodiversity in the large intestine. (There are times when probiotics and prebiotics or certain types of probiotics can be contraindicated such as in d-lactic acidosis and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth - also called SIBO.)

Infections outside of the gastrointestinal tract also increase general body inflammation. This can be acute or chronic infections, and include examples such as herpes, cytomegalovirus, various parasites or smoldering dental bacterial disease. These have to be addressed to regain health.

Remove Environmental Toxins

Make sure your toxic load is low. Remove yourself from water-damaged environments that have toxins such as mycotoxins, bacterial inflammagens, volatile organic compounds or other hazards. These substances will use up all your antioxidants, stress out the biotransformational system and leave you inflamed. Examine your environment for possible sources of these and other toxins such as a water-damage in a building, off-gassing from flooring materials, off-gassing furniture , paints, propane or natural gas appliances, tainted water from natural or human additives, tainted food (from growing, processing, packaging or shipping), lead/mercury/aluminum (in paint, water pipes, mercury amalgams, cookware, jewelry, tableware, toys), food packaging/containers, dry cleaning, cleaning products, toxins brought into the home on your shoes (leave them at the door), flame-retardant products, etc. Please go to the Environmental Working Group for more ideas on where you will find toxins in your environment.

Enhance The Biotransformational (detox) System

Enhance biotransformational (detox) capacities to remove toxins from the body. This can be done by supporting the liver in general and by specifically supporting any biotransformational enzyme system that is not working up to par. Enhancing glutathione is one of the more important aspects of supporting the detoxification capacity of the body. Turmeric and Milk thistle both assist in healthy glutathione levels and removal of toxins.  Saunas are helpful for removing toxins if they are traditional saunas or infrared saunas with low electric and magnetic fields that do not use toxic glues and/or chemically treated wood to make the sauna.

Support the Parasympathetic System (The Rest and Digest part of the Nervous System)

Enhancing the parasympathetic nervous system helps decrease inflammation. It has been shown that stimulating the vagus nerve and enhancing acetylcholine cools down inflammatory cytokines and decreases inflammation in the body. One of the simplest ways to do this is to breathe deeply and slowly. Meditation, prayer, Qi gong, breathing exercises and anything that creates a joyful sense of peace and relaxation will enhance parasympathetic tone in the body.

Specific Antiinflammatory Herbs

I thought you might like to have some ideas of herbs to use as acute antiinflammatories for areas of the body where we most often have acute reactions. Most of the ideas I have given you are for long term use to lower over-all inflammation in the body.

Skin: For the skin, I think of oatmeal as a wonderful topical herb and almost everyone has it in their kitchen. Look for the directions on how to use it as an oatmeal bath in my book, Herbal ABC's.

Respiratory Tract: In the mouth, throat and nasal passages, I would have to say that warm salt water is my first go-to treatment to reduce inflammation and edema. This inexpensive and easy to use treatment is often neglected and I can't stress how useful it is. For acute inflammation from infection, irritation or allergies, I always use salt water first to decrease the inflammation, edema and pain. An herb that I like to use for acute respiratory situations is Yarrow. This astringing herb acts as a wonderful antiinflammatory, diaphoretic, and antimicrobial. It should not be used long term or I would use it for chronic cases also. Both the salt water and a tea of Yarrow can be either gargled, swished around the mouth or snorted up the nostrils. They will both decrease the redness swelling and pain associated with inflammation. Add some salt to the Yarrow tea and you can use both treatments at one time.

Digestive Tract: For acute inflammation I would suggest Peppermint, Chamomile, or Licorice. Peppermint and Chamomile also help remove gas and decrease the pain associated with gas. I will often use either Peppermint or Chamomile and add some licorice to the tea also. Make sure you read about the side effects associated with Licorice. Not everyone can use this wonderful herb.


Some general antiinflammatory herbs, supplements that I like to use in my own life as part of my food, as a tea or supplement is as follows: 

Green tea (great antioxidant and a nice change of pace rather than coffee), Licorice (especially helps people who have low blood pressure, thirsty, static shocks and pee a lot.) Turmeric (I add this to a lot of my food as it makes a great flavor in many foods, but not so great as a tea.), Milk thistle (An amazing herb that benefits almost everyone and supports mitochondria.) These are all some power-hitters when it comes to lowering inflammation. Licorice has side effects and should not be used by everyone. Read up on Licorice before using it.

These are just a few ideas. There are many antiinflammatory foods and herbs. I have 39 different herbs listed as antiinflammatories in "Herbal ABCs". Each has their own special properties and actions to give them their own unique abilities.    
 

A Word Of Wisdom

Living a non-inflammatory life can sometimes be difficult to maintain or even costly in our current world. However, the cost of not living this way also needs to be examined.  It is helpful to set up our schedules and prioritize our lives in a way that allows for us to rest, eat well, live well and support ourselves.  The other option is to find ourselves spiraling into one of the many inflammatory diseases.  Ultimately, health and a radiant mind can be had by keeping inflammation under control.    
 

Learn More About Herbs

I currently have a super-duper holiday sale on these wonderful books, as they make great gifts for friends and family with an interest in herbs and health. One book is 15% off and two or more are 25% off until December 15th, 2018 - Only at my website and only available in the U.S.A. 

For additional information on Biotransformation (detoxification) And Inflammation:

Broccoli and Biotransformational Detox

Inflammation as The Root of Much Evil

Causes of Inflammation

 

 

Causes of Inflammation

Why Am I Inflamed

In our last blog about inflammation we examined the changes that take place in the body during chronic inflammation. This time, I am going to give you a list of some general, common causes of chronic inflammation that you can control, once you know what is causing the inflammation. The purpose is for you to recognize these causes of inflammation in your body currently. You have to know what is causing the problem if you want to remove the cause, rather than treating symptoms.

What Are The Main Causes of Chronic Inflammation

• Gut Flora Imbalance

• Environmental Toxins

• Chronic Infections

• Poor Diet

• Lack of Nutrients

• Food Allergens/Sensitivities

• Poor Sleep

• Lack of Movement

• Excess Weight

• Smoking/Alcohol

• Stress

Understanding the Causes of Inflammation So You Can Control Them

Gut Flora Imbalance

An imbalance of gut flora with too many “bad guys” producing toxins can create quite a reaction in your immune system.

A large part of the immune system is in the gut lining. This is called the gastrointestinal associated lymphatic tissues (GALT). 80% of the antibodies in your body are made here. This makes sense as the outside world has somewhat easy access into the digestive tract by way of hitchhiking in, on food and drink.

Bacterial population patterns in the human gut predict occurrence of a variety of chronic inflammatory diseases, so the health of our commensal intestinal bacterial flora is very important if we want to decrease inflammation in the body. Intestinal inflammation may lead to  leaky "tight junctions" between intestinal cells, which leads to bits of substances (antigens) getting past the tight junction barriers that should provide a protective barrier in the lumen of the gut. These antigens can cause antibody reactions and lead to inflammation in distant areas of the body and autoimmune disease.

Environmental Toxins - 

Examples are heavy metals (mercury and lead), light metals (aluminum), herbicides, pesticides, volatile organic compounds, biotoxins (mycotoxins from mold, toxins from algae).  Mercury is in our teeth and vaccinations, lead is in our water and some products, aluminum is everywhere as are herbicides and pesticides. Our homes are built with many toxic products and then we make these homes air-tight, which keeps all that bad air in. If we have a water leak in the house, we now have mold and bacteria growing in conjunction with the toxic building products soup. These toxins in our body can cause a tremendous amount of chronic inflammation.

Chronic Infections

Viral, bacterial, fungal or parasite infection - Examples are chronic Herpes or Cytomegalovirus infections, Candida, and Giardia. Many people have unfriendly guests taking up residence in their body and this adds to the inflammatory load when they get out of control.

Lack of Necessary Nutrients to Support the Body

Lack of necessary nutrients to support antioxidant and, or biotransformational systems. (due to inadequate diets or eating food grown in low nutrient conditions or grown, shipped, packaged or stored in manners that strip the food of their nutrients) Without adequate nutrients, our cells can not function. They are unable to build new healthy cells as needed or to operate normally including protecting the body from toxins from infections, or detoxing the body from the environmental toxins previously mentioned.

Poor Diets that Promote Inflammation

Diets high in sugar, bad fats, inadequate protein, eating low nutrient foods, chemical laden food (pesticides, herbicides, chemicals to keep food preserved or make it pretty). There are many toxins disguised as food in the standard American diet. This is a case where what should cure us and make us strong and healthy, actually adds to the chronic inflammation and malaise.

Food Allergens or Sensitivities

Eating foods you "react to" contributes to inflammation.

Lack of Sleep

Sleep is often neglected as being important. This is the time your body rests and is nourished back to health. This is when your cells rejuvenate themselves. This includes housekeeping for your brain. Sleep is  of utmost importance.

Lack of movement

Considering that exercise has been linked to many chronic diseases, I think we all know how important it is. Now we just need to all act upon this knowledge. Too little and too strenuous movement can cause inflammation, so  a happy medium is necessary.

Excess weight

Obesity goes hand and hand with inflammation and they appear to exacerbate each other. Any poundage you can loose when overweight will help decrease inflammation.

Smoking cigarettes, excessive drinking

They are both bad ideas and lead to inflammation and disease. 

Stress 

Chronic stress eventually leads to dampening of cortisol and ramps up the immune system, causing inflammation. 

Next time we will look at how to decrease inflammation in the body. 

This post is an excerpt from "Herbal ABC's" with slight changes since it is taken out of context of the book. You can purchase this book from my website or at Amazon.com.  (Amazon link below)

Learn More About Herbs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 For additional information on  Inflammation:

Inflammation as The Root of Much Evil

How to Reduce Inflammation

Hay Fever Treatment Alternatives, The What, How and Why – Part II

I am having some trouble with formatting on blogger. Sorry about any and all formatting issues you may have with this or my other blogs on blogger. If I can't resolve it, I will move the blog to my website.

Preventing Hay Fever Reactions

The hay fever reaction is due to the immune system identifying pollen as a threat and using the immune system in an all out attack in an attempt to protect the body from the offending pollen intruders.

Supporting healthy respiratory tract tissues and calming down the immune system is key in preventing an explosive reaction that can irritate these sensitive membranes. There are some general behaviors and lifestyle practices that will assist the person with hay fever in living a more comfortable life. You may be surprised to find out that following this simple list I provide below will help tremendously. Dietary and lifestyle changes often negate the use of medicine, herbs or supplements or at least decrease the need for them.



Support the Respiratory System Through Healthy Lifestyle Practices

Eat a nourishing diet of organic foods. General good nutrition that emphasizes antixoidant status and lower inflammation has been shown to be supportive of respiratory health and mucus membranes in general.
• Consume plant polyphenols in  food, herbs or drink. (These are the brightly colored foods.)

 
• Avoid allergens or food sensitivities and chemicals in food.

 
•Eliminate the source of chemical sensitivities in your environment.

  

• Discontinue recreational drug use.

 
• Decrease prescription drug use as much as possible, under the guidance of a practitioner.
    

• Do not smoke anything.
    

• Stay away from passive smoke.

  

• Get adequate exercise.
    

• Get adequate sleep.
    

• Rest and meditation/prayer (This will amazingly quiet the over-reactive body.)

 
• Drink 6-8 glasses of clean water each day. 

• Breath clean air. Avoid air born toxins such as from mold, volatile organic compounds etc. 

• Get sunshine and if there is lack of sunshine, supplement vitamin 

D.
    

• Enjoy the benefits of massage and hydrotherapy.
 

• Include joyful activities in your day and avoid bad attitudes.

 
 

The Gut And Digestion Is A Key Factor

Provide probiotics and feed your commensal gut bacteria with prebiotics if needed. There may be altered gut flora from antibiotics, chemotherapy, infectious gastroenteritis or other causes of dysbiosis. In these cases probiotics are almost always helpful. It is imperative that you have healthy gut flora. An inflamed gut ads to inflammation all over the body and will worsen hay fever reactions.

My first choice is to use live fermented foods but since many of them contain histamine, and some allergy sufferers may be bothered by high histamine foods, I would say, try the fermented foods, but be aware if you react to them, it may be due to histamine content in the food and if so, you should avoid them during allergy season and use probiotics as an alternative choice.

Stimulate or replace digestive juices if needed. If the person is not digesting foods due to a lack of enough acid, bile or enzymes, they may not have the necessary nutrients to build resilient respiratory tract mucous membranes, or to make adequate enzymes necessary to degrade histamine. This means hay fever season becomes more daunting. The cause of the person’s lack of appropriate digestive juices needs to be found and addressed, but in the mean-time they may need to take bitter herbs to stimulate their digestion or they made need to replace some key digestive substances with hydrochloric acid and pepsin or pancreatic enzymes or ox bile. Each situation is unique and these digestive helpers are only replaced when needed and only until the cause of their lack is unearthed and remedied. There are tests that can help pin point the causative issues. See your local naturopath or functional medicine practitioner for specific guidance.


The Relationship to histamine and Food

Remove histamine foods if needed. The person with hay fever may find there are foods that do not usually bother them that become problematic during hay fever season. If they react to certain foods, they should stay away from them as these foods will add to the inflammatory burden.

The immune system uses histamine as part of its defense method. It allows people to deliver nutrients and oxygen via the circulation to various areas. It helps you pay attention, digest your food and move your bowels as well as enhances exercise.  However, the poor allergy sufferer has an abundance of histamine being generated in their upper respiratory tract. Generally our body makes enzymes that degrade the histamine as soon as it has done its deed. However, if you do not make an adequate amount of enzymes or if your body is overzealous in its creation of histamine you end up on over-drive. Although not studied enough, it has been noted by some individuals with hay fever that eating foods high in histamine adds to their hay fever reaction.(Yes, even though the food is eaten and not inhaled.)  The ingestion of histamine-rich food or of alcohol or drugs that release histamine or block Diamine oxidase (DAO) or histamine-N-methyltransferase (HNMT)   may provoke diarrhea, headache, rhinoconjunctival symptoms, asthma, hypotension, arrhythmia, urticaria, pruritus, flushing, and other conditions in patients with histamine intolerance. Therefore, it would behoove all hay fever sufferers to learn which foods cause histamine reactions and note if these foods may be adding to their symptoms. If so, avoiding these foods can make their life more enjoyable. (I would also point out here that monoamine oxidase is also involved in processing histamine and it requires vitamin B2 (riboflavin and iron).)


More Details on histamine & diet/digestion

All foods considered to be high histamine should be suspect as they can add fuel to the fire going on in your body. You are reacting to histamine released by your immune system and high histamine foods will bother you if you run out of one or both enzymes (usually diamine oxidase or DAO). Histamine can be metabolized in 2 ways: by oxidative deamination by DAO (former name: histaminase) or by ring methylation by histamine-N-methyltransferase (HNMT). DAO is released into the circulation and  is concentrated in the small intestine where it neutralizes the histamine in food or histamine made by some gut bacteria from histidine in your food. HNMT breaks down histamine in an intracellular level and is found in high levels in the liver and kidney and is important at breaking down histamine in the nervous system. HNMT is also important in the airway, where it protects against histamine in these tissues, including the bronchial epithelium where it protects against histamine induced asthma. Most people make plenty of these enzymes to take care of the incoming histamine, however some people do notice eating these high histamine foods can make them much worse during hay fever season, so take note if you are one of  them. We could theorize why this might take place such as the body running out of the necessary nutrients to make the enzymes that degrade the histamine, or they might have a decreased ability to make these enzymes for genetic reasons or they might just have to much histamine over all for the body to keep up period.

There are both foods high in histamine as well as foods that compete for the same enzymes needed to degrade histamine and foods that trigger mast cell release of histamine. All these categories will add to the histamine load and inflammation in the body for people who are sensitive. Foods high in histamines include alcohol (think red wine, beer), aged meats, spoiled meat, shellfish and fermented products Then there is the fact that histamine is made from the amino acid histidine. A carboxyl group is removed from the amino acid histidine and it becomes histamine. Some bacteria and yeast can change histidine in foods to histamine, which is why fermented foods containing protein can be high in histamine. Some gut bacteria can turn histidine in foods into histamine also. This means a person with dysbiosis (gut bacteria imbalance) may end up making histamine from any high protein food containing histidine. Such foods are beef, bison, pork, parmesan cheese, pork, chicken, turkey, lamb, soy, fish such as tuna, catfish and to a lesser degree seeds, nuts and beans and even lesser degree, grains. Here is a list of foods high in histidine. Note that some cuts of meat are lower than others from the same animal.

There are also some foods that trigger histamine release from mast cells. These include fruits such as chocolate, nutes, shellfish, bananas, tomatoes, kiwi, lime, lemon, pineapple, papaya and plum. Additionally some additives such as MSG, sulfites, nitrites, benzoate and artificial food colorings can increase histamine reactions in the body.


There are some drugs known to block HNMT.

    • Chloroquine (Amodiaquin, an antimalarial))

    • Chloroguanil

    • Folate antagonists such as metoprine (HNMT requires folate for activity)

    • Hydroxychloroquine

    • Pyrimethamine

    • Promethazine

    • Tacrine (anticholinesterase, early Alzheimer’s drug)


DAO deficiency is associated with low B6 and copper deficiencies.

Besides avoiding high histamine foods or foods that induce histamine release, some people take DAO with their meals.

For people who have been diagnosed with histamine intolerance, there are all sorts of things that can be done to support them. Besides making sure the person has the nutrients for DAO, MAO and  HNMT, as well as taking DAO with meals, bifido bacteria (helpful probiotic that does not increase histamine - take after dinner and away from anti-microbials), Fish oil to stabilize cell membranes and decrease inflammation/histamine leakage from mast cells, vitamin C to also stabalize mast cells, phosphatidylcholine to support cell wall membranes, creatine if methylation is not up to par as HNMT won’t work well with decreased methylation (most of your methylation activity goes to produce phosphatidylcholine and creatine, so supplementation helps decrease need for methylation if that is an issue for the individual) 

A study found mung bean sprouts (48 hours of sprout growth) provided significant protection against mast cell degranulation and histamine release due to their high flavonoid content.

There are many herbs that stabalize mast cells and keep histamine from being released. They are discussed in part 5 of the hay fever blog.

If the person has an irritated gut from excess histamine, you may need to consider demulcent herbs to soothe irritation or inflammation such as Licorice, Marshmallow, Calendula, Slippery elm, and Plaintain. Gut healing nutrients such as glutamine, zinc, vitamin A, acetyl-l-carnitine, and alpha lipoic acid help to heal the gut also. If there are pathogens found on testing, they must first be dealt with or no amount of healing activity will give persistent relief. For help with gas and bloating, Ginger, Peppermint or other carminative herbs can bring relief.

Next time, in part III we will look at general dietary measures and specific nutrients that can be used to support the gut and the upper respiratory tract and decrease hay fever symptoms.

The Other Hay Fever Blogs

Hay Fever, The What, How and Why - part I
Hay Fever, The What, How and Why - part II
Hay Fever and Diet 
Prevention with herbs
Treating The Acute Situation 

Obesity - Hungry For A Change

A new movie has been released and is available free until March 31st called, Hungry For a Change. I viewed it and think that it is a wonderful movie for anyone to watch who is obese or has a family member or friend with an obesity problem. It is also a great movie for practitioners to suggest their obese patients watch.

A few of the ideas it covers are:

• Diets do not work, so don't bother. Diets make you fat.

• MSG is in 80% of prepared food products and it makes you fat. MSG is used in research to fatten rats.

• Diet drinks make you fat as they cause you to crave carbohydrates.

• Diet Cola kills brain cells.

• Aspartame in diet drinks and other diet foods has been shown to cause many health disorders including migraines, impaired vision, cognitive problems, MS type symptoms etc.

• Lack of sleep causes obesity as you are unable to metabolize stress hormones when you don't get enough sleep. 

• Obesity is a solution to chronic stress, sadness, trauma, or drama. People turn to comfort food as a solution to the stress.

• Using visualization of how you want to look gives your unconscious brain the symbols it needs to change what your unconscious is telling you to do so you can be healthy and happy.

• If you are obese your body is starving for nutrients. Give your body those nutrients by juicing veggies. Soon, you will not crave the foods you use to crave.

You may already know all these things if you are a practitioner or avid researcher/reader. However, you may have a friend, family member or patient who needs to watch this. It was put together very well and is uplifting and gives the obese person hope as well as tools to make changes in their lives to lead them towards a healthier and thinner life. 

You can view this movie through March 31st at two different web addresses.
Mercola's website.

The Hungry For A Change website (you will need to sign up - for free here.)